Murphy's Law Excerpt
Chapter 1
Excerpt 3
Her long hair trailed over his wrists as she shook her head. "We both know you were waiting for me tonight because, for whatever reason, you've decided you want to take a turn in the sack with me."
"Take a..." The way she put things forever boggled his mind. He gently shook her shoulders. "I want to make love to you. We'd both enjoy it." Hell, he'd love it. "But I also like you." He was close to being obsessed with her.
"You barely know me." With shaking fingers, she tucked her hair behind her ears, straightened her Tee, and moved back to put space between them.
His hands fell to his sides. "True enough. I don't know you as I want to." He managed a strained smile. "But I'm trying to correct that."
"Why bother? Our schedules conflict. We don't work the same hours."
"I'll manage." Given how badly he wanted her, he didn't sleep much anyway.
"We don't even work for the same company."
"But we do work in the same building." They'd only met by chance when he'd had to stop by his office late, and she'd been leaving work early. Among other things, he was CPO of a consulting firm. Ashley cleaned the office building where he leased space. "Though it's a good thing we don't officially work together, given most company policies would forbid coworker dating."
Still refusing him, she shook her head. "We're not dating. It'd be a waste of time."
Did she deliberately insult him?
He scowled, but she shook her head and said, "I mean because we have nothing in common."
He touched her mouth with one fingertip. "Oh, I think we have a few things in common." He looked into her eyes and his lust ratcheted up to the max again. He wanted to devour her.
"Yeah, okay." She drew a quick breath. "It's a first for me, but I'll admit we've got the whole sexual chemistry thing going."
"Thank you," he said with dry humor.
"But," she continued, once again on the move, "I've got too much on my plate to be messing around with you right now."
Messing around with him? She made him sound like an inconvenience. Easily keeping pace with her on her path through the building to the locker room, Quinton asked, "So what's on your plate? Anything I can help with?"
"Nope." She kept her head down and her gait long.
She said that too fast, and with too much conviction. The take-charge part of his personality didn't like it. "I'm not without means, you know."
She stopped long enough to roll her eyes at him. "Yeah, I know. You have "means" coming out the ying-yang. Thanks, but no thanks."
On their first meeting, which also accounted for his first rejected invitation to her, he'd learned that Ashley had a spirited way of putting things. He liked it. As he said, he liked her.
He already knew that she attended college classes in addition to working the third shift job. Busy, but not so busy that she couldn't fit in a date with him.
Unless something, or someone else, was keeping her away.
From two feet behind her, he asked, "Do you find me unattractive?"
"Oh please." She laughed without looking back at him. "As if."
Well... that was nice. At least he knew his appearance didn't repel. "So is it that you dislike men with "means" coming out the ying-yang?"
"Your means don't matter to me one way or the other." Now she sounded irritated. "I'm sure you work hard for what you have."
"I do." But he'd also been born into money, not that he intended to say so with her being so prickly about it. "And now you have me working hard to figure you out."
"Might as well stop before you strain something." Finally, they reached the locker she used to stow away her purse.
Again, Quinton tipped up her chin. "Tell me what's troubling you." Then he'd resolve it and get her focused on him, instead of other things.
She crossed her arms over her chest, cocked out one hip, and eyed him up and down. "All right, fine. First and foremost on my mind is the wedding."
The wedding? Denial lumped in his guts. But a quick glance at her finger showed no engagement ring. He scowled at her for nearly stopping his heart.
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