Oh, but she wasn’t being totally fair to Ryker by lumping him in the category she just had. He was a self-made man. Life had not always been easy for him. His deep-set dark eyes told the story.
Still, telling a little lie was easier than facing the fact that this powerful, sexy man might want anything to do with her.
Avery sighed sharply. Yesterday’s long day was morphing into what promised to be a very long week. Could she be so powerful a woman as to resist his charms? She was only human after all.
Human maybe. But Avery had excellent reasons to stay rooted in reality. Not the least of which was that an affair with a man like Ryker would mean so much more to her than it ever would to him. And that’s precisely why she would keep her feet on the ground.
“I was thinking of something out here,” Ryker said after slipping on a dark shirt and jeans.
He’d look sexy in a paper sack, Avery decided as she followed him down the hall to the main living room, and then onto the terrace. Thank God he was ready to get down to business.
“Something small. Intimate,” he said as he strolled to the edge of the terrace.
Avery could envision a few tables scattered around; the setting sun would provide an outstanding backdrop. White tablecloths on every table. There’d be lights strung everywhere. And candles.
“I’ll need a definite number. But I can see where small would work perfectly out here,” she said while mentally running through and canceling out possible themes.
Ryker turned to her. “No. Not out here. Out there.” His hand swept over the terrace.
Avery moved to the edge and gripped the concrete barrier. “There’s enough space down there to service more than a few guests. How many did you plan to invite again?”
“About a hundred.”
She balked. “Of your closest friends?”
“That’s the idea.”
“You think a hundred is a small number?”
He didn’t respond.
“The location is beautiful, though. You were right. I needed to see it for myself. Pictures wouldn’t do it justice,” she said.
“I’m glad you agree.”
“So. A hundred people. Down there? Let’s see. I hear music streaming through the night air. And lights. Everywhere. Were you thinking day or night?” she asked to clarify before she got too far down one path.
He stepped aside, exposing her to the near-lethal view in total.
“Of course. With the sun setting over there. It would be stunning. Majestic. More than an ideal backdrop. The rest almost wouldn’t even matter,” she said.
“Evening.”
“Breathtaking. It shouldn’t take long to pull together,” she said, trying to refocus. As it was, she felt like they were the only two people in the world. She needed to remind herself there were others. Many, many others. Especially for him.
“Good. You don’t have long.”
“When did you have in mind?” she asked, her nerves tingling again.
“Next weekend.”
“But that’s only...only...” Panic rose inside her like a wildfire burning up her throat.
“You have nine days.”
“I’ll never be able to pull it off in nine days.”
His gaze was intense and meant to melt cold hearts. “I believe you can.”
“You can’t even get invites out that quickly. I’m sure your friends are important people. They’ll need time to clear their schedules,” she choked out.
“They’ll come.”
On second thought, an invitation from an important man like Ryker Li, and she had no doubt they would come. In droves. An invitation like that had a way of opening up calendars and booking flights. He’d snapped his fingers and had her on a plane in less than twelve hours.
“But I’ll need supplies. We haven’t talked menu or theme.”
“I have no doubt you’ll do fine.”
“Fine? This is impossible. A hundred people? That will take months to put together.”
His cell phone buzzed, and he held up a long lean finger to quiet her before more words fumbling around in her head took form in her mouth. He spoke quietly into the phone, turning his back on her and strolling inside the lounge.
Avery waited as patiently as she could before she walked inside. Bad news only got worse with age, and she needed to tell him she was quitting.
He was still on the call that she presumed was business, but who could honestly tell? Avery didn’t plan on standing around endlessly, waiting to find out.
“We need to talk.
Now
.”
Impatience shot out of his ice-cold glare, and it stifled any thought of her repeating the gesture. Sheer amazement at the power he possessed to make humans freeze like statues stunned her, because she stood there rooted to her spot waiting as though she’d been cast and dyed. She’d be damned if she could muster the courage to twitch.
Looking at him as he stood there, commanding, masculine, and all male, her breath caught in her throat.
Okay. Fine. She conceded he was probably on a business call so she would give him another minute to wrap it up. She made a hand gesture to emphasize her point though—he needed to move it along.
He’d said he wanted her here for his event. She hadn’t come begging for work. As far as she was concerned, she held the power in this exchange. Even if her heart told her that he’d chosen her for his prized event meant more to her than it did to him.
Not that he hadn’t hinted he wouldn’t mind a little extra on the side. It would be one night she was certain she’d remember for a very long time. Or maybe nine nights of rapture. He wanted her to stay on to plan the party. She couldn’t for the life of her figure why he wanted her for more. Even for a minute. Or was it down to basic laws of nature and simple hunter mentality? She being the hunted. And was she also subconsciously playing hard to catch? That would certainly explain a few things, several of her irrational actions.
Either way, she wanted to peel herself out of her skin for how uncomfortable he made her by sharing the same space. He almost had her believing the lies that rolled so easily off his tongue, especially the one about her being beautiful.
The second she saw him hit End, she jumped right in. “Look. This so-called event isn’t happening. It’s impossible. I won’t have my name attached to something doomed to failure. This is all a very bad idea. I think I should go now. I’m ready to be taken home.”
“You’ve come all this way to quit?” His voice was low and slow, and confidence dripped from his accented tongue.
It was unnerving how calm and under control he could be. “Right.”
Bemused, Ryker leaned against the wall. “I’ve offended you. I hadn’t intended to. Accept my apologies. You will have full access to my staff. They will do as you wish.”
Frustration had Avery ready to unleash a scream that would surely crack the windows of the villa. It wasn’t until Ryker stood to his full height—at least six feet, four inches—that she felt somehow small and shriveled by comparison. The raisin standing next to the grape.
Looking up into the eyes of the most powerful businessman on the planet could cast a spell over her senses similar to eating conches in the Bahamas, and his sensual power gripped her. As his arm slipped around her shoulder, awareness sensitized her body, sending warm currents to every uniquely feminine place.
****
“Now, let’s talk about what I had in mind for this party,” he said walking her back to the terrace. Glancing down at her, seeing that frustrated smile, aroused a fresh surge of desire and a not-so-subtle pressure in his pants. If he got any harder, he’d no longer care. He’d whisk her off right then and there to a suitable place to lay her down and show her what was really on his mind.
Her sun-kissed hair lit up like a halo with the light behind her, and her skin was pure as silk. Passion pulsed through him, and Ryker was fixated for the first time in his life, unable to bend another to his considerable will.
She proved a challenge.
He’d never allowed his passion to go this far with no certain prospect of releasing it. This unwelcome swell of desire was becoming a problem. Yet this woman appeared intent on making him suffer.
Fine, he lied to himself.
Was that the reason she was so irresistible?
Ryker had every intention of finding out.
Chapter Six
“By the way, you should know you are the most amazingly sensual woman without even trying.” The words came out low and gravelly through stilted breathing.
Avery pulled on every last ounce of strength to step away from the physical force that was Ryker Li. “I’d rather talk about the event,” she managed to get out through air that had become uncomfortably thick. Or they’d never get anywhere because she could stand here all day and gaze into those brilliant dark eyes of his. And he could tell her a thousand secrets, and she’d believe every one. Until he became bored and broke her heart into so many tiny pieces there’d be nothing left to glue together. Just brilliant, shiny bits of glitter, small as sand, to be swept off the floor.
And you will break my heart.
The admission startled her.
With brooding intensity, Ryker tore his gaze from hers. “I have no idea as to a theme.”
Breathless, Avery said, “Do you like gambling?”
“For excitement?” The laugh that came next was haughty and arrogant. “I can think of better ways to spend an evening with a room full of women.”
“Well, uh.” Avery’s conversation skills had dipped thirty IQ points again. Ryker was the only man she’d ever been around who’d had that effect on her.
Regaining a slightly clearer mind, Avery straightened her shoulders. She dismissed the tingly sensation that sent ripples of desire straight to her nipples as being chilly, and said, “I’m here for work. If you have another idea...”
Before she could finish, Ryker’s hand slid around her waist. “I do have another idea. Many, many other ideas.”
Avery’s mind, still swimming in a fog of sensual arousal, betrayed her better judgment. Even as she knew she shouldn’t allow this seduction to go any further, she could not bring herself to stop it.
Because she wanted this to happen.
And she couldn’t think much past that at the moment.
Instead, she focused on the curve of his chiseled jaw, so strong, so powerful. Ryker was mind-numbingly perfect. Mesmerizing.
****
In Ryker’s estimation, he had a very big problem. Restraint was not generally something he struggled with. And yet, here he was, doing just that—struggling to hold back, making the thought of bedding Avery that much more enticing.
Her lips were swollen with desire. He forced himself to stop looking at them. If he took those lips, he wouldn’t be able to stop. He’d take all of her right then and there. And Ryker Li never forced himself on anyone. But then, he’d never had to. Most women jockeyed for the chance to spend an evening with him.
Not Avery. She stood there, arms folded, like he was a cobra about to spit venom on her most of the time.
His anticipation mounted.
Warring against a passion of this magnitude took a toll. His head pounded worse than thunder cracking between his eyes. He couldn’t remember when a woman had stirred this kind of need, lust, inside him. Not that the thought didn’t have its appeal.
But restraining himself, forcing himself not to act on what nature surely intended him to feel in this woman’s presence, gave him a headache. Blinding and dull and right between his eyes.
Simple, naturally beautiful Avery had him swimming in desire. And hadn’t the unfamiliar always seduced him? He wanted a new experience. This could only be the reason he struggled, or why his control faltered. He needed to explore what that meant. How that might change the experience of sex.
But not until he was certain she was his.
Why the hell did that suddenly matter?
****
Avery knew, without a doubt, she was in trouble. She turned her face away from Ryker in time to catch a flash of light out of the corner of her eye. “What was that?”
“I don’t know.”
“A flash. Out there.”
Ryker’s muscles tensed as he looked out onto the ocean. “Might be a storm.”
Glancing up at a clear blue sky that looked to go on for miles, Avery said, “Funny, there isn’t a cloud in sight.”
“Storms roll in fast here. We’d better get back inside.”
Avery turned to face him, and she couldn’t help but notice how a muscle in his jaw clenched.
Lunch, which waited in the dining room facing the sunny south side of the island, helped ease the acid lining her stomach.
“If you’ll excuse me, I have to make a work call,” he said.
Avery should have been relieved as he walked away, but a sense of disappointment washed over her instead. The whitewashed mansion, the idyllic island, might entice her to relax if the memory of Ryker wasn’t everywhere she looked.
She ate her lunch in silence, trying to get a handle on her emotions and her focus back on her job.
When the tiny hairs on the back of her neck tingled, she knew he was back. She turned, and there he stood, glorious and sexy, a halo-effect created by the sun to his back.
“You’ve eaten?” he asked.
“I was hungry. Didn’t know for sure when you’d show up,” she said, her response fully loaded.
He ignored it. “The food was good?”
“Yes. Very nice.” She pointed to the few bits left on her plate, trying to deflect attention away from the fact she couldn’t stop from looking at the curve of his perfect jaw. “What are these?”
“Wild greens.”
Avery relaxed her shoulders. “Bitter, but really good. And these. What are these round things?”
“Lychee.” He smiled his satisfaction. “Local fruit. Peel them first. They’re sweet inside.”
The flesh was tender, sweet, and juicy. “This is amazing.”
The rest of the meal was quiet. Not the awkward silence of strangers, but of companions who didn’t need to fill the air with words.
“As to your theme,” Avery said when the last bite was taken. She needed to focus on work to override the swell of passion that filled her chest whenever he was near.
“Your choice.”
Her phone buzzed. “Sorry.”
She rejected the call. “You were saying?”
“Theme doesn’t matter to me.”