CHAPTER ONE

The Night of the Community Center Beethoven Benefit…

The sparrows were a treasure map, weaving a path from her right shoulder blade, along her sexy, elegant neck, then curving into her hair. Rich, chestnut hair he longed to have his hands in.

Preferably tonight.

Because… Well, why the hell not?

Especially since he’d learned to read her moods, and she was in that kind of a mood. As for him? Every time Colin was near Elle he was in that kind of mood.

This very second more so than usual, because her arms were wrapped around him in a triumphant hug, and she was exhaling big sighs of relief, and laughing, too, a buoyant sound, like bells. “I can’t believe this happened,” she said, breathless. “It feels like a dream.”

“I didn’t doubt it for a second. We’re all behind you,” he said, stealing a quick inhalation of the utterly enticing vanilla-honey scent of her shampoo.

She broke the embrace, but not the contact. She parked her hands on his shoulders, her fingers curling on his suit jacket. Her hazel eyes shone with happiness and a hint of joyful tears. “I know, and I’m so grateful,” she said, her voice threatening to break. “But you just don’t know ’til it happens if you’re going to raise enough money, and I’ve been working on this for two years. Two solid years to finally get the funds to expand the center. It needs it so badly. I felt like I was holding my breath for the last month, hoping we’d make it. I have so many plans.”

“And now you can take a breath because you made it happen,” he said, beaming. She’d been driven in her mission to rebuild the broken-down community center, and he was damn pleased to be one of the donors supporting it. His venture capital firm had contributed significantly to the haul.

She wiped her fingertip under an eye, erasing the evidence of that tear. She shook her head in disbelief. Her eyes seemed to light up with the spark of an idea. “Colin,” she whispered, as if they had a secret. And admittedly, they did. “We have to celebrate tonight.”

He could think of a few ways.

Unknotting that hair.

Roping his fingers through it.

Kissing her neck ’til she fell apart in his arms.

“Do you want to? After the event?” she added in that conspiratorial tone. “I don’t have much time, but we can manage something.”

He scoffed. “What kind of question is that? Do you take me for a man who doesn’t want to celebrate with you?” He was ready to rattle off a litany of suggestions. Anything to prolong the evening with her, especially since she’d changed her tune from earlier, when she’d called him incorrigible and told him to stop all this flirting. Now, her hands were on him again.

Elle was a seesaw when it came to him, and he’d learned to both deal with it and try to catch her on the upswings in his friend and now-and-again lover. Colin Sloan was a man who knew how to sniff out opportunity. He wasn’t letting the opportunity in this giddy exuberance of hers slip away from him tonight.

“Not at all. You look like a man who wants to play poker with me tonight,” she said, with a sexy arch of her eyebrow.

“The chips are on me,” he said, glad that she wanted to cozy up to the tables, since they were like oysters for Elle—a bit of an aphrodisiac. By no means was Elle a high roller; the baby tables, as she called them, were her idea of a good time. Besides, the last time he’d had his hands on her was after she won a round of poker. She was a Vegas girl at heart, and winning amped up her adrenaline.

“I believe you just convinced me,” she said in a flirty voice. God, he loved that tone. He fucking ate it up.

“A little poker. A little buffet. Maybe if you’re lucky, I’ll take you for some late-night roller rink action, too,” he said with a wink, rattling off some of her other favorite things.

She narrowed her eyes. “Okay, that’s just not fair. That’s like putting steak out for a dog and not letting him have it.”

“Did I say you couldn’t have it? You know I’ll give you everything.”

She pursed her lips, as if she was considering his offer. Maybe all of it, from the evening to the everything. “Fine. I’ll take the steak you’re dangling.”

He rubbed his hands together. “It’s well done. You’ll like it.”

She laughed then tipped her head to the stage. “After the Beethoven. Obviously, I’m not skipping out early on an event for the center I run.”

“You think that might look bad?” he asked, deadpan.

She crinkled her nose. “Just a little.”

He held out his hands, playfully relenting. “Fine, we’ll be good a little while longer.” He brushed a strand of that chestnut hair over her ear, watching her shiver as he touched her. Why did she have to pull him in and then push him away? Let him get close then shove him off? Hot. Cold. On. Off. That was her style.

But he knew why she did it, and there wasn’t a damn thing he could do about his past. He was the black sheep, and she didn’t date black sheep. She’d made it one hundred percent clear from the get-go that they could never be a real couple, so he’d settled on what she would give—her body.

With a hand on her lower back, he guided her through the crowd to the fourth row and gestured to the first two chairs. “Why don’t you sit in my lap?”

She rolled her eyes, then tapped his shoulder. She was terrible at sticking to her own rules about not touching him. He loved the lack of restraint in her. “I told you, we need to stop flirting.”

“Yeah, you did,” he said with a shrug as they took their seats. “But it’s impossible. I can’t be inside a ten-foot radius and not flirt with you. If you need me to stop, you should kick me out now.”

She gathered up the silky material of her dress, adjusting it as she crossed her legs. Tilting her head toward him, she lowered her voice and confessed. “You know kicking you away isn’t my strong suit, either.”

As the opening notes of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony floated through the ballroom at the Venetian, Colin settled in beside Elle Mariano, the woman he’d wanted for the last year, since the first day he’d met her. The woman he’d been lucky enough to have in his arms a few times. Each encounter stoked the flames for another. Every second with her made him want her more. But she eluded him. For reasons his head understood. For reasons his heart girded to battle.

As the violinists poured forth rich notes, quickly shifting from a slow to a fast tempo, his own advice came to him.

Something he occasionally advised startups to do.

Don’t give up.

He’d respected her relationship no-fly zone, but what if he tried a new approach? What if he aimed to win her heart by wooing her body?

She’d held up the stop sign on dating. But don’t tell a man who wants to climb Everest that he can’t do it. Nothing will motivate him more. Elle was his Everest. Not just having her, but having all of her. He’d keep trying. Keep scaling. Keep climbing.

He’d find a new way up the mountain.

He wasn’t going to give up on her. Hell no. He was going to show her the time of her life in bed, and out of it.

Tonight would start with the bedroom.