One day, Tatiana was going to make someone a great wife, and she was going to be a beautiful mother, too. He just hoped like hell that the guy she ended up choosing would be worth it and be good enough for her.
His brothers, and his single cousins out in Maine and New York, were among the only guys on the planet who might be good enough for her. And yet the thought of her with any of them made his gut clench tight, then tighter still.
Again and again, he found his gaze drifting to where she sat on the leather seat in his home office, her head bent over her notebook, her pen moving steadily across the page. He wondered what she thought of where he lived, if she thought his neat and tidy living room was impersonal and cold compared to the well-lived-in mess of hers. Did she think he was a hard-ass? Did she find his intense business focus boring?
And did she have even the faintest clue that it was taking absolutely every ounce of self-control he possessed not to lift her into his arms, carry her to his bed just down the hall from his home office, and take her?
Damn it, he thought with a hard shake of his head as Larry, his vice president stationed in Japan, formally thanked everyone for attending the meeting. Ian needed to keep his mind on business, if for no other reason than to keep it out of the gutter.
He shut down the conferencing system and looked up to find Tatiana staring at him, her gaze unfocused. Her ponytail had come partway free and several thick tendrils of hair softly curled around her face. Her mouth was slick and pink as if she’d been licking it.
Sweet Lord, how he wanted her. He wanted to taste her wet lips, wanted to grasp her curves in his hands and drag her against him and just take and take and take.
The ringing of his private cell phone yanked him from his utterly inappropriate thoughts. He looked down and saw that it was his cousin Smith calling. Guilt hit him square in the chest again, as though Smith had caught him red-handed mentally stripping away her clothes. Figuring it must be another question about Serena for Tatiana, he picked up and said, “Do you need to talk to Tatiana again?”
“I do. Is she with you?”
“She is.” Ian got up and came around his desk to give her the phone. “It’s Smith.”
After saying hello, she frowned at whatever Smith said. “No, I didn’t get any of your messages. I left my cell phone at home again. At least,” she said with a small smile for Ian, “I hope that’s where it is. What’s up? Do you want to chat more about Serena?”
A moment later, she shot up from the couch, her eyes wide with shock. When she looked up at Ian, her breath was coming faster and her skin had flushed a deep rose. “Wait a second, Smith, I think I need you to say that again so I can be sure I heard you right.”
Both her voice and her hands were shaking by then, and Ian instantly grew worried. Had something happened to her sister or mother? Or was Smith delivering other bad news?
Just as he had yesterday when they were in her kitchen, Ian didn’t think twice about his urge to comfort her. He simply moved closer so that he could put his hands on her waist to steady her. And, for the moment at least, what he felt for her didn’t have anything to do with sex...it was simply about taking care of someone who had come to matter a great deal to him.
He felt her react to his touch with an instant answer of heat through her silk dress at the exact same moment that she looked up at him with eyes that seemed to cut straight through to his soul, her beautiful mouth opening slightly in surprise.
“Ohmygod.” She was vibrating beneath Ian’s palms as she said to Smith, “Yes, that’s a good idea, a really good idea. I’ll call you back once I’ve had a little time to process the news.”
Ian was trying to figure out her contradictory signals—she was shaking and yet her entire expression seemed to be lit with excitement—when she suddenly tossed the phone onto the couch and threw her arms around his neck.
As she hugged him so tightly that he finally felt every single one of her luscious curves against him, Ian knew in the space of a heartbeat that no other woman had ever fit this well in his arms.
And that he never wanted to let her go.
But then she was moving to take his hands in hers and twirling around in the middle of his office, laughing. Watching her was like watching sunlight stream through a multifaceted crystal, shooting off light and bright color and vibrant life everywhere it spun. He’d never known another woman who was this open with her emotions, who didn’t seem to realize that she had to protect herself or else she’d get hurt.
Just the thought of anyone or anything hurting her had his chest clenching tight. He pulled her to a stop in mid-twirl.
He couldn’t understand her, and Ian made it a point to understand everything that was a part of his world. It was the only way to make sure he knew exactly how to play all his cards correctly. But worse than not being able to understand Tatiana was the fact that he couldn’t understand himself whenever she was around. She threw off his perfectly ordered schedule and made him feel vulnerable in ways that he’d vowed never to be again.
And, still, he wanted her with a desperation that stunned him.
“You were shaking when Smith first spoke to you and I thought something bad had happened. But now you’re laughing. Tell me what he said, Tatiana.”
“It wasn’t bad news. It was great news. Shocking news.”
She laughed again, and he wanted to shake her for not telling him what the news was already. But even more than that, he wished he could laugh with her, wished he were the kind of man who could pull her back into his arms and dance with her without knowing better than to give a woman such easy affection.