SHIT. LIZ LEANED AGAINST THE COUNTER AND TOOK A long swallow of wine, wishing she’d never agreed to come here with Gavin.
Spilling her guts like that had been stupid. She never talked to Gavin like that. Everything with him was always superficial. She told him how great he was, or she set him up for a photo shoot. And she renegotiated his contract and got him the best deal. That was it. That was all they ever discussed.
She always kept her distance from him, usually met him in crowds and at public events where she’d be safe.
And she had a damn good reason for it.
One, she was four years older than him. She didn’t date younger guys. Ever.
Two, she was in love with him and had been for years.
Three, he was totally, utterly, and completely oblivious to it, and she intended to keep it that way.
Oh, sure, she flirted with him, just like she did with all her clients. Surface stuff, nothing but fluff. She never wanted Gavin to think she treated him any differently than she did her other clients. And he was mostly clueless, because he paid very little attention to her except when it came to business, thankfully.
But she did treat him differently, because she felt differently about him. She kept her distance because of how he made her feel.
When it had happened, she couldn’t say. God knows she’d tried to keep it from happening. But there was just something about him. Maybe it was his dark good looks, his mesmerizing green eyes, the way his dark brown hair fell over his brow, or the sexiness of his goatee. Maybe it was his lean body that he honed into shape with daily workouts at the gym and playing noncompetitive sports outside his own sport of baseball. Maybe it was the way he catered to kids on the ball field, always taking the time to sign autographs or stop and talk to them. He was a big jock and worth millions, but he’d never developed a giant ego about it like many of her clients did. He was a genuinely nice guy.
But what she really loved about him was his smile. There was something wickedly devilish about Gavin’s smile. It was a secret, mature kind of smile, the kind of smile that made a woman want to know what he was thinking about.
She’d been curious about his smile when she’d first met him and he’d looked her over in the way a man looks at a woman. But as soon as she’d signed him, that had been the end of it. He’d never looked at her that way again. Oh, she’d seen him cast that smile at other women, and in many ways she’d regretted signing him on as a client, even though she’d given him 100 percent of herself as an agent.
But she’d woefully, wistfully regretted not having him direct that wicked smile at her.
Until tonight. Tonight, outside the hotel, he’d looked at her that way for the first time since he became her client. He’d looked at her like a man looks at a woman he’s interested in having sex with. Her breath caught and for one brief moment she’d wondered . . .
“You hiding in here?”
She jerked around to face Gavin, her fingers clutched tight to the empty glass of wine.
“Refilling my wineglass.”
His gaze shifted. “Glass is empty.”
“So it is.” She lifted the wine bottle. “And so is the bottle.”
Gavin went to the wine cooler and pulled out another bottle, grabbed the opener and yanked the cork out. His warm fingers slid over her chilled ones as he held the glass steady as he refilled it, his gaze never leaving hers.
“Your fingers are still cold.”
There was that look again, that smile he’d given her outside the hotel earlier tonight, the one he’d never let her see before. Her belly tumbled, and oh, God, her nipples hardened. She wondered if Gavin could tell through her flimsy bra and silk blouse.
“I’m fine.”
“Okay.” He held on to her hand, and she tucked her bottom lip between her teeth.
“You’ll have to spend the night.”
She swallowed. “What?”
“I’ve had too much alcohol to get back in the car tonight. I’m not driving. You’ll have to stay here.”
“Oh. Uh . . . I could call a cab.”
He smirked. “You could. But you don’t want to, do you?”
What? What the hell was he talking about? Was he hitting on her?
Oh, no. Oh, hell no.
She went for her bag and dragged out her cell phone. “I’m calling a cab.”
He grasped her wrist and leaned into her. “We’re not done talking, Liz.”
He wasn’t referring to having a conversation. She knew it, and so did he.
“Why now, Gavin? Why, after all these years, are you doing this now?”
“Why do we have to dissect it?”
Her heart pounded so loud she wondered if Gavin could hear it.
He laid her phone on the counter, pulled her fingers away from it.
Call a cab. Go home. Get out of here now before you do something incredibly stupid, Elizabeth.
“I don’t have sex with my clients, Gavin.”
His lips quirked. “You want me to fire you so I can fuck you?”
Her body was going up in flames. Why was he doing this to her?