Total pages in book: 230
Estimated words: 217798 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1089(@200wpm)___ 871(@250wpm)___ 726(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 217798 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1089(@200wpm)___ 871(@250wpm)___ 726(@300wpm)
“That is easy for you to say. You’re about to have access to all of it, aren’t you?”
He had a point. “Even if I wasn’t, that wouldn’t be why I would want you, Kash. Sit down. We have some things to talk about before we get started.” This was the point where she would normally introduce the idea of a sexual contract, but she had to ease him into this. Show him how good it could be to hand the reins over to her in this one part of their relationship. “Come here close to me.”
He moved to the chaise she was sitting on, lowering himself down with a sullen frown. “I knew there would be talking.”
She was fairly certain his lovely flowers did very little talking, but he would get used to it. “Why did you want me back then?”
“I liked you. I liked talking to you. I liked being around you. I rather liked who I was when I was around you.” His expression softened. “I don’t think you knew how alluring you were to someone like me. You didn’t understand how beautiful you were, so you didn’t use it against me. Most women do.”
“Well, that happens when you surround yourself with women who are mostly valued for their looks. I don’t blame them. They’ve been told their beauty is the only thing worthy about them. If you want to meet women who don’t feel that way, you should probably expand out of models and actresses.”
“Well, you would be surprised how many gorgeous, sexy physicists turn me down because I’m not smart enough for them.”
Oh, she loved this part. She loved the flirtation, the push and pull of verbal foreplay, and Kash was a master. “Somehow, I doubt that. You’re one of the smartest men I’ve ever met. You could talk about anything. It makes me wonder why you don’t still study.”
“Well, I have a busy schedule of smiling at the public and waving. Then there’s all the ministry meetings I take. I note that you never once asked for a meeting with me.”
There had been a reason for that. “You didn’t seem interested. Honestly, you haven’t been interested in much of anything for the last five years or so. Is it because your secret project was taken down?”
He seemed to freeze for a moment. “It was more than a secret project. It was a passion project. I suppose you know about it from Chelsea. She was there at the time, though I only met her briefly. I lost an entire generation of our most brilliant minds that day. Ten of the smartest engineers and scientists in Loa Mali. I did that. Is it any wonder I haven’t gone back? You know if I’d reconnected with you, you could have been on that rig that day. I would have asked you to help me with the project.”
So guilt had sent him on a half-a-decade bender. “Kash, it wasn’t your fault. You weren’t trying to hurt anyone.”
“I would have hurt the oil companies.”
“Including your own,” she pointed out. “You weren’t doing anything but attempting to push our country forward. Would you have kept the technology for yourself?”
“Of course not. It would have belonged to Loa Mali. I was doing it because someone will. I want to be the first. Our oil reserves won’t last forever. Our country is in the unique position to move in a direction others can’t. That’s why I did it. To put my country on the cutting edge and honestly, so that I could patent the process and make money for us, money to keep our standard of living high.”
She reached over and put a hand on his. “A noble cause and one only a man of your intelligence would even understand to pursue. Do you know why I was attracted to you?”
His lips curled up. “I do not have the same false impressions of my own beauty that you do.”
Such arrogance and yet she found herself laughing. “Your masculine beauty was the least of your attractions. I liked how smart you were, how passionate you were about making a place for yourself in the world. I wanted to be a part of that. I wanted to support you and yes, I wanted to advise you. I loved how you never seemed intimidated by me.”
“I wasn’t intimidated. I wanted you. I wanted to get my hands on you and show you how hot you could get.”
She was already heating up, but this wasn’t going to go the way she feared his other encounters went. “You do know I’m not a virgin, Kash.”
His gorgeous eyes rolled to the back of his head in a pure expression of disgust. “Of course you’re not. You’re thirty-five years old. I would worry if you were.” He reached out, putting a hand on her knee. “But you don’t have my experience, either. I have to remember that.”