ELEVEN
LOITERING IN HIS OWN hallway to calm himself down was a new experience. Fuck, he’d never walked away from a willing woman. And Gianna… Shit, desiring her so intensely couldn’t be healthy.
If she was anyone else, he’d have taken her to his bedroom. Something about Gianna Sear was different, he just hadn’t figured out what it was yet.
Descending to the living room, he found Julius on the couch, thumbing through his phone. He crossed to the bar to retrieve his drink.
Julius put his phone aside. “You missed a call from Kenny Elgin.”
Sipping his drink, Brogan propped himself on a stool. “He’ll call back if it’s important.”
“It’s almost one in the morning. That suggests whatever he had to say was important.”
That wasn’t judgment in his voice, intrigue maybe?
“What did you tell him?”
“That you were upstairs with Gianna.”
Bet that shut Elgin up.
Deliberately, he didn’t do a great job of hiding his smirk. “Gia,” he said. “She prefers it.”
“You’re getting to know her well, aren’t you?” Julius asked, examining his own glass.
He’d become a helluva lot more acquainted with her upstairs after unzipping her dress.
“She’s an interesting woman.”
“And what we talked about when this started, how are you feeling about that?”
“Gault?” he asked.
Motivation shouldn’t be clouded. Internal conflict should be ignored.
“About marrying her,” Julius said. “You said her father accepted your relationship.”
He breathed out. “Yeah, he and Bram blustered a little, but they’re not as dumb as we’d hoped.”
“You’re causing quite a stir out there,” Julius said, making eye contact. “I can’t turn a corner without bumping into someone who wants to know the story of you two.”
“You’ve told me this,” he said, standing to top off his glass. “Let people talk, I expect them to talk.”
“Is she equipped to handle it?” Julius asked. “You’re used to ignoring people or telling them to go to hell. Is she happy to lie?”
“To lie?”
“You said one of the requirements of this deal was that she not tell anyone about it. Anytime anyone asks if you’re serious or if you’ve slept together, she has to lie.” How did his righteous Gianna feel about fibbing? “It would be a lie… wouldn’t it?”
“What?”
“Have you slept with her?”
Ah, there it was: judgment. No mistaking it. Julius could play the disapproving parent as much as he wanted.
“We’ve been seeing each other less than a week.”
“That wouldn’t have been your answer when this started,” Julius said. “Do you want to sleep with her?”
“Yes,” he said. Julius should know better than to expect anything less than direct honesty. His brows rose when Julius straightened to blink at him. “I’m as surprised as you. She’s attractive, I always knew that, but I didn’t expect her to… enchant me.”
Twisting the stool away from the room, he gazed out over the lights of the city beyond the terrace.
“I told you to be careful with this one,” Julius said. “This is exactly why. She’s not like other women you’ve dated. She’s real. She doesn’t play the usual games.”
“She teases me,” he murmured. “When we’re together, it’s a cat with a mouse.”
“Who’s the cat?”
Smiling, he glanced at his friend. “Haven’t figured that out yet.”
Julius breathed in and sighed hard, shaking his head slowly. “Marrying her was supposed to be a professional decision.”
Tossing the rest of his drink into his throat, he slammed the glass down and got up. “I’m not planning on ring shopping just because my cock wakes up when she smiles.”
He crossed the room.
“Where are you going?” Julius asked.
“Bed.”
He wanted some alone time with thoughts of how her body responded to his touch. And he had to cut himself off. If he drank anymore of that Scotch, he wouldn’t resist the urge to go to the alluring woman sleeping under his roof.
Bringing her there seemed like a good idea before he had to live with the reality of it. Was she a temptation too powerful to resist?