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all I wanted was to enjoy the moment
and not worry.
    I raised my face to the sun, closed my eyes and breathed in
deep. The smell of the lake, the warm breeze, the waves gently lapping against
the shore mixed with the sounds of the city to create a melody that had my
muscles relaxing.
    I opened my eyes when I could no longer ignore the man
sitting next to me. Without looking at him, I said, “You’re staring.”
    “I can’t help it.” He wrapped his strong fingers around my
wrist. “You’re beautiful.”
    Uncomfortable with his praise, I turned to him. “You don’t
have to keep saying that.” I waved my hand in the air, taking in the scene
around us. “You’re winning.”
    Instead of rising to the bait, he shrugged. “I’m winning
because you want me too. I’m telling you you’re beautiful because that’s what I
think.” He gave me a wicked grin. “Haven’t you heard I have impeccable taste?”
    I had actually, but I rolled my eyes instead of affirming
his statement.
    Tracing a finger over the fine bones in my hand, he said,
“Once you know me better, you’ll see I call it like I see it.”
    “Oh?” The day too perfect to ruin, I lost all the steam I’d
been planning to build. “So what would you change about me in this moment?”
    His lips quirked and he gave me a long, slow once-over that
had my toes curling in the sand. “Right now, two things.”
    Most men would have given me a “not a thing” line that would
be as transparent as cellophane, but not Christos. A tiny grain of what felt a
lot like trust wormed its way into my heart. He trailed a hand up my bare arm
and fingered the band holding my dark-blonde hair back. “I like your hair down
better.” He slipped it out before I could answer, and that luxurious sensation
of the strands slipping free of its bindings to fall loose and free around my
shoulders had shivers running up and down my spine.
    His long fingers tangled in my hair, combing through the
locks. I tilted my head back, closed my eyes to the bright sun, and let him do
what he wanted. How long had it been since I’d been touched like this? With
care? And while I knew he wanted me—the sexual tension between us grew by the
second—his touch, curiously, held no expectation. “Do you remember the
Solutions Inc presentation?”
    “Of course.” I’d had to sit in an enclosed room with him for
over an hour, with a bunch of high-powered professionals in black suits. We’d
been positioned across from each other and my attention kept drifting off the
men responsible for the decision making and onto the man across from me.
    That had been one job I hadn’t had to wonder why I lost.
    He swept my hair to the side and moved to kneel behind me. A
soft brush of lips along the curve of my neck had me going stiff. Those large
palms of his ran over my shoulders and began to knead tight muscles until I
relaxed under him once again. When his thumbs pressed into a knot in my shoulder
and circled, I was unable to hold back the moan.
    “Feel good?”
    “Yes.” Was that my voice? All soft and sweet?
    “Good,” he said, and increased his pressure until the knot
magically loosened and released. “At the presentation, you had your hair bound
into this tight twist at the nape of your neck.” His fingers brushed over the
spot as though remembering. “And all I could think about was taking those pins
out, one by one, until your hair looked exactly like it does right this
second.”
    “A mess?”
    “Yes,” he said simply. “I like you messy.”
    “Why?”
    “I don’t know, maybe because it makes you real.” His thumbs
found another knot and began to knead. “I might have had some other impure
thoughts.”
    The sun warming my skin and his hands on my back had my
muscles feeling liquid, a smile tugged at my lips. “I’m not touching that one.”
    “Chicken,” he said with a chuckle. His mouth dropped down to
the shell of my ear. “What if I tell you anyway?”
    “I think we’ve