Free The Billionaire's Secretive Enchantress (The Berutelli Escape) by Elizabeth Lennox Page A

interested.”
    One of his dark eyebrows went up with her flagrant challenge.  “So you’re saying that, if I were to go over to you and kiss you, you wouldn’t respond?”
    With a firm grip on the strap of her purse, she shook her head.  She couldn’t pull her eyes away from his mouth though.  Her mind instantly imagined what it would be like if he were to kiss her, wondering if he was gentle or rough, demanding.  Her eyes traveled lower, taking in his broad shoulders and the biceps that pushed against his dress shirt that was now open at his throat, revealing the dark hair that her fingers ached to touch, to run through and test its texture.
    “No,” she gritted out, not realizing that her body had softened, that he’d seen the way her eyes had traveled down his body and he’d even noticed her nipples that were now pushing against the silk material of her blouse.  “No,” she repeated, more for herself than anything else, “I wouldn’t like that at all.”
    He walked over to her, looking down into her eyes.  “You can’t hide it forever, Sierra.”
    She stiffened at his bold statement.  “I don’t have anything to hide.”
    His finger reached out and touched the pulse throbbing at the base of her throat.  She almost snapped at him when one of those dark eyebrows went up once again.  “And I really hate it when you do that.”  She spun around on her heel, walking purposefully towards the elevator.  “I’ll catch a cab home.  Thank you very much for dinner and for taking the time to answer all of my questions.”
    Drake walked behind her, enjoying the view as she walked swiftly away from him.  He grabbed his keys from the table where he’d tossed them when they’d first arrived, following her into the elevator.
    She looked up at him, startled by his presence in the small confines of the elevator’s cab.  “What are you doing?” she demanded, moving away, putting as much space between them as possible although it wasn’t much.  It might be a relatively big elevator, but he was a relatively huge man and just his shoulders took up a lot of space.  She wasn’t used to men ignoring her statements and it irritated her that he was the first. 
    “I’m going to drive you home.”
    He said that as if it were obvious, as if she hadn’t just told him that she would take a cab home.  Her anger welled up to almost choke her.  “You know, I much preferred you when…” she started to say that she preferred him when he was in a hospital bed not giving out orders to her but stopped herself just in time. 
    He was instantly alert, his sharp eyes taking in the quick blush that stained her beautiful skin.  “You much preferred me when …?” he prompted.  His eyes narrowed as he looked down into her startled expression.  “Have we met before?”
    She shook her head and lowered her eyes.   Taking the offensive, she turned to face the doors.  “I hope that I’m not that unmemorable.  If we’d met before, perhaps you were too drunk to remember me.”  She knew it was a lame comeback, especially since he’d only had one glass of wine the whole time they’d been having dinner.  Even while he was cooking, he was very careful.  Darn it!  Another mark in his favor! 
    She couldn’t let him see her eyes though.  The lie of omission still made her feel guilty.  Her father had lied all the time, kept secrets from everyone.  She didn’t want to be like him and struggled to keep her silence.  It was all for the greater good, she told herself.
    Is that what her father had told himself, she wondered?  Had he justified his cruelty by saying that he was providing someone a job?  Or he was making a home for his children? 
    No!  Her father had been a self-centered bastard.  She might not have done enough, or anything, to take him down, but she wasn’t like him.  She wasn’t dishonest or cruel.  She was keeping her identity from Drake only to keep him from remembering a horrible