Home > If the Sun Never Sets(7)

If the Sun Never Sets(7)
Author: Ana Huang

Not so much a boy anymore.

Farrah’s mouth watered when she remembered how good Blake looked. College Blake had been hot, but he’d possessed a boyishness common amongst twenty-two-year-olds. Grown-up Blake, with his stubble and lean muscles and confident, panther-like stride? He was fiercer, grittier, and he exuded a raw, hard masculinity that turned her knees to Jell-O.

“Like what? I’m designing his apartment. It’ll take a few months. That’s it.” The words rang false to Farrah’s own ears.

“Uh-huh.” Skepticism coated Olivia’s voice. “I mean it, Farrah. Stay as far away from Blake as possible. I’ve seen his picture in magazines from time to time. He’s still fine as hell, which makes him dangerous. Don’t sleep with him, and for God’s sake, don’t fall in love with him again.”

Now, that made Farrah laugh. “I won’t fall in love with him again.” She was horny, not an idiot. Her body may crave Blake, but she’d built enough defenses around her heart to keep an invading army at bay.

“Good.” Olivia sounded satisfied. “So, he’s Landon’s friend, huh? What are the freakin’ odds?”

“Well, Landon is from Austin.” Now that Farrah thought about it, she remembered Blake mentioning back in Shanghai that his best friend was a hotel heir. Landon was the one who’d floated him the capital to start his bar. Blake might even have mentioned him by name. Farrah couldn’t believe she didn’t put two and two together until now.

“So are millions of other people. God, this world is too small.” Olivia sighed. “Shit. My break is up. We’ll discuss later, okay? In the meantime, buy yourself something nice, like a big bottle of vodka. You need it.”

Farrah snorted. “Thanks.”

She hung up, took a deep breath, and unlocked the stall. Thankfully, the bathroom had emptied, and no one was there to witness what a mess she was.

Farrah splashed water on her face, letting the cool liquid fortify her.

Blake’s project would take a few months, max. She could go that long without giving in to her base desires. Right?

Another image of Blake’s dimpled smile and broad shoulders flashed through her mind, and heat sluiced through her.

Dammit.

Maybe it was a good thing she’d agreed to go on that blind date with Olivia’s co-worker. Hopefully, it’d take the edge off.

Farrah stared at herself in the mirror. Her reflection blinked back, uncertain and uneasy.

“Farrah Lin, what have you gotten yourself into?”

 

 

Chapter Six

 

 

“I received your questionnaire.” Farrah frowned at the paper in her hands. “Half the answers are blank.”

“I didn’t know how to answer them.” It was the truth. Blake couldn’t name a single design style if his life depended on it, much less which ones he liked and didn’t like. “Besides, I figured it’d be easier to discuss in person.”

His mouth tugged up into a smile when Farrah side-eyed him.

Sure, he could’ve tried harder to answer the questions, but the less he answered, the more time they’d have to spend discussing them in person.

Time. They’d never had enough of it. Not in Shanghai, and not at that all-too-short lunch meeting the other day. But now that Blake and Farrah were client and consultant, he was determined to milk every second they had together.

And no, Blake was not above petty ploys like leaving half his new client intake questionnaire blank.

Farrah walked through his apartment, examining the layout and current decor. “Landon wasn’t kidding when he said you didn’t have a lot of furnishings.”

“I moved here not too long ago. Didn’t make sense to buy a bunch of stuff myself when I was going to hire a professional.”

He hadn’t planned on hiring a designer until Landon pushed him, but Blake kept that part to himself.

“Have you worked with a designer before?”

“For the bars, yeah, but those were pretty high level. My team took care of the details. Since this is my home, I intend to be very hands-on.” Blake’s dimples beamed. “Expect to see a lot of me over the next few months.”

Farrah looked as thrilled as a mouse in a snake’s cage. “In that case, I’ll go over the different phases of the project, so you know what to expect. First, we’ll start with the planning phase, which is what we’re doing now. This is where I get to know you and your tastes, budget, and lifestyle needs.”

I need you.

Blake swallowed his reply. First, because it was cheesy as hell, and second, because he didn’t want to scare her off. They’d just gotten reacquainted, and Farrah wasn’t the type to let her guard down that easily. It’d taken months before she opened up to him in Shanghai, and given how they’d ended things…well, he was pretty sure an apology card and box of chocolates wouldn’t cut it for a reconciliation.

Farrah continued, oblivious to his internal strategizing. “After planning is the design phase. I’ll put together a few sketches and design boards for you to choose from. Once we finalize the design, I’ll hire the contractors, order the furnishings, and source the materials. That takes the longest time, given contractor schedules, shipping delays, and unforeseen circumstances. I’ll minimize those as best I can, but they pop up in any project. Finally, we execute. The contractors do their thing, we hang the art, arrange the furniture, and so on until your dream home is complete. Any questions?”

What Blake heard was, this was going to take a while. Excellent. “Nope. Sounds good to me.”

They entered his bedroom, and he tried. He really did. But Blake couldn’t stop his mind’s autoplay of X-rated fantasies at the sight of Farrah next to his bed.

Him shoving her tight gray skirt up and feasting until she screamed his name; her riding him while he sucked her nipples; them sixty-nining and coming all over each other’s faces.

His blood rushed south, turning him to steel, and Blake realized there was a major flaw in his brilliant win-Farrah-back plan: until he actually won her back, he was going to suffer from a serious case of blue balls.

“What is that?” Farrah’s tight voice interrupted his arousal-slash-horror.

“Hmm?” Blake hoped she wasn’t talking about the erection straining against the confines of his jeans because that would be super awkward.

“That.” She tilted her chin toward his nightstand.

Blake followed her gaze to where a little elephant figurine sat next to his alarm clock. It’d been his loyal companion all these years, traveling with him to London, Peru, Australia, and everywhere in between. It was the first thing he packed when he had a trip.

“Blake Jr.” His mouth tilted up when he remembered the night Farrah gifted him the souvenir from Thailand. That was the night of their first dinner together off-campus, just the two of them. He’d fallen a little in love with her then, even if he hadn’t known it at the time. “Handsome and ageless, just like his owner.”

Farrah rolled her eyes. “Poor thing, still stuck with a vanity name.” A strange expression crossed her face. “Why’d you keep it for so long? It’s a cheap souvenir, and it doesn’t exactly fit with your new life.” She gestured at their sparsely decorated but well-appointed surroundings.

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