Billionaire's Contract Engagement / Money Man's Fiancée Negotiation. Michelle Celmer

and glorious, the color like a russet sunset over the desert. The temptation was too great. He’d fantasized about it for too long.

      He fumbled with the clip and released its hold on her hair. It tumbled down her back, over his hands like a wave. He gathered the strands between his fingers, mesmerized by their silky smoothness.

      He drank deeply, not wanting the moment to end. He could spend hours kissing her, but he wanted more. He wanted to work his mouth down the curve of her jaw to her neck. He wanted to peel every layer of clothing from her body and then run his tongue over her soft skin.

      He wondered what her breasts would feel like in his hands and what her nipples would taste like, how they’d feel as he sucked them into his mouth.

      Oh, yes, he’d spent a lot of time wondering about her breasts. She never wore clothing that could be deemed too provocative. She was fashionable, yes, but he secretly wished she’d wear something a little more revealing. It was killing him not to get a hint of her full, ripe breasts.

      Soon. Soon, he’d unwrap all of her. He’d possess her. She’d be his.

      He needed air and he broke away only long enough to pull oxygen into his starving lungs. She gasped along with him, and then he started at the corner of her mouth and licked and kissed his way across to the other corner.

      Her small hands slid up his chest. It was like a heating element sliding over his skin. She left a blazing trail of fierce need in her wake. His entire body came alive, and all she’d done was touch him. Innocently.

      They wound up around his neck and then her fingertips just delved into the hair at his nape. He shuddered, and it was all he could do to retain his tight hold on his control.

      His body screamed at him to haul her over his shoulder and drag her caveman-style to the bedroom. He’d rip off her clothes and spend the night taking her over and over until they both succumbed to exhaustion.

      His mind yelled at him to be careful. To take it slow. Not to push her so far away that she never returned.

      It was that fear of driving her away permanently that finally pulled him back from the brink of insanity.

      With great reluctance, he pulled back. His hands were still tangled up in her hair, and he carefully extricated them from the heavy coil that lay over her shoulders.

      Her eyes were cloudy, a gorgeous mix of confusion and desire that had him wanting to throw caution to the wind and continue his seduction.

      “That,” he whispered, “is what I’ve been wanting to do ever since I saw you across a crowded room six months ago. Now you tell me this has anything to do with Maddox Communications and Reese Enterprises.”

      Her hand fluttered to her mouth and she stared at him with shocked awareness.

      “Oh, God, Evan. What are we going to do?”

      He smiled gently and slowly pulled her hand away from her swollen lips.

      “What we’re going to do is get your pitch out of the way tomorrow morning. Whatever happens afterward, we take it as it comes.”