The Heart Wants What It Wants

Chapter 5

George walked her to the door, and waited for her to open her door. She was letting her guard down, and was about to go inside. She turned and smiled, and leaned in for a hug, as she would have with anybody.

But it wasn’t just a hug that she got.

He held her shoulders, and waited until she turned her face up to his, her eyes wide, her lips parted in anticipation.

“I…”

“A kiss, Diana,” he told her, and he bent down to touch his lips to hers.

Diana thought her bones might have dissolved, because she couldn’t stand. The shock that rippled through her made her weak and lean against him. He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her closer, until she was standing on her toes, her face turned up to his, and he took her lips in a kiss that was much more than a cursory peck.

She clung to him as he kissed her, his lips firm and warm, until her lips parted, in shock, succumbing to the pleasure that rocked her, and she held on to him as he stroked her lips with his tongue. She moaned softly and opened for him, letting him in, and he took the invitation, finding her tongue and caressing it gently, over and over again, until she was trembling, clinging to him as if she needed him.

She did need him.

She was a churning mass of need. She’d never wanted anybody so desperately before. She wanted him to touch her, to taste every inch of her as he was tasting her lips, and take her. She wanted him to have all of her.

She wanted…

He pulled away, and she was far too dazed to notice that he was as stunned as she was.

“Be ready to leave in half an hour,” he told her, and he turned around and walked away, leaving her leaning against her door.

It took her a minute to get her breath back. Blood roared in her ears. She pressed her fingers to her lips and stood there, shocked and bewildered, and so very disappointed. She wanted him.

She would have asked him to come in and make love to her in about two seconds. He’d just stopped and walked away as if it had been a perfunctory kiss at the end of the date.

Oh no.

Was that all it had been to him?

The embarrassment of that prospect gave her the strength to open the door and stumble inside. It held her bones in place as she finished the rest of her packing. She changed out of her dress, which suddenly felt like far too much, and into jeans and a shirt, because that’s what she was comfortable in, and if the red dress hadn’t worked on him, then nothing would.

She cleaned her face of the heavy makeup and let herself indulge in a light layer of it instead.

She didn’t want to make it seem as if she was gagging for it after that kiss that had nearly vaporized her, and left him almost completely unaffected. She was still shaking.

Diana sat down on her bed and waited. She’d feel normal again soon. She’d be fine again soon, it was no big deal.

It had just been a kiss. It was just a kiss. A kiss was not a big deal. It wasn’t the kind of thing that could make you feel as if a new world of possibilities had opened up.

By the time he knocked on her door, she was feeling more like herself.

George felt a little unsteady as he walked to the elevator and made his solitary way back up to his penthouse suite.

That had been…

That was…

That had been unexpected.

He’d felt the simmering tension between them, but that kiss…

He wasn’t a damn teenager. He was forty-two years old. He was an experienced man who had had plenty of women, many of them more beautiful, more engaging, wittier than Diana David.

But he couldn’t remember the last time a kiss had affected him so much. He couldn’t remember the last time he had kissed a woman and had to physically stop himself from taking her to bed right there. He had no idea how he’d managed to stop himself. He’d nearly lost his mind.

She had been warm, and soft, and luscious, and willing in his arms. Her lips had been soft and ready, so giving when her lips parted to sweetly…

“Damn it,” he muttered, and nearly jumped out of his skin when his phone rang.

“We’re ready to leave in half an hour, chief.”

“Charlie, yes, of course. You don’t have to fly back tonight. You can spend the whole weekend with your girl.”

“Thanks, chief, but we’d already talked about it. I’m not coming with you. I was using the royal ‘we’.”

“Oh.”

“I have a few reports you asked for, though. You’ve got the usual hundreds of funding requests and thousands of fan emails, but I’ve narrowed them down for you. There are a few you might want to respond to, and a couple of ideas are worth looking into. I have everything ready and in your email.”

“Right, of course, Charlie.”

“Chief, I don’t want to overstep, but are you all right? You don’t sound like yourself.”

“I’m fine. I’m great. I’ll go through everything on the flight back. Thanks, Charlie. You made the arrangements to have Diana David taken home?”

“Of course. There will be a car waiting for her, as well. The car is waiting for you, I’ll have it ready when you’re at the lobby.”

“Thanks, Charlie. Don’t know what I’d do without you.”

“You’d do just fine, chief. Are you sure you’re okay? Should I have a doctor waiting?”

“What? No, of course not! Everything’s great. See you on Monday, Charlie!”

The conversation had helped steady him. He was fine. It had just been a kiss. Something about the evening had gotten to him, that was all. He was himself again.

Diana wasn’t sure if she was glad or disappointed that George seemed completely unaffected by the kiss. He looked distracted.

“You’re ready, good. I’m afraid I have to work, Diana.”

“That’s fine,” she told him, and it really was. She was glad he’d be distracted on the way back. She didn’t think she could handle having his attention focused on her. It had a way of frazzling her poor brain.

Besides, she had work to catch up on, too, didn’t she? Mr. Simons had sent her enough work to keep her busy for all of the next week, and of course he needed everything yesterday.

Still, it was hard not to be awed by how easily they swept through security and was ushered to where the chartered plane stood, waiting for them. Flights that were arranged according to her schedule instead of the other way round – imagine, marveled Diana.

Once inside, she saw that it wasn’t the kind of plane she was used to, either. It was so comfortable!

“No cramped economy class here,” she said out loud, surprising a laugh from George. She hadn’t realized that he was listening.

He hadn’t changed for the flight. He looked comfortable in his pale yellow shirt and grey blazer. There wasn’t even a wrinkle in it.

He wasn’t the kind of man who would ever be spotted in anything wrinkled.