She gave herself a pep talk while she waited. This will be harmless. You can just tell him about how kissing should be for the woman. You can explain how a girl wants to be touched by a man. Give him some pamphlets, chat about what he should consider changing in his “technique” and then skip out. Zero emotions need to be involved. None. This is just a mutual scratching of backs. By the time she was finished, she felt better, calmer. One month of meaningless makeout sessions, coming right up.
But then the elevator dinged and Asher got out, all sexy grin and tanned skin, and she felt flustered all over again. He was wearing the same shirt from earlier, sleeves rolled at the elbows and collar open, but gone were the tie and the jacket. And even though she now hated the man, she couldn’t deny that he was utterly delicious for her eyes. His casual saunter toward her and the way his expression looked like a cross between predatory and seductive? Her nipples were getting hard just from him looking at her.
Greer clutched the folder tighter and reminded herself that he was nothing but packaging. She’d unwrapped the present, so to speak, and had been less than impressed. That calmed her hormones down. She stuck her hand out for him to shake. “Mr. Sutton?”
“Stop it, Greer,” he said playfully, and ignored her hand. He moved to her side and put an arm around her shoulders, tugging her closer to him. “We both know each other a lot better than that.”
“Yes, but tonight is about business, remember? I just want to make sure the correct lines are drawn.”
“Oh, I’m well aware of the lines you’ve drawn.”
Now what did that mean? Greer frowned to herself as he steered her toward the elevator. Luckily, it was empty, as she didn’t think she’d be able to stand making small talk with another person as Asher led her up to his room for seduction lessons.
They got off the elevator on one of the top floors and Asher kept his hand on the small of her back as he led her to his room. She hadn’t been to this hotel before, and pretended great interest in the marble flooring and the black-and-white decor in the kitchen area. Anything to avoid the bedroom.
“Thanks for coming,” Asher said, his arm sliding away from her back. He took her purse from her shoulder and set it down on the counter.
“Why are you thanking me? You blackmailed me to be here.”
“I don’t think of it as blackmail—just . . . persuasion.” Asher gave her a winning look. “You could have turned me down.”
“And made my life more of a hell? No thank you.”
His easy smile faded. “Is your life hell, then?”
For some reason, she felt as if . . . he was worried about her. That was silly, wasn’t it? “This month it is,” she said tartly. Then she thrust the folder at him. “Here. I printed these out for you.”
“What are they?” He opened the folder and started to flip through the pages.
“Instructions on how to kiss properly. Apparently you can find anything on the Internet.” She shook her head. “Honestly, Asher, I’m not sure how you managed to keep Donna for so long without knowing any of the basics.”
His lips twitched. “Indeed.”
Was he laughing at her? “You have to take this seriously, Asher.”
“I’m very serious.” He tapped the printouts. “This was very thoughtful of you.”
“I like to be prepared.” She crossed her arms over her chest and rocked in her shoes. “So . . . do you want to go ahead and get this over with?”
“Are you hungry? Thirsty?”
She was too nervous to eat anything, and shook her head. “Some other time. Where should we do this? The bedroom?”
His brows went up. “We can go to the bedroom if that’ll make you more comfortable.”
“I— What? No! Where did you want to do it?”
He shrugged and turned around, gazing about the expansive hotel room. “We can move to the sofa, if you like.”
“The sofa is wonderful. Thank you.” She charged ahead and moved toward it. It was, like the rest of the decor, black, and she grabbed one of the throw pillows on it and hugged it to her chest as she settled in on one end of the couch. For a guy that needed lessons, he sure was making her feel like . . . prey. “Bring the printouts and let’s go over them together. We need to get this right.”
“I’m sure that, just like anything else, a lot of it is practice.” He tucked the folder under his arm and moved toward her. Yeah, she definitely felt like a gazelle stalked by a lion. “Lucky for us, we have an entire month to hone my skills.”
Lucky wasn’t the word she wanted to use for it. She gave him a tight smile and pushed her glasses farther up on her nose.
He sat down on the couch next to her, their thighs touching. Goodness, that already felt rather intimate. At least he wasn’t looking at her. Instead, he was reading the first page of the printouts she gave him. She leaned forward to see what he was reading, and the picture on the page was of two people, their tongues barely caressing as their lips parted. For some reason, that picture felt . . . incredibly intimate and embarrassing. She tucked her hands tight around the pillow and tried not to squirm at the rush of heat moving through her. This isn’t going to be fun, hormones. Remember how bad he was? Calm down.
Thing was, pregnancy hormones sort of escalated everything . . . even the need for sex. Which was doubly awkward considering she’d never wanted sex before, and now she really, really felt cravings at the most awkward times.
Like right now.
This was the equivalent of wanting to eat something you knew tasted bad. She knew Asher was terrible at sex, but her body was still responding to his proximity. Her nipples pressed against her cardigan, and she was grateful that she was hugging the pillow, because they’d probably be rather noticeable.