Read Borrowed Billionaire #5 Set it on Fire for Free Online Page B

went.
    I gasped when the elevator doors opened, but luckily we were at the top floor, still alone.
    He led me down the hall and used the key card to open a door.
    I hesitated at the doorway, not stepping into the room. I had to have known this was where it was heading. From the moment he'd made the lunch date at the hotel. Of all the places in the city to eat, a hotel? Oh, Lexie. For a smart girl, you don't always use your brain.
    He was already inside the room, hanging up his suit jacket on a wood hanger.
    When he saw me, still standing at the door, he stretched out a hand. “Lexie?”
    “Luthor, I … I don't know if I should.”
    He came over and stood in front of me, just inside the door. The top two buttons of his shirt were unfastened, and I wanted to finish undressing him and run my hands all over his body. But I also didn't want to screw things up, and I knew I would. Just like I had with Jacob, and with every other guy I'd dated.
    He looked down and then chuckled nervously. “Don't tell me you asked me out just to get business advice. Please.” He held his hands over his heart. “I don't know if I can take it. I didn't think you cared for me, and then you asked me to meet you, and … I guess it was wishful thinking on my part.” He shook his head. “I'm so stupid.”
    I took two steps back, to the middle of the hallway. “Luthor, I don't want to get married and have a bunch of kids and live in the suburbs.”
    He looked shocked. “Good god, me neither. Do you think that's what I want?”
    “I also don't want to be a possession, a pawn in someone's game. I don't want to be bought. I won't be shipped around for your convenience.”
    “Is this because I wasn't on the flight with you? Suzanne said it would be fine.”
    I clasped my hands together, then released them and folded my arms. “I guess it's my fault. This whole thing with us has been so bizarre, right from the first time we met.”
    “And then you left your panties under my pillow. It drove me crazy. You were in all my dreams. How did you know to do that?”
    “My panties? What?” I thought back to the day I'd been hired to arrange the furniture in his bedroom. “That was your assistant, Grace. She actually bought my underwear from me.”
    He shook his head. “That stupid bet. So ridiculous.”
    “And that bet!” I said, nearly yelling. “What is that all about?”
    The elevator doors opened down the hallway and a maid came out with her cart.
    Luthor pressed his fingers to his forehead and gave me a crooked smile. “Come inside the room and I'll tell you everything.”
    I re-crossed my arms. “No way. If I set foot in there, you'll have my legs in the air and there won't be any conversation.”
    “Once I start, I don't stop. Is that so bad?”
    “I'm beginning to think it is. I think I do that , with people. Well, not with people. With men. I avoid intimacy by making everything about sex.”
    The housekeeper had stopped her cart in the middle of the hallway and was pretending to rearrange the items on it while listening, but I didn't care.
    “Intimacy is scary,” he said.
    I relaxed my stance a little. “I know, right?”
    “I probably do the same thing. That was why I made the bet with Grace. I wanted to stop doing anything that had to do with sex, and see if that cleared my head.”
    “And did it?”
    He held his hands out. “I think you know how that worked out. I tried to do some yard work to take my mind off sex, but that had unexpected results.”
    I took one step closer to the doorway. The air conditioning was rather chilly in the hall, and the suite did look warm and inviting.
    “I think Grace was trying to sabotage you. She hired me and told me to stay away from you. Naturally, I wanted to do the exact opposite.”
    He grinned. “Reverse psychology.”
    I spat out, “Games.”
    He shrugged. “No more games, then. Absolute honesty.”
    “Fine.” I tapped my foot and gave him a skeptical look. “I gave Mr. Hubert a