glasses, get some better facial products, do something with your hair and stop trying to hide your figure. It seems I was right on all fronts.”
Naomi sucked in a sharp breath. He could see he’d embarrassed her, but he wasn’t above using sentimentality to get his way. He leaned back slightly so he could assess her frankly. “Your skin is clear, which I’m sure is due to Brooks and Johnson products. You wear contacts now, and your hair, well—” he reached out to finger several tendrils “—natural looks good on you. And as for the figure...” His gaze lazily roved over her entire body. “I like everything I see.”
“I’m so glad you approve,” Naomi replied flippantly.
“Don’t be upset.” Lucius scooted closer to Naomi, and this time she didn’t move away from him. “It was a compliment.” He stroked the soft skin of her cheek. “You’ve turned into a beautiful woman. A woman I am very much attracted to.”
His gaze immediately went to her lips. Lips he wanted to kiss. Had been craving to kiss since the elevator in Anaheim. He glanced upward to her neck and could see her pulse quickening. Gone was the embarrassment of a moment ago, and in its place he could feel the electricity he’d felt since they’d met.
He bent his head and claimed her lips. He kissed her nice and slow so she didn’t push him away. He needed her to acquiesce. At first she remained still, but as his mouth covered hers hungrily, Naomi gave up the pretense she didn’t want him and her arms snaked around his neck.
Lucius groaned as he broke the barrier of her lips and teeth and she allowed his tongue to surge inside her mouth. He left no part of her mouth untouched. He tasted every nook and crevice of its honeyed interior, but what was most surprising was how he felt while doing it. Instead of making her burn for him, he was burning for her. His hands threaded through her hair as he devoured her mouth. He had an aching need to forget all semblance of romance and just bury himself deep inside her right now in the back of this limo.
Fate was on her side, because the limo came to an abrupt stop, causing him to slowly ease away from Naomi. When he glanced in her direction, Naomi’s hair was tousled and her lips looked swollen, because he’d thoroughly made love to them.
Naomi used her fingers to comb her hair back into place. She didn’t say a word when the driver came around and opened her door. She just disembarked and waited for him on the sidewalk.
Lucius exited right behind her and reached for her hand, but Naomi ignored it and walked inside without him.
Naomi stared at Lucius after they’d been seated by the hostess and placed their order with a very supercilious waiter. In the limo, he’d told her that he was very aware of her when they were in high school. “Why did you say it? To get me off track from the real reason you’re so desperate to contact me?”
“Say what?”
“That you found me cute back in high school. You said it to disarm me, so I’d let down my guard. Very sneaky, Lucius.”
“I meant it.”
Naomi snorted. There was no way a man or boy as good-looking as Lucius had found an awkward outcast like her remotely attractive.
“You don’t believe me?” Lucius watched her across the rim of his glass. “Of course you don’t, because I’m ruthless and can’t be trusted. Is everything so black-and-white to you, Naomi? Or don’t you see in shades of color?”
“I see you very clearly, Lucius. And I won’t be played.”
“Yes, I’m relentless when I want something, but one doesn’t negate the other. It doesn’t mean that I don’t find you desirable and want you in my bed.”
“There!” She pointed her index finger at him again. “You’re doing it again. Trying to seduce me.”
“I don’t have to try.” Lucius leaned back in his chair. “I think that was pretty obvious from the way you responded in the limo.”
Naomi didn’t answer and reached for her water glass. All of a sudden, she felt very thirsty. Perhaps it was Lucius’s hungry gaze that was making her parched. She drank liberally, giving herself time to gather her thoughts.
“You have a way with women, Lucius. Everyone knows it. And I know it. It’s not surprising that you could garner a reaction from me. I imagine you’re quite skilled in that department.”
“I am,” Lucius said. “Skilled in the bedroom and out of it. And that’s why you and your partner shouldn’t toss aside the deal my team has presented. It’s more than fair.”
“We’re not interested.”
The waiter returned at that moment with the expensive bottle of wine Lucius ordered. He poured Naomi a taste, and once she’d sipped and nodded in agreement, he filled her glass and Lucius’s.
Once he’d gone, Lucius wasted no time getting back to the topic at hand. “Am I the reason you’re not giving this offer credence? Are you doing this just to spite me?”
“Spite you?” Naomi’s head fell back with laughter. “You give yourself a lot of credit, Lucius. There are other wolves just like you waiting to pounce in the wings.” She wasn’t about to tell him that her partnership with Kelsey was on rocky ground because motherhood and family had become central to Kelsey. And that she might be interested in his offer. “But I’ll tell them the exact same thing I’m telling you—I’m never giving up controlling interest in my company.”
He watched her warily, as if he was assessing her answer. Naomi sensed that he wanted to say more, but he didn’t.
The waiter returned with their entrées of succulent shrimp risotto and spiced duck. They both indulged in the delicious dishes in contemplative silence before Lucius took the conversation down a different path.
“It’s clear, Naomi, we’ve reached an impasse on all talk of business for tonight, but that doesn’t mean the evening has to be a bust. So can we toast to having an enjoyable evening?”
Naomi thought about it a moment. She didn’t know how she was going to do that. The wariness she felt for Lucius was armor for her to deflect the attraction she felt. Without it, she was forced to admit to herself that she enjoyed his company. Having removed his jacket, he looked gorgeous in the white button-down shirt that was open at the collar and black slacks. His hair was trimmed so that the wave in it was noticeable. His deeply set dark eyes stared directly across the table at her, waiting for her answer.
“Yes.” She held up her flute reluctantly. “I suppose I can do that.”
An irrepressible grin slid over his incredibly full lips.
Naomi swallowed. It was going to be a long night.
* * *
Lucius was happy with how the evening progressed between him and Naomi. They’d adjourned from the restaurant to sit beside each other—Lucius on one side of a padded wicker love seat and Naomi far away on the other—on the terrace outside and enjoy the crisp fall evening with an after-dinner drink. The terrace was dimly lit by thin strings of light and strategically placed candles.
Lucius regarded her silently.
Sure, his interest in her company had been met with outright hostility, but once they’d agreed to put their differences on the shelf, he found Naomi a breath of fresh air.
There was no pretense with her. What you saw was what you got. She wasn’t like other women, who, once they found out who he was or how much he was worth, were eager to fawn all over him or want him to buy them things. Naomi Brooks was nothing like them. In fact, she couldn’t care less about things. She cared about people.
It was evident in the way she passionately spoke about her family. Throughout the course of the night, he’d learned her parents were still together after thirty-five years of marriage and she had a brother and a sister whom she loved dearly. Then there was her volunteerism—Naomi was involved in several charitable organizations that