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She said it as if romance was real. As if it was more than a sales pitch. He knew she was sweet, bordering on naive. But to really believe in that fairy tale? She wasn’t crazy.
“C’mon,” Gage said with a laugh. “It’s just us. Be honest. You’re not really buying into this whole romance-versus-sex thing, are you? That’s only a ploy to strengthen your pitch.”
Her lower lip stuck out when she frowned. He wanted to reach over and trace the pad of his thumb against it, test its softness.
“You don’t believe in romance?”
“It’s a device. A sales pitch.” He waved one hand to indicate the room, lifting his glass of wine with the other. “It’s all imagery.”
He sipped his wine, then gave an approving nod, pretending she wasn’t staring at him as though he’d spouted a third head and started babbling about the coming of aliens to take over the world and dress everyone in little pink tutus.
“Imagery? Romance is emotions, not packaging.”
“What’s its purpose?” he challenged, leaning back to rest one arm on the back of his chair and giving her a curious look. “To sell something, right? Sex, maybe? Companionship? Accoutrements like candles and wine and lingerie?”
Instead of rising to the bait and defending the fluff and froth of romance as he’d expected, Hailey just stared. Her look was intense, searching. Gage shifted, wondering if she could suddenly see through him the way he could see through her blouse. If so, he was pretty sure she wasn’t nearly as intrigued by what she saw.
“Is your lingerie just packaging?” she countered. “Is it just a way to make money?”
Yeah.
That was how his grandfather had built the company. On the concept of seeing what people thought they wanted and coming up with ideas to meet those wants.
That was how Devon developed new product offerings. He looked at the ideas people thought were so appealing and made them better. Bigger. More attractive, so they’d pay top dollar.
And that was how Gage sold it. By tapping into what people thought they needed and convincing them that his product was the only one that could perfectly meet that need.
It was Psychology 101, combined with Economics and Marketing 102.
But he didn’t think telling her that was going to score him any points.
So he shrugged, then shot a smile at the waiter, who chose that perfect moment to bring their food.
“Imagery is imagination, yes. It’s packaging and appeal. But romance is more than that,” she said as their dishes were set in front of them. His favorite spinach salad, he noted with a frown. “Romance is emotions.”
“Imagery taps into the emotions. Plays them,” he said, still frowning at the salad and wondering how she knew exactly what he liked. He glanced up to ask her and winced at the look on her face. Clearly she didn’t think the emotions were something to be played with.
He waited for her to chew him out.
Instead, she leaned closer, resting one hand on his forearm for support as she lifted her mouth toward his ear.
“And just so you know,” she said, her words a whisper of heat against the side of his head, low enough so the waiter couldn’t hear, “the lace is bittersweet chocolate. You know, like frosting.”
Gage closed his eyes and bit back a groan.
Every time he thought he had the upper hand, she found a way to knock him off balance.
“Enjoy,” the waiter said, breaking his thoughts.
Opening his eyes, Gage watched the guy leave. In the three seconds it took him to regain his equilibrium, Hailey dug into her own salad with a tiny moan of delight.
“I’m so glad you insisted we eat,” she admitted with a sheepish smile. “I was starving.”
“What’s for dessert?” he asked, noting that her salad was slightly different from his. Spinach, yes, but hers had strawberries, which he was allergic to. Did she know that? “Something frosted, I hope.”
She laughed, looking more relaxed than he’d seen her since they’d realized they were rivals.
“You don’t really mean that about romance, do you? That you don’t think it’s real?” she asked after a few bites. “I didn’t peg you as the kind of guy who didn’t believe in the softer side of love.”
Another one for the imagery books. Gage shoved a forkful of spinach in his mouth to keep that opinion to himself.
“I think we buy into what we want to believe,” he finally said. “If you want to believe that love is romantic, you look for that. If someone else thinks that sex is about physical gratification, they find images to support that belief.”
“And if I wanted to believe you’re a grumpy sort of emotional curmudgeon who, after being exposed to a little romance, has his heart grow three times too large, will I see that, too?” she teased, her smile bright and her eyes dancing as she referenced his Grinch costume.
“I have no doubt you could make something grow three times larger....” It was difficult, but he managed to hold back his smile until he saw that pink on her cheeks. “But I doubt it’d involve my heart. Disappointed?”
Her lips pursed, as if she was debating.
“Well, I suppose it won’t jeopardize my chances of winning the account to admit that I was disappointed to find out you were my competition,” she said with a little shrug. The move did delicious things under that filmy shirt, the lush pillows of her breasts moving against the satin bra as if protesting their confinement. Gage’s fingers ached to touch. To see if she was as soft as she looked.
“Disappointed because you are worried I’ll win?” he asked, too distracted by the view to worry about nicing up his words.
“Disappointed that it meant we can’t date,” she denied, just a hint of irritation. “The man I met at the party was very appealing.”
It wasn’t her words, so much as the snap in her tone that grabbed his attention. Gage noted the annoyance as it flashed in her eyes, then was gone.
“But now you’re wondering if that man was real.” Gage frowned, wondering that, too. And wondering why he cared so much.
“You’re obviously real, seeing as you’re sitting right next to me all but licking—” she hesitated, took a breath that made her breasts shift deliciously again, then said archly “—your plate. The only question I have is who you really are.”
Marcus Milano’s son.
Devon Milano’s younger brother.
The last one consulted, the one who least fit the Milano mold.
And—definitely—a man who didn’t need a pretty little blonde poking into who he really was.
Time to change the subject.
“Isn’t the more important question how you’re going to pitch this romantic fluff idea of yours?” he said with just a hint of disdain. As he’d hoped, her eyes flashed and she shifted her shoulders back into combat position.
Good.
The only time he wanted her focused on him was if it included naked skin, hot tongues and the buildup to incredible orgasms.
“You’re very dismissive of something you don’t understand.” She arched one brow, poking a strawberry with her fork and lifting it to her mouth. She didn’t bite it, though. Instead, she slid the juicy fruit over her lower lip. Gage’s eyes narrowed and his body stiffened.
She smiled, her look pure triumph, as if her x-ray eyes saw through the table at his burgeoning boner.
“Don’t you think you’re proving my point?” Gage asked, shifting in his chair. He wasn’t embarrassed at his physical reaction. But he wasn’t sure where she was going with this, either. Hailey had a way of leading things along, all innocent-like, then just when he was sure he’d won, she’d bat those lashes and outmaneuver him.
He had to admire that about her.
“No.” She touched the strawberry with the tip of her tongue, as if testing its taste. Gage’s brain shut down and he suddenly didn’t give a damn whether she won or not. Just as long as she did that same move on a particular part of his body.
“Your point was that it’s just about sex. That the physical act and gratification are all that matters. My point is that the packaging is what makes that act so powerful. The buildup, the anticipation. The emotional journey.”
She paused to let her words sink in, then bit that strawberry right in half. Gage almost groaned out loud as his dick did a happy leap to full attention.
“You know,” she reminded him softly as she licked a tiny piece of strawberry off her lip. “The romance.”
“Visuals,” he countered after clearing his throat. Then, always ready to play to win, he leaned closer. Close enough to get in her space. Close enough that the delicate scent of her perfume wrapped around him. And close enough to see the rapid beat of her pulse against her throat.
“Imagery is powerful. I could describe to you exactly how I want to strip those clothes from your body, what I’d like to do once you’re naked and beneath me, how I want to taste you and where I’ll touch.” He waited, letting those words sink in. And sink they did, as she dropped her fork next to her plate and blinked quickly, looking as if she was trying to fan away that image with her eyelashes. Gage grinned. “But that’s sex. Which is my point.”
As if he’d been waiting around the corner for just the right moment, the waiter came in again with their entrées. Gage vowed to give the guy an extra tip for perfect timing, since Hailey now had to sit quietly, looking shell-shocked and absorbing his words instead of skipping right past them while trying to prove her point.
A point, Gage had to admit as his dinner was slid in front of him, that was pretty solid. If she was basing romance on good food and ambience, she’d have nailed it. He looked closer at the plate, noting all his favorites, from the way the steak was cooked to the type of vegetables.
“So what’d you do? Hire an investigator to scope out what I eat? If Cherry and Rudy were here, would they be having the same?”
“If Cherry and Rudy were here, their meals would fit their tastes,” she said primly, cutting a delicate sliver off her chicken.
Gage glanced at the place settings, trying to see how she’d designated it so the waiter knew who got what. They all looked the same. And he’d chosen his own seat, and hers, so that wasn’t it.
“Clever, but I don’t see what makes the meal choice romantic. Or what it has to do with lingerie,” he added, needing to remember the real purpose of this evening.
“No?” She gave him one of those looks only women could pull off. The kind that made it clear she wondered where he kept his brains but didn’t hold his lack of knowledge against him since he was so damned cute. “Romance is the effort to show you care about someone else’s preferences. It’s putting in a little extra time to make sure they feel appreciated. Special.”
“My grandma does that. Is she romancing me?”
“Does she do it in a private room by candlelight, with your favorite music in the background?”
Well, there was an image. Gage grimaced as it filled his head. Damn. She kept winning those points.
Time to turn the tables.
“So tell me, what’s the point of all this romance stuff you’re so hot on?” He disguised his shift closer to her chair by filling her wineglass. “Isn’t the end result the same?”
“The result?”
“When a guy romances a girl, or vice versa, the hoped-for result is sex, isn’t it? Same as a woman wearing lingerie. She wears it to get—” Gage winced before a very unromantic phrase slipped from his lips and corrected “—attention. The kind that will lead to sex.”
“When you’re hungry, do you prefer filet mignon or a burger from the convenience store?”
Ouch.
“Then I suppose Milano Lingerie’s place in that scenario would be, what? The equivalent to hunting down your own meal in the jungle and roasting it over an open fire?”
Her lips twitched and delight danced in her eyes, but Hailey shook her head.
“Oh, no. Milano’s not that adventurous. Maybe a gourmet-catered, rich-boy frat party,” she mused, tapping her finger to her chin in a way that was both adorable and amusing.
Gage laughed. She was fun. Not just fun in a cute-to-tease-and-see-her-blush kind of way. But clever. Smart and talented. Add that to a hot body and a gorgeous face, and she was trouble.
A smart man took on trouble only when he had time to deal with it. Gage had no time right now. He had a goal, a plan for his life. He didn’t have time to enjoy the kind of trouble Hailey represented.
But he had a point to prove.
With that in mind, he held her gaze with his and let his smile drop. His look became intense, hot. Sexual. He let her see how attracted he was. Clear on his face, he knew, was everything he wanted to do to her, with her and for her.
Hailey’s smile faded. Her eyes widened and her breath quickened. Good. She was getting the message.
“Oh, I don’t know. I think this Milano can be plenty adventurous,” he said quietly as he leaned in closer.
He reached under the heavy cloth covering the table and touched her knee. The soft fabric of her skirt slid temptingly between his fingers and her skin. Her eyes softened, heated. Like green glass melting into passion.
He slipped his hand under her skirt, smoothing his palm up her thigh. Delighting in the silken texture of her stocking. When he reached the top of her thigh he found lace. A band of it, separating the smooth texture of her stockings and the warm silk of her skin.
“You shouldn’t...” Her words trailed off into a soft, breathy sigh as he traced the lacy edge of her stockings, slipping one finger under the smooth satin garter, then skimming it between the stocking and her warm flesh.
She was so soft.
“I think I should.” He pressed the flat of his palm to her thigh, his fingers now wedged between her legs. His eyes locked on hers, silently demanding she give him room.
Her lips parted, wet and glistening, and a tiny furrow creased her brow. But slowly, so slow he wanted to groan, she unclenched her thighs and let them slide apart. Just a little. So the fit was tight.
Good.
He liked tight.
8 (#uff652bbb-6678-5c96-954c-d662a769a032)
GAGE WAS PRETTY sure he’d just found the gates of heaven. He pressed his hand higher, rubbed his thumb over the fabric covering Hailey’s heated core. It was silk, like her skin.
“What color are your panties?” he asked, not bothering to clear the husky passion from his voice.
Her eyes darted to the doorway, then back to his. She bit her bottom lip. He wanted to soothe the soft pink flesh, but his hand was busy. Instead, he arched an insistent brow.
“Pink,” she whispered. “Pink like my bra. The lace is chocolate.”
“Yum.”
He slipped his fingers beneath the hem of those pink-and-chocolate panties. He ran his index finger along the swollen flesh he found, then gently pinched.
Squirming, she gasped. But she didn’t pull away.
