“I am just me. You know my name’s Haley Sutherland. I’m twenty-six; I went to school in Washington state. I grew up with my grandparents, but they passed away several years ago. I have no idea who my dad is, and my mom died during childbirth. I have no other family members. My life has been boring up until now. I’m ready for excitement.”

“Those are facts I could find out from the most basic of background searches. I will only agree to do this if you share with me — really share. I grew up with a younger sister who loved to talk, and talk often, so I know a little bit about what it is that makes women tick. I want to know your dreams, what excites you, what makes your heart pound. I need to know your fears, your darkest desires, the things you’ve thought about but never imagined telling anyone. I want to know you, Haley, not the image you show the world.”

Crew watched as the shutters came down on her revealing eyes, closing him out. She was hiding something from him, and the competitive man he was wanted to know all her deepest secrets. He wanted to strip her bare, take her apart, and then help to build her back up. After all, that’s what he did, wasn’t it? He made things whole again. It couldn’t be any more difficult than fixing a failing business.

“I don’t want a mental makeover. I want you to teach me how to seduce a man. If I wanted to talk about my pathetic life, I’d see a psychiatrist.”

Her snappy response showed him just how much she was holding back. Well, he would just have to call her bluff. If she walked, that was it. There was nothing he could do about it. He feared curiosity would eat him alive, but only for now. He’d eventually forget about her.

“Then we have nothing else to discuss. You can enjoy your stay in the resort, but I have more important things to do.” Crew looked down at his desk, opened a drawer and pulled out a cigar, then snipped the end. He didn’t indulge often, but when stress was at a peak, the smooth flavor of a good Cuban could ease his nerves.

Haley sat fuming as he waited for her to make a decision. Though he gave her no sign of what he was feeling, while he leaned back and propped his feet on the desk as if he didn’t have a care in the world, his muscles were taut.

Crew played to win. There was no use in entering this game with her if she wasn’t putting all her cards on the table. When the silence grew too long, he looked pointedly at his clock, and then at her face.

He almost feared seeing fire shooting from her eyes as she realized the bind she was in. For her to walk away when he’d agreed to her proposal would be mad on her part, but she clearly wanted to tell him to shove it.

Chapter Seven

“Fine. If you insist on trying to understand me, I’ll tell you, but I’m tired right now and don’t feel like talking,” Haley responded. “It’s been a long day.”

She wanted to get up and kick his feet from the desk, then grab his stupid cigar and take a big puff for herself. But that would only end with her hacking up a lung, so she sat stiffly while she waited for whatever he had to say next.

“Good. Now that we have the practicalities out of the way, I can learn a little more about you.”

The man just didn’t listen. She didn’t want to discuss anything about herself. She needed time to come up with a convincing story for him. There was no way she would tell him about the hell she’d gone through living with psychotic grandparents who had wished she were dead every single day of her life.

She’d buried the past, and to dig it back up again would do too much damage. It would destroy everything she’d worked at building over the last eight years. The moment they buried her bitter grandparents in the ground, she’d been freed. It had just taken her a long time to figure that out. To tell the truth, she was still learning.

“I don’t think so, Haley. I believe you need time to regroup, time to come up with a clever story. I don’t want to give you that time. I won’t force you to tell me your entire life story, but I’d at least like to know something about you. Give me a small piece and I’ll call it a night.”

Haley scrambled to come up with something that wasn’t too revealing, but the man seemed to have a built in radar for lies. It seemed that she had no choice but to part with a few honest details. In the end, it would all be worth it, because then she’d be one of those women she’d always admired, and she’d be free of the past.

“I plan on discovering an ancient culture that no one has ever discovered before. I don’t care where, but I want to do an archeological dig. Ancient peoples fascinate me — how they worked so well together, how they survived such harsh conditions, and how they continued to procreate. I also have a fascination for old journals and the lives of people who lived before I was ever born.” Maybe she’d revealed just a little more than she’d planned to, but when she spoke of her dream, she tended to get excited.

His eyebrows rose and the corners of his lips turned up. She had the sudden urge to smack the look off his face. The thought stunned her; she’d never felt desire to hit anyone, not ever, not even when those horrid kids at school had made her feel two inches tall.

“Do you have a journal of yours I can read?”

Now he was mocking her! She was done.

Haley stood quickly and began moving toward the door. There was nothing that made sitting here any longer worth it. She’d rather die a wallflower than be constantly humiliated.

“Haley, I was just kidding. You have to learn the difference between a joke and the intent to harm another person. I wasn’t making fun of you,” he said as he caught up to her at the door and gripped her arm.

A sensual fire shot down her arm from the touch of his firm grasp on her bare skin. Her legs felt weak and she was afraid to look up into his eyes. This wasn’t what she wanted. She didn’t want to feel an overwhelming sense of desire for a man she needed only as a teacher.

“Haley.” The deep tone of his voice sent butterflies to her stomach. She needed to regroup. Subduing the strange feelings as forcefully as she could, Haley squared her shoulders and lifted her head, crooking the corner of her mouth and gazing at him with total disregard.

“You didn’t hurt my feelings, Crew. I’m just done for the night. We can begin my transformation tomorrow.” She was quite proud of her performance.

She knew as he gripped both her arms and pulled her close to him, though, that she hadn’t fooled him. Still, she didn’t reveal the effect he was having on her. That would be giving up too much, and she couldn’t let the tables turn completely in his favor. She had pride, and she’d sunk as low as she was willing to allow herself.

“Mmm, Haley. The more I think about this, the more I am liking it. Can you feel the sparks?”

“What sparks?” she bluffed.

“You don’t have to say it out loud. I can see the fire in your eyes, and I can feel your thighs quivering.”

“Let go,” she demanded, enraged that she was exposing so much of herself and her feelings to him when all she wanted was to run and hide. After all, that’s what she was best at doing.

Crew held her for just a moment longer — just long enough to let her know he was stronger, could take what her eyes were offering him — then, he finally released his grip.

Haley wanted to bolt, run to her room, lock the door, and then slide down it and fold into herself. She wanted to do what she’d always done. But, wasn’t this her seduction makeover? Wasn’t it time for her to be that wanton woman she’d fashioned in her brain?

Before she could talk herself out of it, Haley reached up and grabbed his neck, pulling his head down to hers. She gloried in the shocked look in his eyes just before their lips connected.

“Lesson One: Take What You Want,” she whispered. As his lips touched hers and his tongue quickly demanded entrance, Haley was nearly knocked flat. She was grateful there was a door behind her, because she had to lean against it as heat pooled deep within her.

Her mind blanked while her body flamed and their tongues danced back and forth between them. It was the steamiest kiss she’d ever shared — not that she’d shared many. Two, in fact, before this one.

When her brain started to completely short-circuit, she knew it was time to pull back. With extreme reluctance she broke the connection of their lips, with her tongue automatically emerging one last time to lick his flavor from her mouth.

“Well, that wasn’t unpleasant,” she said with a laugh that was far too breathy, and not as casual as she’d intended. If only she could clear the fog from her dazed brain, she could think enough to turn and leave the room. Eventually she got her feet to cooperate.

“Oh, no,” Crew said with a huge smile as his hands shot around her and grabbed her from behind. “Lesson Two: When You Play with Fire, You Get Burned.”

Before Haley could reply, he pulled her tightly against his body, the rock-hard evidence of his arousal pressing into her stomach as he leaned down and began kissing her again as if they’d never paused.

Taking a step back, he pressed her against his door, then moved his hands down the curve of her backside as he lifted her off her feet so he could press his straining manhood against her heat.

His mouth ravished hers, showing no mercy as he stole the air right from her lungs, and sizzled her skin. She forgot why she needed to stay in control, forgot everything as he continued taking her deeper and deeper into the throes of passion.

Had she known years earlier how explosive a kiss could be, she wouldn’t have remained a virgin, wouldn’t have let her grandparents’ constant voice in her head keep her from enjoying something so amazing.

For the first time ever, she was alive, wanting only to sink further and further into sensation, to feel the passion he was so easily igniting. She pressed against him, her hands fisting in his hair as she silently begged him to continue —never, ever to stop filling her with the magical emotions she was losing herself in.

When a low growl rumbled deep in his chest, a feeling of power surged through Haley at her beginner’s luck. She’d turned this man into an animal bent only on fulfilling his needs. She’d brought this handsome, powerful playboy to a state of no return.

When his mouth softened on hers, she wanted to scream out in passion. When he pulled back, sliding his tongue across her bottom lip before pulling all the way back and setting her on her feet, she felt disoriented, not even sure if she could stand.

“Do you still think there are no sparks, Haley?” he asked, his voice drifting over her as his breath warmed her neck. She thought she felt the barest of kisses, but then he pulled back so she was looking into his eyes.

Haley didn’t know how to respond. Should she be flippant? Laugh it off? Or should she just run away until she figured it out?

No.

“I’ve had better,” she finally managed to reply, her voice not particularly thick and uneven. He narrowed his eyes before he leaned into her for the briefest of moments, showing her again what their kisses had done to him — how hard he was.

“I somehow don’t think so,” he answered confidently. “Go get some rest. You will need it,” were his last words before he grabbed her hand and pulled her away from the door so he could open it. “Would you like me to escort you upstairs?”