aware her hands were on his upper arms.
She aroused him, and he wanted her to an extent that surprised him. He was caught in a kiss that put fire in his veins. His heart pounded and his blood roared, and her kiss turned out to be more than he’d ever dreamed possible. The magnitude of his desire was startling. He wanted to take down her hair, push off the suit jacket; he wanted to peel away all their clothes, get rid of the bothersome barriers between them.
When she pushed against his chest, he released her. “I’ll cancel my plane if you’ll go to dinner with me tonight,” he said in a husky voice, wanting to pull her back into his arms. He felt as if he had opened Pandora’s box and trouble was spilling out all around him. A part of him didn’t want to cancel his plane reservation and spend hours with her. Another part of him didn’t want to let her out of his sight. “And not one word about babies.”
The fires in the depth of her blue eyes became frost.
“You get on your plane and go on with your self-centered life,” she snapped.
Maybe passion pushed his temper to an edge, but he was tired of her calling him selfish and self-centered. “I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. Why don’t you take her?”
“I might try to gain custody of her, but it still means up to two years of shuffling little Jessie through the system. And there’s no guarantee I’d get her.”
“If you’ve known John all your life, I don’t know why you didn’t inherit her in the first place.”
She flinched and drew a deep breath. “I’ve wondered why he didn’t ask me, too, because I gladly would have taken Jessie,” Savannah replied stiffly. “I’ve known John forever. Maybe that’s one reason I’ve been so in your face about this. I wish it had been me—not for the money or house, but for Jessie. I think she’s adorable.”
“Yeah, right,” he said, thinking that Savannah put on a good act.
She bristled. “You don’t believe me?”
“It’s easy to say you’d take her when you know you can’t. And I don’t think you’ll fight to get her, either. The situation looks different when you’re the one who has to take the lifetime responsibility.”
“That’s not so!” Savannah’s cheeks flushed angrily. “If I had the chance, I’d take her in a second.”
“Right,” he replied in a voice dripping with sarcasm. He tilted his head to study her. “Hell, marry me—a marriage of convenience—and then you can take her.”
“Marry you! That would be like putting a lion and a tiger in a cage together.”
“Yeah, exactly. Marry me,” he said, glad to put her on the defensive. “I’ll stay as long as necessary, and then you can have the care of her and go through all the red tape to legally get custody.”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” she said, her voice laced with disgust.
Satisfied that he had proved his point, he put his hands on his hips. “You’re not jumping at this chance to give little Jessie a family and a home? I didn’t think you would. When the shoe’s on the other foot, it’s mighty different. Now you don’t want any part of it.”
“That isn’t because of Jessie.”
“You and I could stay in this mansion and never see each other,” he argued, glad to keep her on the defensive. “It’s huge.”
“Nothing is that huge.”
“Yeah, right, Counselor. You just don’t want the responsibility. Now we could argue all day, but I’ve got a plane to catch.”
He left the room. Savannah glared at him and wanted to shake her fist and scream. Insufferable man! She didn’t want to think about his devastating kiss. Life wasn’t fair. He was so cussed stubborn and unrelenting. She didn’t want to dream about him after he had flown out of her life this afternoon. And she didn’t want to cry over Jessie and remember cold, frightened nights in her own life.
Jessie’s a baby, too little right now to be scared or know what was happening to her, Savannah thought sternly, then instantly rejected that notion.
She hurried after Mike, looking at his squared shoulders and long, forceful stride. He acted as though he ruled the world.
He didn’t believe she would take Jessie if she had the chance, but she would. He saw her as a tough lawyer who was all business, but she would love to have Jessie. It had hurt that John hadn’t asked her to be Jessie’s guardian. Apart from their families having been close, John’s business had helped make her and Troy’s practice a big success. At the time she read the will, she had thought he was as close as a brother to Mike Remington, and that was why he wanted Mike to be Jessie’s guardian. Since meeting Mike, she realized he couldn’t have really known Mike or foreseen that Mike would refuse.
Now this infuriating man who made her grit her teeth, who could kiss a woman into a pool of quivering jelly, was going to walk out and leave the baby to become a ward of the state.
Marry him! That certainly would be like putting a lion and a tiger into a cage together. And he hadn’t really meant it, anyway. Marriage would tie him down more than simply taking Jessie and hiring nannies. Unless he thought he could get a wife and vanish for months at a time.
She didn’t know what was in that handsome head of his. She glared at him as he went through the front door while she followed and locked up.
When she turned, he held out his hand. “Give me the keys and I’ll drive. It’ll give you a break.”
“I’m not trusting you with my car,” she said tersely, annoyed with him, wanting to shake him and hating that she was too cognizant of his appeal. For if she reached out to shake him, the touch would ignite the volatile chemistry between them.
She thought about the dinner date she had turned down. More kisses—the thought of more of his kisses sent her pulse into a dizzying spiral. Yet the evening would be another exercise in futility, getting her all hot and bothered in every way.
A marriage of convenience to Mike Remington. It would be war. Even if he had meant it, she couldn’t tie her life to his, not even as a technicality.
When he held the door for her, she was acutely conscious of passing close to him, of his dark eyes steadily watching her. The man was incredibly sexy, and her nerves were jangled because of him.
She slid behind the wheel and glanced up to catch him looking at her legs. His gaze met hers, and then he closed the door and strode around the front of the car to get into the passenger side.
“Friends, Counselor?” he asked as she turned down the long driveway.
“Hardly,” she answered coolly, wondering if he had been affected at all by their kiss. Maybe a little, since he had offered to cancel his flight and take her to dinner.
After a silent ride, as they stood in the parking lot at her office, they faced each other and he held out his hand. “It’s been interesting. I’m sorry, but I can’t become guardian of a baby. I’m sure you’ll find someone who can take Jessie. You gave it a real good try.”
“Don’t patronize me,” she said, annoyed with him, yet far too responsive to him, tingling because of his hand holding hers and mesmerized by his midnight-brown eyes, which held dark temptations and secrets. Sexy eyes that made her pulse race when he gave her one of his steady, probing looks. “I’ll be back in touch with you,” she said. “It isn’t often someone turns down a million-dollar inheritance. I don’t know the precedents.”
“Take your time, Counselor. You have my number in D.C. It’s been interesting.”
“Have a nice life,” she snapped, turning to walk away and wondering how long it would take her to get over her anger toward him. And how long would it take her to forget his sexy kiss?
Mike drove out of the shaded