Campaign For His Heart. Joy Avery
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frantically looked for something to conceal her rendition of him.
“Use your apron,” Hannah said out the side of her mouth.
Good idea. Willow fiddled with the strings. “Shoot. I can’t get it untied.”
“Oh, yeah. He wants you, Will. Look at how he’s undressing you with his eyes. He wants to blow your back completely out. And judging by those long, muscular legs, he could do just that. Lawd, I love a man in a tailored suit.”
Glancing up caused Willow to lose valuable time. Mainly because watching Lauder float toward them stalled her brain. As she raked her eyes over him, her stomach fluttered. Why did she keep responding to him?
Out of time, Willow blocked clay Lauder with her body as the real thing strolled inside the room. The idea that clay Lauder was staring at her ass made things even more awkward. What had she done to the universe to deserve such a disturbance in her life as Lauder?
One good thing came from Lauder’s approach. It shut Hannah up. When he nodded at Hannah, Willow thought the woman would split the corners of her mouth smiling so hard. Shameless, Willow thought until Lauder slid his gaze to her. The mild sensations she’d experienced moments ago blossomed into full-fledged lust convulsions.
“Willow.”
Lauder’s tone was so damn smooth, so damn steady, so damn confident one would think she’d actually invited him to invade her space. “Lauder.” Nope, her tone wasn’t smooth. Probably couldn’t be considered steady. Definitely wasn’t confident. But at least she’d managed not to moan. A triumph in her book. Small, but a win nonetheless.
When Lauder’s eyes lowered to her lips, a bout of nervous tension knotted her stomach. Why was he eyeballing her mouth? Her eyes were what he should have been focused on. They were the only things he would ever connect to.
Lauder’s eyes rose, and his lips curled slightly. “I found you.”
“I wasn’t lost.”
“We’ve all been lost at one point in our lives. Sometimes, we don’t even realize we’re waiting to be found.”
Willow’s eyes narrowed at him. What in hell does that mean? She didn’t bother asking him to elaborate, because she wasn’t interested in his cryptic logic.
“I really hope these sprinklers work,” Hannah said, eyeing overhead.
Willow scowled at her friend.
Hannah visually attempted to bite back a smile. “I’m going to give you two some priv—”
Willow’s scowl deepened, warning her against leaving the room.
“Like I said, I’ll be right over here.” Hannah pointed over her shoulder and backed away.
Refocusing on Lauder, Willow tried not to pay attention to how good he smelled. Like mature, sexy man. “What are you doing here?”
“I wanted to see you.”
She folded her arms across her chest. “Why?”
“Because you’re nice to look at.”
Hannah made some ridiculous sound that drew both their attentions. Yep, the woman was fired as her best friend. Although, she could admit—only to herself—that he was pleasant on the eyes, too.
“Well, thank you for stopping by to look at me, but I want to do you.”
Willow’s body went board stiff. There were a hundred ways she could have responded to her word blunder: sprint from the room like she was on fire, fake a blackout, slide a heated glance in an audibly tickled Hannah’s direction. Instead, her gaze remained pinned to Lauder’s. She straightened her spine, because that’s what a lady in complete control did. And she was in complete control. Completely.
Clearing her throat, she said, “I apologize. What I meant to say was I have work to do. I should show you out.”
Not bothering to wait for his response, she took off toward the door. Hannah’s warning—a sharp gasp—came a fraction too late. Willow realized the mistake she’d made.
“Huh. Damn, you are good with your hands.”
Lauder said it as if he’d discussed her abilities with someone. Again, straightening her spine, because that’s what a lady in—Oh, hell. Who was she kidding? She wasn’t in control. Hadn’t been since Lauder crashed into her world again. The best she could do was to pretend his presence had no effect on her.
Backtracking to join real Lauder staring at clay Lauder, she said, “I can explain that.”
“Oh, this should be good,” Hannah said just loud enough for Willow to hear.
Lauder lifted one of his large hands. For a brief second, a memory of how his hands used to explore her body—slowly, cautiously, thoroughly—played in her head. Stop it, she warned her defiant brain.
“No need. Obviously, you think I’m nice to look at, too,” Lauder said.
Willow barked a laugh. “Don’t flatter yourself. There’s a perfectly good explanation for this.”
Lauder folded his arms across his chest, causing his biceps to mushroom against the steel blue shirt he wore. The sight was like a magnet, and her eyes were drawn to it. At seventeen, his arms hadn’t been puny, but they hadn’t been sculpted like this, either. Clearly, he spent a lot of time in the gym.
“Okay. So...” Lauder said.
“So, what?” she said absently.
“So, what is the explanation?”
Willow released a nervous chuckle, sobered, then laughed. “I’m a forensic sculptor. This is what I do. I sculpt people.”
“Oh, I get that. But why did you sculpt me?”
Stay cool. You’ve got this. Don’t let him shake you. Play it cool. “Oh, you...you thought that was you?” Okay, so playing dumb was probably not the best strategy.
Lauder narrowed his eyes at her, then slid them to the clay, then back to her. “That’s not me?”
“No.”
He chuckled a sound so smooth and sexy, it caressed her skin, causing fine bumps to prickle her skin.
“That’s not me?” he asked a second time.
“I said no.”
Lauder nodded once. “Huh.” A second later, he glanced in Hannah’s direction. “Excuse me? Can you come over and help me out a second?”
What was he up to? Hannah joined them in front of the sculpture, visibly just as confused as Willow was.
“Lauder Tolson, by the way.” He offered Hannah his hand.
Another toothy smile spread across Hannah’s face. “Oh, I know who you are. Hannah Burrows. Nice to meet you.”
“Same here. So, Hannah, does this excellent work of art resemble me?”
Willow held her breath as Hannah scrutinized real Lauder, then the clay version. She tilted her head to the right, then to the left. A second later, she pressed her index finger into her chin.
“There is a strong resemblance. Especially here in the jaw region.” She used her finger to point out the area. “But I don’t think it looks exactly like you. If you hold your head just right, I guess it could pass for your distant cousin.”
Lauder burst into laughter. “My distant cousin?” He laughed some more. “Okay, I get it. Some kind of woman-code thing going on.”
Willow smirked. Hannah was definitely rehired. Eyeing Lauder, she said, “Now that we have that mystery solved, I’m guessing we can move forward.” Finally getting her apron unknotted, she tossed it over clay Lauder. “I’ll