He wanted her. His body was still half-aroused from earlier and sitting so close to her in his sports car had made it worse. He’d driven too fast to burn off some of the adrenaline but she’d simply laughed. The scent of her perfume had surrounded him, egging him on to drive faster. He’d never been one of those men who needed to strut around a woman, but he wanted to with Scarlet. Sure, he could have taken the truck, but the Maserati was a status thing, and she came from a world of immense wealth, so he wanted her to know he wasn’t after her money.
Was he after her?
He had told himself and Scarlet that he wanted to get to know her better because she was pregnant with his baby—Scarlet wasn’t the kind of woman to lie about that—but another part of him knew that he did want her for himself. And he’d never been comfortable with that sort of longing. He’d grown up one of five kids. Sharing was practically in his DNA. Of course, as an adult he had things that were his, but he always felt greedy when he craved something or, in this case, someone. He wanted Scarlet and it felt so much more intense than just hooking up again.
There was something other than just lust coursing through his veins and he didn’t want to acknowledge or examine it. But he was by nature someone who had to figure it out.
“Billie said to give you her regards,” Scarlet said as she entered the jet. She bent over to unleash the dog and her honey-blond hair cascaded down over her shoulders. The little dog stood on its back legs and rubbed its face in her hair.
She stood up and their eyes met, and something passedbetween them. He felt the zing all the way to his groin. No surprise since he’d been turned on since he’d seen her this morning.
“She doesn’t like me, so I appreciate you making it seem like she does,” he said.
She laughed, throwing her head back. “She thinks she’s subtle. Can you believe that?”
“No. She must know she comes across as a bulldog who will protect you at all costs,” Alec said.
“Do I need protecting?” she asked, walking toward him. Lulu ran ahead of her and jumped up on one of the seats.
“No,” he said, his voice low, gruff and huskier than he wanted it to be. “Not from me.”
The thing about addictions,Scarlet thought as she sat next to Alec as the jet took off, was that they were hard to resist. She should have said no, she wouldn’t come with him to Seattle. She shouldn’t have agreed to be alone with him again until she sorted out what exactly the feelings she had for him were. But honestly, right now, after seeing the way he was watching her and hearing that gravelly tone of voice, all she could think about was how his body had felt against hers and how good it had felt to be straddling him earlier.
For the first time since she’d realized she was pregnant, something made sense. Sex was normal and logical. It didn’t have to be complicated. And technically, if she were with Alec, it wasn’t breaking her self-imposed rule of hooking only up once with a guy because she’d thought he was Mauricio the last time, right?
She’d started the rule to avoid the situation she was in right now. She couldn’t take the chance of falling into the trap of commitment. She’d seen it destroy both her mother and sister.
That makes no sense, even for you.As usual, the voice of her sister nagged her.
Shut up, Tay. I don’t want to be logical.
Obviously.
Lulu was curled up and sleeping in her travel crate, which meant there was nothing to distract Scarlet from Alec. He had his legs loosely crossed. When the flight attendants asked if they would like something to eat or drink, he glanced over at her with one eyebrow arched.
“I’m good,” she said.
“Me, too. I’ll let you know if we need anything,” Alec said.
The attendants left to go to the crew quarters and they were alone.
Danger, danger, don’t do something stupid.
Tara had been so irresponsible in life that Scarlet knew the voice she often attributed to her sister was simply her own subconscious warning her off. But it comforted her to think her sister might be watching over her.
How dangerous could he be?
You wouldn’t be having this conversation with me if you didn’t fear something about him.
Fear.
Was that true? Was that what this was?
“Are you comfortable?” he asked. “Do you need a blanket?”
No. She needed him naked and underneath her, so she could feel more in control of everything. He had surprised her and taken the upper hand... Yeah, that was it. She wanted to be on top again. It wasn’t anything more than that. She didn’t have to fear addiction—this was her first time with Alec. She could have him guilt-free and then go back to figuring out the baby situation.
Yeah,right.