Bachelor Untamed - Brenda Jackson [69]
And since she had decided to come clean, before she sent the manuscript to Lauren Poole yesterday, she had called the woman, confessed to what she’d done. Lauren had been more than understanding, and had agreed to read the entire manuscript as soon as she got it. If Lauren felt everything flowed smoothly, and Ellie had been able to capture her aunt’s writing voice, then she would notify Vandellas Publishers, and request that they go ahead and print the book as the first and final work of Flame Elbam.
“You have three minutes.”
She glanced over at Uriel. “I’m taking five,” she said, sitting down on the sofa and crossing her legs. “Ten, if I need them.”
She’d seen him glance at her legs when she crossed them. She had him figured out, which was why she had worn this particular skirt with the split in the side. And she wondered if he had picked up on the fact that she didn’t have a bra on underneath her blouse. He would find out soon enough.
He stared at her. She stared at him. There were some things a man couldn’t hide, no matter how quick he might be to do so, and when he came and quickly sat down in the chair across from her she knew. He might be mad at her, but his body still wanted her.
“I’m waiting.”
She pulled in a deep breath and then said, “I don’t want you waiting, Uriel, I want you listening. Will you listen to what I have to say?”
“Maybe.”
Okay, if he wanted to be difficult, then she would show him what being difficult was about in a minute, if he kept it up. “I will start at the beginning. I found my aunt’s unfinished manuscript….”
Uriel stared at her. Was he listening? Most of the time. The rest of it was spent watching her lips move, watching that tongue work inside her mouth, watching how she nervously twitched her crossed legs, watching her hand gestures. Just plain watching her. And remembering.
Remembering the lips he kissed. The tongue that had mingled with his, the pair of legs he had been between and the hands that had stroked him. He felt his crotch harden. Felt the way his pulse rate increased. Felt the heat that was beginning to run up his spine.
“Uriel?”
He blinked. “What?”
“I asked you a question.”
He frowned. Had she? He shifted in the chair. “Could you repeat the question?”
“Sure. I asked whose idea it was for us to have that summer fling?”
His frown deepened, wondering what point she was trying to make. “It was my idea.”
“Why?”
“Why?” he repeated.
“Yes, why?” she almost snapped.
A moment of silence was all it took before he said, “Because I wanted you.”
A faint smile took shape on her lips, and then she asked, “For what reason?”
For what reason? A lump formed in his throat. Why was she asking all these questions?
“For what reason, Uriel?” she repeated.
He hesitated before replying, then thought, what the hell. He would tell her just what she wanted to know. “Sex,” he said, and just in case she didn’t hear it, he said it again, louder this time, “Sex.”
She was out of her seat in a flash, and he had to draw back when she got in his face. “You’re mad at me for wanting you for sex, but you just admitted to wanting me for the same thing. Please explain that!”
Annoyance rushed through him. “There’s nothing to explain. It was what it was, and you knew it from the beginning. But you had ulterior motives in what you did.”
She stared at him, her brows arched and chin tilted. She backed up and returned to stand by the sofa. “I needed to be inspired to finish my aunt’s novel. I finished it and I told her agent the truth, and she will tell the publishing company the truth. If the work is acceptable, they will publish it as Flame Elbam.”
She didn’t say anything for a moment, and then said, “Finishing that manuscript meant a lot to me, Uriel, and I appreciate your giving me what I needed to do it. No man had ever really and truly made love to me before, and I knew you could and would do it right. What was wrong with that?”
He got on his feet, quickly covered the distance separating them, to stand in front of her. He