“What do you mean?” She couldn’t hold her curiosity back if she tried.

“Let’s just say that we have conflicting views of the past.”

“You’re going to have to give me something more than that.” She jabbed an ineffectual finger into his solid chest. “I did let you have a little more than coffee this afternoon.”

While she hated to draw attention to her easy capitulation to his demands, she would use whatever ammunition she could to get him to talk.

“When I was sixteen my parents were killed in a car accident.”

“I’m so sorry.”

“Yes, well it seems we have more in common than the desire to be naked in the other’s company.”

Sarah fought the urge to pinch the skin beneath her palm. She was afraid to do anything that might distract him from his story.

“That’s always nice to know …” She let the statement trail off.

“But what does our respective nudity and orphan status have to do with my grandfather? CliffsNotes version … a relative couldn’t be located to take me in at the time of the accident. So I was placed in a foster home. Then another, and another until I graduated high school and left for Northwestern.”

But how? She wanted to ask but was too caught up in fitting this new information into what she knew of him to utter a word. How could a man abandon his grandson to the foster system of Chicago? There had to be something she was missing. If the man was a friend of her grandfather’s, he couldn’t be that callous.

“Anyway, he found me junior year. Apologized profusely. The past is the past. If only the old man would realize it.”

She had a feeling the past was alive and well for them both, even if Falon was unwilling to admit it.

Chapter Ten

Sitting behind her desk hours later, she could still feel her skin tingling in the wake of his attention. Sarah knew she was grinning like an idiot but couldn’t stop the corner of her lips from lifting if she tried. After Falon told her about his past, she figured he would make some excuse and leave. She hadn’t been planning on him rolling her on her back and showing her how to enjoy the present.

She felt a little uneasy about how he would react in the light of day. She had woken alone this morning and wasn’t sure if that was for the best or not. Last night she felt a connection grow between them, but what did he want from her now? She had a feeling that connections were strictly in the no-no column for Falon Wolfe.

These thoughts were what kept her butt in her chair instead of marching next door and dragging him by his expensive silk tie into the ladies’ room for an afternoon quickie. She would leave the next step up to him. He probably would shut down again if she tried to take the lead again anyway.

“Hey.” She nearly jumped out of her skin at the sound of Marcy’s voice.

“Jeez!” she said, holding a hand over her racing heart and glared at her friend. “What the hell?”

Marcy placed her hands on her hips. “What’s with you? It’s not like I snuck up on you.”

“Right. Sorry. I guess I was just caught up in …”

“In thoughts of tall, dark, and brooding next door?”

She felt her face heat, a sure sign the other woman would pick up on. There was no use in denying anything.

“He … may have stopped by last night.”

“What?” Marcy let the door close behind her before taking a seat across from Sarah. “Did he stay the night?”

“I’m not sure.” And that was what was bothering her the most. She wasn’t sure if he had waited until she had fallen asleep to sneak out of her bed. Or if he had waited until early morning to return to his hotel in order to keep up appearances. With Falon, she didn’t know where she stood.

“How can you not be sure?” Marcy studied her for a moment. “I can’t believe he’s that bad.”

She felt herself blush further and had a feeling that if she were outside it could be seen from space.

“Just the opposite actually.” She sighed. “God, Marcy. I didn’t know it could feel so good.”

“But?”

But the man was so in control that it almost felt like making love to a machine, a very talented, very conscious machine. But he was someone too systematic to have been lost in the moment. She couldn’t bring herself to say these things. She could only shrug.

“I don’t know.” And that was the crux of the problem. She didn’t know if he would ever be as lost as he made her feel. She wanted him to fall into her body and what she made him feel. And as desperate and needy as it sounded she wanted it all to mean something to him.

“I get it,” Marcy said after a beat of silence.

“Do you? Care to let me in on this little secret because I’m not sure I even understand it.”

“You want him the way every woman wants a man.” She could only raise a brow at her friend. “Not that way. Yes, you want his hot bod. But you want him in the ways that matter. I get it. Trust me, I do.”

She didn’t want to think about what her friend was implying. How could she want a man like Falon? Really want him? The image of waking up beside him suddenly assaulted her and she knew she was in deep trouble because Marcy just may be right.

“I don’t think so, Marcy.”

Marcy looked at her for a moment before giving a negligent shrug. “Whatever you say, cupcake. If you want Mr. Control to break, it sounds like you need to deploy drastic measures.”

“Drastic how?”

“Do you own anything in black lace?”

***

Falon sat behind his borrowed desk getting nothing accomplished. Again. This idleness grated against his nerves and put him on edge and it was all her fault. After Sarah had fallen asleep last night, he had quickly pulled his clothes back on and left before he gave into the urge to curl his body around hers and sleep.

Now he felt like a coward for slipping away under the cover of darkness. Damn it. He hadn’t signed on for this. When his body reacted to Sarah, he thought it was the perfect solution while in town. He thought that they both knew the score, but it seems along the way he somewhere slipped. Somehow that tiny woman had him thinking things he hadn’t entertained in years.

He felt his teeth grind together as his jaw tensed once more. He could do this. He just had to remember his priorities. Do the job and move on. No connections, no emotions. They were dangerous, uncontrollable. It didn’t matter how sweet sinking into Sarah’s heat was or how beautiful she was colored by moonlight. Shit. When had he started waxing poetic?

“Get it together, Wolfe.” He ran a hand down his face. “She’s just a woman. Like all the others.” For some reason, his words echoed hollow in the room. Maybe he should end it now before he did something he would regret. Like fall in love.

He had to get out of there. Pushing back from the desk he left the office, his long strides carrying him toward the door. He would have made it out of the building if a brunette powerhouse hadn’t blocked his only escape.

Hand on her shapely hips, Marcy looked ready to do battle. He felt his stomach drop.

“Where do you think you’re going?”

“Out,” he growled, motioning for her to step aside. He had no patience to waste on being polite. The woman merely arched a condescending brow before sliding to the side allowing him access to the door once more.

As he passed, he couldn’t help thinking he saw a smug smile on her face. He was sure of it when her laughter followed him into the elevator. For the first time in nearly ten years, Falon entertained the idea of taking the afternoon off.

***

“I can’t believe I’m actually doing this,” Sarah said under her breath as she watched the young hotel employee she shamelessly flirted with to let her into Falon’s room unlock the door.