Miguel paused. “Oh. Then tell bro to back off.”
“Have you ever tried arguing with a lawyer?” She was about to say more when the back of her neck suddenly began to throb. Heat penetrated into her skin, as if someone had placed a heater at full blast behind her. Suppressing a groan, she turned her head again and found Luke glaring at her from across the room. How did he do that, manage to warm her skin even from ten feet away?
“Is your friend going to stare at us like that all night?” Miguel’s voice contained a twinge of amusement.
“Probably.”
“Then let’s give him something to really get grumpy about.” Miguel wiggled his dark brows and shot an impish smile in her direction. “Would you like to dance?”
Josh watched as Vivian replaced the cordless phone in its cradle and reached up to tuck a strand of blonde hair behind her ear. She shot him a smile and his cock hardened. Damn it, how did she do that? He’d been with many women, but he couldn’t remember the last time he’d gotten so aroused from just one smile.
“Your sister is just fine,” Vivian announced, tossing her hair over her slender shoulders. She crossed the living room with sexy little strides and sank onto the armchair across from his. “And I want you to know, that’s the last time I’ll check up on her for you.”
Check up on who? Oh, right, Ellie. Josh was suddenly distracted as he watched Viv lift a hand to her ear. She twirled the little gold hoop earring she wore, worrying her luscious bottom lip with her teeth at the same time.
She looked as preoccupied as he felt, and he knew why. It was that damn sexual tension. That loud crackling static that hissed through the air, growing louder the moment their eyes met. He wanted Vivian. He wanted to kiss her and touch her and fuck her all night long. And he knew she wanted it too.
He also knew she wouldn’t admit it.
He’d spent the entire afternoon and evening in Viv’s spacious home. Alone. About five seconds after she’d agreed to let him stay, Vivian announced she needed to do some shopping and whisked out the door. She’d been gone for four hours, during which he’d unpacked the small suitcase he’d brought and proceeded to do fifty push-ups. He hoped the workout would ease the tension in his body, but it hadn’t. Instead, he’d thought only of Vivian, how incredible she looked, and how much he wanted sleep with her.
He hated that nonchalant way she looked at him, as if the electricity between them was one-sided. He hated the way she’d barely spoken to him since returning from the market, and the way she made sure to stand or sit at least three feet away from him, as if she was scared of what he might do.
Or maybe what she might do.
“Josh? Are you listening?”
He lifted his head and saw her gaze on him. She had spectacular eyes. Dark forest green, with flecks of yellow around her pupils. Like a cat. “Sorry, what?”
“I said, Ellie is at my club with a friend. Luke, apparently, is there too. According to my bartender, he’s watching her like a hawk.”
“Good,” Josh muttered absently.
At the moment his mind was not on Ellie or Luke. It was focused solely on the gorgeous blonde sitting in front of him. He’d spent too many sleepless nights thinking about her. Vivian stirred a passion in him like no other woman ever had, but it was more than that. They had a connection. She understood him, and he thought he understood her. The age difference between them didn’t matter. Not to him at least.
“Does it matter to you?” The words slid out of his mouth before he could stop them, and he knew from the way Vivian furrowed her delicate blonde eyebrows that he’d confused her.
“Does what matter?”
“My age.”
Those two words hung in the air for what seemed like an eternity. Looking at the expression on Viv’s face, he knew the answer. A twinge of sadness shone in her eyes, mingled with regret to create a look that plainly said yes.
“It shouldn’t matter,” he said before she could voice her reply. “We’re both adults.”
Vivian still didn’t say a word, so he got up and closed the distance between them. He dropped to his knees and placed both hands on her lap, almost groaning at the feel of her shapely thighs under his palms. Damn, she was all curves. All woman.
“Josh…don’t.” Her whispered plea didn’t stop him from caressing her thighs. Running his hands over the silky material of the skirt she wore.
“We’re attracted to each other, Viv. There’s no point in fighting it.”
He felt her shiver under his touch and it prompted him to slide one hand lower, to the hem of her skirt. He grazed the pad of his thumb over the bare skin of her knee. Relished in its smoothness. Then he slid his fingers under her skirt and stroked her inner thighs.