Since I Saw You (Because You Are Mine #4)(22)
Author: Beth Kery

“They delivered the suit all right?” she asked him. He just nodded once, his stare on her unflinching.

Hungry?

“It . . . it looks great,” she stammered. It was a monumental understatement. Kam was devastating in the well-cut black suit with crisp white dress shirt and royal blue tie.

“How did the tour at Schnell go this afternoon?” she asked.

“Good. Jim was great,” he said, referring to the vice president who had met with Kam as a favor to Lin. “Thank you again for setting it up for me.”

“It was my pleasure,” she said.

Kam was clean-shaven for once and his dark, russet-tinted hair was neatly groomed and combed back in thick waves. He’d told her his mother was Irish. Were those reddish highlights the Irish influence in him burning through the swarthy Gallic? It was like she’d never seen him before.

“Lucien,” she said, realizing she’d been staring at Kam. She stepped forward to exchange a kiss of greeting with Ian’s older brother.

“Hello. Francesca is right. You look incredible,” Lucien greeted her in his low, fluid, French-accented voice.

“Thank you.” She stepped back and experienced an awkward moment. Shouldn’t she greet Kam in a similar fashion? He was Ian’s brother as well, after all. Fortunately, she was spared having to decide. She saw the Gersbachs enter the ballroom along with a dozen or so other attendees.

“There they are,” she said in a muted tone, leaning her head subtly toward the door. Francesca nodded in understanding. Lin took Kam’s hand and started to lead him toward the father and daughter. It was easy to touch him when her excuse was guiding him to a business interaction.

That’s what she told herself, anyway, as she tried to ignore the feeling of his large, warm hand tightening around her own and her heartbeat began a steady throb in her ears.

•   •   •

He heard Lin greeting the Gersbachs and introducing them, but he wasn’t really listening. Even though he wasn’t looking at Lin, the vision of her still burned in his mind’s eye. She usually wore her hair up. The only time he’d seen it down was when they’d been in bed together. Then, it’d been a waving, curling, tumbling delight that fell to her mid back. Tonight, she wore it down, but it had been straightened. Without the curls and waves, it fell in a straight, fluid line almost to her waist. It was drop-dead sexy. As Lucien and he had approached her, the silky curtain of it brushed her naked back, the vision disrupting rational thought.

She’d turned, and it was like silk whisking against silk. He was suddenly overcome with a brutal, primal need to be inside her once again, pounding inside all that soft, sleek glory, straining to build a crashing crescendo in the harmonious orchestra that was Lin. A pulse began to throb in his temple and his cock at once as he’d met her stare.

How inappropriate could he be? He really was going to ruin this whole fucking night.

“. . . he just arrived on Monday. Isn’t that right, Kam?”

He blinked and the present moment plummeted into his awareness jarringly.

“Yes,” he said, realizing that Otto Gersbach’s hand was extended. He shook it and mumbled something that was mostly unintelligible except for the word pleasure. He did the same when he was introduced to Brigit Gersbach. Brigit stared at him with wide blue eyes like he was part of the exhibit. Kam glanced uncomfortably sideways at Lin, looking for a cue as to what he should do or say next. Her hand looped around his elbow, and it suddenly didn’t matter.

“I can’t tell you what a pleasure this is for us to meet you as well,” Otto was gushing in crisp, Swiss-accented English. “Brigit was very busy with the advertising campaign for the holidays, but she insisted upon accompanying me in order to meet the genius who created such a revolutionary mechanism. Even now, I can’t quite grasp what you’ve managed to accomplish.”

Kam resisted an urge to shrug and just held Otto’s stare.

“He’s modest,” Brigit said in mock-confidential tone to Lin. “The brilliant ones often are.”

“He’s unconventional, that much is true. Don’t try to pigeonhole him if you truly want to draw his character,” Lin said, smiling warmly up at Kam.

“Do you?” Kam asked Lin, looking down at her upturned face.

She blinked, taken off guard by his question. “Do I what?”

“Want to draw my character?”

“Of course she does. Everyone knows Lin has a talent for seeing straight to the heart,” Otto joked. “She can see to the rotten core of a person in two seconds flat during a business deal. It’s one of the many reasons Ian guards her like a personal treasure.”

“Fortunately I see no rotten cores here tonight,” Lin replied.

Her manner was easy, polished, and businesslike, but Kam took heart from her light touch on his arm. A waiter approached carrying sparkling fruit juice and carbonated water. “Shall we take in Francesca’s exhibit?” Lin invited when they’d all taken a flute.

“Absolutely. Such a talented young woman . . .” Otto was saying. Kam tuned him out as the four of them began the circuit around the room. He was forced to break contact with Lin as they moved about. He was too distracted by her to be anxious about meeting the Gersbachs. He was caught up in the spell of Lin’s lithesome bare arms and sexy long legs. His senses were always extremely sharp, but tonight they seemed exponentially sensitive. He was entranced by the sound of her melodious voice and the nearly silent swish of hair on both her bare skin and the fabric of her dress. He managed several responses to the Gersbachs, a decent amount of which were longer than two words. It wasn’t that hard, given his honest admiration of Francesca’s sketches and Lin’s effortless, yet warm and genuine skill for social conversation.

Even though he’d been forced to allow her to drop her hand from his arm, he touched her whenever he got the chance, subtly and outside of anyone’s notice. He’d brush her waist or bare shoulder, silently urging her to a more ideal spot in which to see the artwork. Significantly, she never gave him a quelling glance when he first did it, so he continued.

As they moved throughout the exhibit, more and more people started to stream into the room. Many of them took different paths than the Gersbachs, Lin, and Kam.

Several people were already gathered in front of one of the larger sketches when they reached it. Otto and Brigit maneuvered for a view. Kam reached out and spread his hand on the tight curve of Lin’s hip, urging her in front of him. He was tall enough to see the sketch over her head, but he wasn’t looking. Not really. He dared to put his other hand on her hip, encircling her. She went very still in his hold. He just felt her for a stretched second, absorbed her refined energy, the sensation of her feminine hips and the delicious fragrance from her hair. A tickling, arousing buzz started on the root of his cock. He resisted a strong urge to press himself against the tight, round curve of her ass. Somehow he knew that, for that brief moment, she was as hyperfocused on him as he was her.