He was trying so hard in that moment, as if her approval meant a lot. He’s as nervous as I am, she realized with a start. She was touched that he cared enough to be nervous.
“Did the Young Bostonian article drive you underground?” she said. “Or do you always prefer to frequent out-of-the-way places?”
“You saw that article,” he said, pulling her chair out for her.
She sat down and slid her briefcase under the table. “Oh, indeed. Who could miss it? Impressive piece about Boston’s premiere hotshot multimillionaire. You’ve got the buzz, babe.”
He sat down across from her. A look of embarrassment crossed his face. “It’s a lot of hype.”
“Somehow I doubt that.”
The waiter came over. Liam ordered a bottle of modestly priced white wine and antipasto as an appetizer. He wasn’t trying to impress her. Why not?
Katie was confused. She knew he was attracted to her, but he wasn’t pulling out all the stops. What was the deal?
The waiter returned with their wine and the antipasto plate heaped with buffalo mozzarella, salami, black olives, sun-dried tomato relish and thin slices of toasted garlic-bread rounds.
“Are you ready to order your main course?” the waiter asked.
“Oops,” Katie said. “I haven’t even looked at the menu.” Because she’d been too busy looking at Liam.
“They have excellent veal marsala,” he suggested.
“Veal marsala it is,” she said, and passed her menu to the waiter and thanked him.
Once the waiter had gone, she leaned in closer. The scent of Liam’s cologne mingled with the delicious smell of the antipasto. It was a bracing fragrance, hearty and substantial. “Thank you for bringing me here. I adore Italian food. It’s my favorite.”
“Mine, too.”
Strange. She’d pegged him as a sushi lover or maybe upscale French cuisine. Mr. Young Bostonian, and all that.
“Why don’t we take a look at the mock-ups while we eat?” she said. “Kill two birds with one stone.”
“Actually,” he said, reaching across the table to rest his hand on hers to stop her from reaching for her briefcase, “I have a confession to make.”
“A confession?” She studied him, still thrown by the mixed messages he was sending. It wasn’t often that any male knocked her off-kilter.
Using the food as an excuse, she slipped her hand out from under his and reached for a toast round, scooping a spoonful of the sun-dried tomato relish onto the garlic bread.
“This dinner isn’t strictly business.”
“No?” She chased the antipasto with a measured swallow of wine but never took her gaze from his face.
“Surely you knew it was pretext.” His smile was positively wicked and spiked up the heat already invading Katie’s body. “We could have had the business meeting at Sharper Designs on Monday.”
They stared at each other across the table.
“Listen,” they said in unison, then both broke off, chuckling.
“Why don’t you go ahead and show me the designs you’ve come up with?” Liam said. “Let’s get the business portion of this meeting over with so we can-”
“Get down to the pleasure?” Katie impishly finished for him.
“That wasn’t what I was going to say.”
“No,” she countered, “I’m certain you’d planned on being much more diplomatic.”
“You think I’m a stuffed shirt?”
“I think that’s the image you portray, but I know better. I’ve seen the real you in action.”
His face flushed. “You’re referring to the Ladies League ball.”
“I am.” She lowered her eyelashes.
“That’s not the real me. You just caught me on a bad night.”
“Not from my point of view.” She winked. “I thought you were very, very good that night.”
His Adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed. “I took advantage of you.”
“That’s not the way I recall it. In my memory, I clearly took advantage of you.”
“Either way, it was a life-altering experience for me.”
“How’s that?”
“Ever since that night I’ve been unable to think about anything but you.”
“Really?” she said.
“Believe me, that’s not normal.”
“Way to flatter a girl,” she teased, “telling her it’s not normal to be wanted.”
“That’s not what I mean…” He pressed a palm to the back of his neck, chuffed out a breath. “I’m handling this badly.”
She studied his face, clean-shaven, honest, aboveboard. If this had been the Middle Ages, he most certainly would have been a dutiful knight, stalwart and well-intentioned.
Something scary shifted inside her. Maybe she shouldn’t try her Martini dare on him. He was too nice of a guy and she didn’t want to hurt him. “Liam, I…”
“Yes?”
The way he was looking at her caused her feminine sex to clench with a swift squeeze of ravenous need. A deep-seated tightening of desire. She had to have him, never mind the costs.
Befuddled by lust, she dropped her gaze, fumbled blindly for her briefcase, heard her heart pounding blood rapidly through her ears. “I…I’ve got your proposal right here. I’ve gotta warn you, the designs are a bit racy, but you did say you wanted sex.”
The word sex hung in the air, as provocative as heavy breathing.
Unnerved, Katie pushed aside the appetizer plate, scooted her chair closer so they could both see it and placed the file folder on the table between them. “Obviously we’re appealing to young, urban professionals with a high income.”
“Obviously,” he agreed, and leaned over her shoulder. The warmth of his breath fanned the hairs along the nape of her neck.
She flipped open the file, then looked at him to gauge his initial reaction to the graphics of her mock-up.
Suddenly, she understood exactly how much she wanted his approval.
Liam tilted his head to study the photograph with interest, but his face remained unreadable. Damn him and his perfect self-control.
In the ad, a lithe young woman was stepping naked from a patio hot tub underneath a starlit sky. She was holding a white terry cloth towel in her hand that barely covered her explicit parts.
Seated on a lawn chair, in the dark, at the far end of the patio was a man equally as naked, his explicit bits hidden in the shadow cast by a glistening chrome barbecue grill. The man’s eyes were hooked on the woman, the unmistakable signs of feral lust on his face.
The woman was as blond as Katie, the man as dark-haired as Liam. The setting was totally intimate. The choice of models and setting had not been accidental. She’d worked very hard to create an erotic, atmospheric draft that was still subtle enough for mainstream media. It had been a tricky balance, getting the right play of light, capturing the seductive interplay without going over the top.
“We’re thinking of a caption along the lines of-James Place Condominiums…Where Your Most Forbidden Fantasies Come True,” she said. “But the copywriters are still working on it.”
He raised his gaze from the photo, locked eyes with her. “It makes me want to sell my penthouse apartment and move in tomorrow.”
“You really like it?” His approval gladdened her heart.
“It’s exceptional work. You’ve accurately captured exactly what I was going for. The color, the mood, the marketing elements. You’re a master at this, Katie. You can go as high as you want in your career.”
The way he was looking at her made her feel competent and accomplished and reliable. She could honestly say no one else had ever made her feel quite this proud of her work. Katie wasn’t accustomed to impressing a man with her artistic skills, especially a man with as much business savvy as this one. He made her want to truly commit to her career. To throw herself into it the same way she threw herself into romantic adventures.
It was a new experience, this desire to be industrious and self-reliant. She liked it.
And she liked him.
Then he did something completely unexpected.