His Challenging Lover by Elizabeth Lennox Page B

thought he reserved that smile just for her. He’d tease her in the lobby or when they accidentally run into each other in the hallways. But then she’d seen him use it on one of the women that showed up in the office to collect him. And that smile, directed towards another woman, had shown her that he spread that smile around to everyone and anyone.
    She stepped back and sat down on the chair again, wishing he would stop doing this to her. “And the real reason?” she snapped at him, stuffing her papers into her bag again. She wasn’t getting any work done today, why even pretend?
    “Because Mary said you went home early and I wanted to check on you, make sure you were okay.”
    “I’m fine,” she said and lifted her glass of wine to take a sip. Unfortunately, the white wine had been sitting by her elbow so long that it had gotten warm. Her face squinched up with disgust and she almost spit the wine back in.
    “Too warm?” he asked, laughing at her funny expression as he took a seat across from her.
    “Yes. It’s disgusting,” she replied, chuckling a little herself at how she must have looked.
    “I’ll get you some more,” he said and stood up himself. “No, don’t stress,” he teased again. “I’ll find your kitchen in here somewhere.”
    She couldn’t stop the laughter that escaped her this time because he was teasing her about how small her townhouse was. She didn’t care though. It was the perfect size for her. The monthly payments allowed her to put more away towards investments than she spent each month so that was an extra bonus.
    He came back with not one glass filled with chilled white wine, but two. And the dratted man sat right back down across from her. “So now you can explain to me why you left work so early when you’ve never left work early before.” His eyes narrowed suddenly as if something occurred to him. “In fact, when was the last time you took a vacation?” he asked gently.
    She smiled and shook her head. “That’s not fair since you rarely take vacation either. You can’t condemn me when you’re doing the same violation.”
    “Touché!” he came right back at her. “So start explaining.”
    He leaned back in the comfortable chair and watched her. She didn’t answer his question, but they did have a lively debate about another issue, one he couldn’t even remember and which segued from one topic to another. He didn’t care either. He simply enjoyed being here with her.
    They used to talk like this, he remembered. Until that bastard had come to pick her up for a date. He’d been so furious after seeing her with another man, he’d gone straight to the gym that night and knocked out one of his sparring partners. He hadn’t been allowed back into the gym for a week after that incident.
    Now she was here, the afternoon sun fading into darkness and he watched the light play off of her beautiful features. He liked her like this, relaxed, in her own domain and feeling more confident. He’d had a hard time lately. His mind vacillated between memories of her being hit by the brute and then the way she’d looked as she’d climaxed in his arms. He hadn’t been sleeping well either because every time he fell asleep, he’d feel her again, only to wake up and find that she wasn’t there.
    It had been tough when he’d only fantasized about her being in his bed. Now that he had the reality as a memory, it was ten times worse. He wanted her back, in his bed and in his arms. And he wanted to figure out how to keep this camaraderie going. He wasn’t sure if he could have both, but he was determined to figure out how. Their kiss this afternoon proved that she wasn’t as immune to him as she was trying to pretend.
    Xander couldn’t believe how comfortable her backyard was with the small lights intertwined into the tree branches that came on automatically as they talked about everything and anything. He loved watching the animation on her beautiful features and thought he