Page 80 of Without a Hitch
“Why? Why focus on me?” I’m curious, but my heart thunders in my chest with fear too.
“Because, Lochlan. Some people are meant to do great things in life, and some people are meant to help make those things happen. I’m a helper. I’ve always been a helper, and right now, my mission is to help you be the man I know you are under all that anger.”
I stare, shocked and in complete awe. Tilly is so much more than a helper, and she has no idea. This woman is going to change me forever, whether I’m ready for it or not.
CHAPTER24
TILLY
“Why aren’t we staying at one of your hotels, Mr. Moore?” I ask with a smirk after our bags are dropped off and the door closes behind us in the beach house suite of the famous Rosewood Hotel in Montecito, California.
Lochlan stalks toward me with sex in his gaze. Good lord, I have no willpower where he’s concerned. “Because, Mrs. Moore, how else am I supposed to keep an eye on the competition?”
“For clarity’s sake, you have no objection to pretending to be a married couple? But the real thing is…”
“Not an option,” he growls just before capturing my protest with his mouth. It’s not fair that he can make my body melt with just a touch of lips. His fingertips cause a riot of sensations as he skims the skin at the top of my waistband.
Pulling back, I blurt, “Trojan horse,” and slip away from his grasp.
“Trojan horse?” He chuckles. “Okay, we can talk about protection.” He pulls something from his briefcase. “Are you on the pill?”
Trojan horse. He thinks I’m talking about condoms. Freaking Eli.
“You said you were going to keep your hands to yourself.”
“Is that what you want?” His gaze travels the length of my body, and I feel it everywhere.
No!
“You laid out the rules,” I remind him instead.
“Tilly?” He moves like a panther, his actions smooth and calculated. He doesn’t stop until he’s inches away from me. I back up against the sliding glass door, and he puts a hand on either side of me.
“Yes?”
“We’re renegotiating our terms.”
“Tsk, tsk, tsk, Lochlan. We haven’t even given our current terms the old-school try yet.”
He darts forward, forcing my head to tilt as his lips land on my neck. “Renegotiate with me, sweet Tilly.”
“What do you suggest?” I feel his smirk against my skin. His trail of kisses already has my toes curling.
“I suggest that you let me touch…” His fingers ghost up my arms. “Taste.” He sucks my earlobe between his teeth. “Experience every inch of you.”
“You want to know me sexually.”
“I want to know you in every way,” he counters. “Say I can have all of you.”
My head falls against the door with a thud. Trojan horse, Tilly! Trojan horse him!
“I’ll let you have my body if you let me have you.” It comes out on a breathy sigh. The heat from his body excites every nerve ending I possess.
“I’m right here.”
I shake my head. “All of you.”
He pulls back to scan my eyes. “What do you want, Tilly?”
