“I don’t need you to tell me I’m clever. I’ve always been able to outsmart you.”
His eyes, so mocking, took a leisurely course down her body, from her neck, past her chest, past her waist. Chloe drew her knees in and brushed her skirts down around her ankles.
“Yes,” he said in a deep, tempting voice. “You most certainly have. You’re doing it right now.”
She swallowed back heat. Control. She was taking control.
“But it is all to the good that you have raised the point of our relative intelligences; it is a perfect conversational bridge between your depraved conduct and my wishes for our arrangement.”
The corner of his mouth kicked up in a grin. “A bridge between my depravity and you? I like that. Please go on.”
“I am not stupid,” Chloe said. “Nor am I naive nor foolish nor even innocent.”
“You aren’t?” he breathed, his gaze fixing on her as if this made her all the more fascinating.
“I know quite a bit of the world. I have read extensively.”
That smile broadened. “You’ve read! Extensively, at that! I cannot wait to discuss your reading material, Miss Fong. The possibilities are positively delightful.”
“This is by way of saying that I know what you are doing.” She glared at him.
He put one hand on his chest in something like apparent innocence. “Perfect! That saves me a great deal of time, I should think. Bravo for efficiency.” He clapped once, then turned to her. “By the by, just so I know—what am I doing?”
Chloe’s hand went to the bracelet at her wrist. It was made of curved, polished sections of milky white jade held together by ornate gold filigree. Her father had given it to her when she had turned sixteen.
“This is from Baba,” he had said. “It comes from his family.”
It was the first time he had mentioned his family.
She’d taken the bracelet and turned it over. Jade and gold were a lot more valuable than the silk tasseled earrings her mother had left for her, more valuable even than the single pair of heavy, curving silver earrings from her mother’s family, reserved for special occasions. It said something about where her father’s family had come from, this kind of wealth. She’d looked up at him with questioning eyes.
“You’re finally old enough that this won’t fall off if you wear it,” he had said. “Baba wants you to have this. It will protect you.”
Maybe it was foolish, but when her fingers touched that skin-warm jade on her wrist, Chloe always found her courage. And she needed courage now—a generous helping of it.
She looked Jeremy in the eyes. “You are trying to seduce me.”
He blinked. He didn’t deny it immediately; instead, his brow furrowed, as if he were contemplating the matter. “I suppose,” he said after a long moment, “I actually am, in a manner of speaking? I had not quite put it that way to myself, but yes, I will accept this formulation, inadequate as it may be. I am trying to seduce you. Are you going to tell me that I will fail?”
Her cheeks flamed. “That depends on your precise aim.”
His eyes widened in astonishment. He sat up, leaning toward her. “Really? Does it? That’s delightful.”
“I am neither naive nor innocent,” she said, “but while I am theoretically knowledgeable, I am, as a practical matter, inexperienced. I have occasionally thought to myself that I wished it were not so.”
It would be easier if he took the moment to offer his expertise, in the detail she suspected he was capable of providing. Then she would not have to say the words aloud; she could simply cut him off when he crossed the line. But perhaps he could sense her want. Instead of speaking—a thing she knew from experience that he was extremely good at—he simply set his chin on his hands and watched her. “Mmm. Do go on.”
He was going to make her say it. He was going to make her say what she wanted. It would have to come out of her own lips. She’d wanted control, but…
She shut her eyes so she didn’t have to watch him enjoying himself at her expense. “I don’t want to be completely despoiled,” she said, “but I am going to be very busy for the next decade or so, and I should like to be kissed at least once. You are ideal for this endeavor. You will disappear in a few days. You know what you are doing. You are unlikely to develop unseemly emotions that will entangle me into a relationship that will ruin my business, as you’ve failed to do so thus far. You also have every motive to avoid detection.”
“You made a list!” He sounded delighted. “Look at that—you’ve already made a list about me. I’m thrilled!”
“I am not attempting to thrill you. I do not care about you; you do not have to share your inner thoughts.”
“Well, thrilling me is a perfectly lovely side effect of whatever it is you are attempting. Your list lacks accuracy on most major points, but I am honored by your consideration nonetheless.”
She ignored this. “I would like to propose a secondary bargain with you. If you will refrain from…despoiling me, I will allow you to kiss me. You will not need to make any effort to secure this result.” There. That would put her firmly in control. He could hardly say no.
But he did not say yes, not for a long time. She put a hand over her eyes, to prevent herself from peeking.
Finally, he sighed. “Chloe, sweetheart. Look at me.”
She opened her fingers to peer out. For once, despite his words, he didn’t look like he was mocking her. He had turned toward her on his rock, and…
Oh, no. She was still fooling herself. She was fooling herself dreadfully. Her hands fell to her sides. She should never have told him she wanted him to be serious, because the way he was looking at her… It felt as if she were the center of his universe. As if nothing and nobody else mattered to him. Her whole body seemed to reverberate with the echo of her heartbeat.
“Chloe,” he said. Nothing more for a while.
She wanted to look away. She could not.
“Chloe,” he said again. “It’s your decision. But please. Please never kiss a man who doesn’t think you deserve his effort.”
She could hardly stand it—him looking at her and saying things like that when he’d been gone so long. “As you said,” she snapped. “It’s my decision. If I want to kiss someone as unworthy as you, it should be allowed.”
“Of course.” He frowned. “But I’m to be involved in this kissing as well, so I should get some say. And I think that it’s the effort that makes a kiss worthwhile. If you want me for my extensive body of practical knowledge, you should accept my unrivaled expertise on this point. If I simply tow you into the hills and maul you in a transactional fashion, you’ll be disappointed, and then I’ll be disappointed. Neither of us wants to be disappointed, do we?”
“On the contrary. I should very much like to be disappointed. Why else would I choose you?” If he disappointed her, it would be for the best. She’d stew in that disappointment for a week or two, then get angry, and finally, finally, she’d forget about him.
He shook his head gravely. “I shall have to disappoint you with your lack of disappointment in me. But I think we have traveled far afield. You weren’t bargaining about the kiss; you cared about what comes after. I offer this as compromise: I won’t despoil you unless you make a numbered plan leading up to the event.”