Private Arrangements. Brenda Jackson
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he could feel lust beginning to stir his insides and anticipation invading his senses. It was happening again and it seemed he couldn’t do anything about it. No woman was supposed to have this sort of effect on him. Not Jonas Steele. The master of one-night stands. The man who had a revolving door in his bedroom and who was enjoying the single life and didn’t mind the reputation he and his brothers had acquired over the years.
He loved the opposite sex—all shapes, sizes and styles. Race, creed or color didn’t mean a damn thing to him, nor did religious affiliation.
He was the fourth-oldest of Drew Steele’s sons. Drew had been run out of Charlotte while in his twenties when his reputation as a womanizer had gotten the best of him. Fathers were threatening him with shotguns, and mothers were keeping their daughters locked behind closed doors. Jonas had heard the stories from family members many times over.
Luckily, Drew had finally met the woman he’d wanted, fallen in love, gotten married and had kept his wife pregnant for seven straight years, which accounted for he and his brothers being born within a year of one another.
Jonas didn’t know of a better-suited couple than his parents. Or a more loving one. But then, happily married or not, unfortunately, his father had passed his testosterone-driven genes on to his six sons.
He quickened his steps, thinking testosterone be damned, he was determined to stay in control. He was the womanizer the society tabloids pegged him to be and was making no apologies. He had a reputation and was proud of it and felt he was living a good life. And to top things off, last week he had been awarded the marketing deal of a lifetime and he didn’t intend to screw things up.
When he entered the restaurant he glanced around and saw Nikki sitting at a table across the room. She smiled when she saw him and he felt his stomach do a somersault. And as if on cue, his pulse began hammering away and air felt as if it were slowly being sucked out of his lungs. Holy hell.
He drew in a deep breath and tried purging the deep, unwanted attraction for her out of his system. He moved across the room toward her, thinking that no matter what, he was in full control. And this time he would make sure things stayed that way.
Nikki Cartwright watched the man approaching her table with a stroll that was so sexy it bordered on sinful. She tightened her grip on the glass of water while trying to downplay the sensations rolling around in her belly.
Her instinctive response to Jonas Steele was something she should have gotten out of her system by now. There was no reason why a warm rush of desire was invading her insides, almost making it difficult for her to breathe.
Then she quickly decided that yes, there was a reason. Walking toward her had to be one of the most gorgeous men she’d ever seen. Tall, powerfully built, with dark wavy hair flowing around his shoulders, he was pure masculine sex on two legs.
A quick glance around the room indicated she wasn’t the only female who thought so. There was nothing quite like a group of women taking the time to appreciate a good-looking man, and Jonas was definitely a looker. Eye candy of the most scrumptious kind.
She’d known working with him on that brochure wouldn’t be easy. After all, he and his brothers were the hottest bachelors in Phoenix. They weren’t known as the “Bad News” Steeles for nothing, and their reputations for being die-hard players were legendary. There was a joke around town that a woman hadn’t been bedded unless she’d been bedded by a Steele. From what Nikki had heard, their skills in the bedroom were off the charts.
The air seemed to shiver the closer he got with a stride that emitted the masculine power that all Steele men seemed to possess. Like his brothers, he had inherited his mother’s green eyes. Smokey Robinson eyes, she called them, as they were the same color of those of the legendary R & B soul singer. And then there were the rest of his prominent features—medium brown skin, strong chiseled jaw and one luscious looking pair of lips.
She’d heard that of all the Steele brothers, Jonas was the one everyone considered a rebel. He wore his hair longer than the others and owned a Harley. She understood he had several colorful tattoos on certain parts of his body. She definitely knew about the ones on both shoulders since she’d seen him a couple of times wearing muscle shirts.
Nikki wished she could look right past all six feet three inches of him, see beyond the well-toned muscles beneath the designer business suit that symbolized the growing success of his marketing company.
And more than anything, she wished she could look at his lips and not remember the kiss they’d shared that day.
Had it been a year and half ago when they had last worked together? When she’d constantly fought to control her attraction to him? An attraction that definitely had been one-sided.
Still, he had kissed her that day—she hadn’t imagined it. They’d both been caught off guard; however, when he should have ended it, he’d kept right on kissing her, even deepening the kiss. And of course, she’d let him. When he’d finally come to his senses and let her go, he had mumbled something about being late for an appointment and had hightailed it out the door without once looking back.
The memory of that day sent a warm rush of sensations flowing through her, and she sighed. The man was not husband material. He didn’t even believe in having a steady girl. She’d heard about his one-and-done policy. It had come as a surprise, a real shocker, when two of those “Bad News” Steeles had fallen in love and gotten married. In fact, Jonas’s older brother Galen had married her best friend Brittany.
That left four brothers still single and swearing up and down Bell Road that they’d never fall in love. And she had no reason not to believe them. And as if to make that point solid, she’d heard the four had stepped up their game and were chasing skirts more so than ever these days, especially Jonas.
To break eye contact she glanced around the room again and saw every single female eye was still on him. And then, as if of its own accord, her gaze returned to slide over him. She appreciated what she was seeing. Oh, mercy.
With the eye of a photographer, she thought Jonas’s features were picture perfect. She tried not to be one of those women who judged a man on looks, but his looks were so sharp, so compelling, so pinch-a-sister-in-the-butt gorgeous, it took everything she had not to start drooling.
“Hello, Nikki. Thanks for agreeing to meet with me.”
She jumped at the deep baritone of his voice, which sounded like Barry White reincarnated. She had been so deep into her “Jonas” thoughts that she hadn’t been aware he’d gotten close.
“Sorry if I scared you just now,” he said.
“You didn’t,” she replied simply, forcing a smile to her lips. “I’d gotten lost in a few thoughts, that’s all.”
“I see.”
Pulling herself together, Nikki watched as his body slid easily in the chair across from her. Sensations stirred in her tummy again. Unknowingly, he was playing havoc with her senses. Deciding there was no reason for her senses to suffer any more abuse, she spoke up. “When you called you said that you wanted to discuss something with me. A business proposition.” Like there could be any other reason for him calling and asking to meet with her. In a way she was surprised that he wanted to use her services again, considering how they’d parted eighteen months ago.
Nikki crossed her legs, hoping the action would tamp down the tingling vibrations she felt between them. The man emitted testosterone that was attacking her big-time.
“We’ll talk business later,” he said, smiling.
Later? She lifted her brow, a little surprised by his comment. If they didn’t talk business then what else were they supposed to talk about? Surely, he didn’t intend to bring up that kiss.
“We haven’t worked together in months. How have you been?” he asked her.
She stared at him. Evidently he had forgotten they had just seen each other at his brother’s wedding on Christmas day. If he’d really wanted to catch up