Page 18 of The Rebel Billionaire

Fuck, she wasbeautiful.

Before, in her suits and with her hair in a bun, she'd been cold and unapproachable. A statue of a woman. Beautiful butuntouchable.

The woman standing before me needed to be touched.Deservedit.

I'd told her the new haircut wasfine. I'd known it was wrong the second the word left my mouth. I hadn't needed to see the disappointment inhereyes.

You never told a woman her new haircut wasfine. Even if you hated it, you lied and said it looked great. But Charlotte had looked so different—younger, happier, and sofuckingsexy.

I'd been struckspeechless.

All I could see were those big blue eyes and that lush pinkmouth.

Fuck.

She stepped back to let me in the kitchen and I realized I was staring again. "Hungry?" Iasked.

"Starving," she said, closing and locking the doorbehindme.

She wore a faded pair of cut-offs and a cotton T-shirt. No bra. My mouth watered at the visible points of her nipples and the shift of her breasts beneath the thinfabric.

"I don't have a table or anything," she startedtosay.

I set the pizza box on top of the mini-fridge, bending to stow the six-pack inside, andstraightened.

"That's okay, I'm not picky. But we havetotalk."

She crossed her arms over her chest and raised one eyebrow. "What are we talkingabout?"

Charlotte Winters was feisty. I shouldn't have liked it. It should have been annoying. Feisty women were work. Not mystyle.

But I didlikeit.

I liked the way she didn't let me steamroll her. I liked the way she matched me, the way she wasn't afraid of me. Let's face it, I'm a big guy. Most people get a good look at me and exercise a healthy sense ofcaution.

They should. Between my career in the military and the things I'd done since then, I was a dangerous guy. When Charlotte looked at me, she sawsomethingelse.

Whatever it was she saw, I didn't want her tolookaway.

"Don't get your panties in a bunch, Princess," I said, crossing my own arms over my chest and raising an eyebrow backather.

To my surprise, she laughed and said, "I'm not wearing anypanties."

I squeezed my eyes shuttight.

Fuck.

We had to talk. Then, I'd find out if she was telling the truth about what she had on under thosecut-offs.

My eyes on the ceiling, I said, "We need to lay some ground rules, that's all. I'm not planning on selling my house anytime soon, so we're going to be stuck with each other. I don't want things to be weird when this runs itscourse."

She surprised me again. "It's probably going to be weird for a while," she said with a shrug. "But we'll deal. Neither of us is looking for a relationship, right?Justsex."

"Basically, yeah," I said carefully, looking forthetrap.

There had to be a trap. I'd never had a woman agree to casual sex so easily. "We have nothing in common, and even if we did, I'm not looking for a girlfriend. But Iwantyou."

"Good," she said. "I've got enough going on in my life right now. I don't want to date. I don't even want friends with benefits. I just want thebenefits."