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toe, visually stripping her black-silk-imprinted-with-crimson-roses strapless dress from her body. Her skin pebbled and prickled with awareness; she’d never felt so exposed.
    ‘I’m right where I want to be.’
    It meant nothing, a line from a guy used to having women falling at his Prada-loafered feet. But in that moment, with warmth flowing through her body like liquid honey, she wished she could believe him.
    As if sensing her reaction, he pushed off the wall and took a step forward. In her face, in her personal space.
    Her senses went on high alert: too close, too hot, too much.
    His lips kicked into a sexy grin. ‘Nothing to say? That’s a first.’
    Biting back the irrational urge to reach up and pull his head down to within kissing distance, she eyeballed him. ‘You don’t know me.’
    He leaned down and she braced against the incoming assault of hot male and crisp citrus.
    ‘Maybe I’d like to?’ He murmured in her ear, his warm breath tickling her and her eyelids fluttered shut, lost in the heat of undeniable attraction.
    Before reality set in. That was all she needed: to get involved with the enemy.
    His fingertip touched her ear lobe, trailing across her jaw, setting her alight.
    Desire streaked through every common-sense reason for not grabbing his hand, dragging him out of here and back to her place.
    She’d always been spontaneous when it came to guys, not following convention of waiting to be asked out. If she liked a guy, she let him know.
    But as Jax stepped away, leaving her hot and bothered and yearning, she knew he was no ordinary guy.
    She couldn’t toy with him. He wasn’t the type to tease or taunt without serious repercussions.
    Considering the dire circumstances at Seaborn’s, did she really want to play with fire?
    ‘I’d like you to leave our mine alone.’
    The glimmer of lust in his eyes didn’t dim. If anything, her feistiness seemed to turn him on.
    ‘And I’d like this city to acknowledge I’m nothing like my father and do business with me but we don’t always get what we want.’
    His honesty stunned her and when his lips clamped and he tried to turn away, she grabbed his hand.
    ‘So you have a heart beneath that tough-guy exterior after all.’
    He frowned but the rigidness around his mouth softened. ‘Nope.’
    He tapped his chest. ‘No heart here; call me Tin Man.’
    She loved The Wizard of Oz as a child and the fact this big, bad business bully knew the movie endeared him to her as nothing else could.
    ‘You want acceptance—’
    ‘For my business.’ He waved a dismissive hand at the crowd. ‘Couldn’t care less what they think of me.’
    His clarification only solidified her impression that this deliberate ostracism had to mean more than he was letting on.
    ‘Okay, you want them to accept your business, and I want my family business to survive intact. Maybe we should brainstorm a solution to our problems?’
    The frown deepened. ‘Why? As you pointed out, we barely know each other. Why the hell would I discuss my private business with you?’ He shook his head. ‘Business proposals I understand. This?’ He pointed at the crowd. ‘Not a hope.’
    She stared at him, something tugging at the edge of her consciousness.
    He’d used the word proposal again... What if they could nut out a proposal to benefit them both?
    The idea shimmered and coalesced, detonating like an ill-timed bomb and she gasped.
    ‘What’s wrong?’
    She glanced at his left hand.
    ‘Are you married?’
    ‘No.’
    ‘Involved with anyone?’
    His frown eased, that sexy grin back. ‘If this is your way of asking me out—’
    ‘I’m not asking you out.’
    She placed her palms against his chest, slid them across to his lapels and tugged him closer.
    ‘I’m asking you to marry me.’
    When Denver had been arrested, Jax had been subjected to some pretty outlandish proposals from the media desperate to get the inside scoop.
    None as outrageous as Ruby Seaborn asking him to marry