Finding Katie

Chapter 2

Katie

Oh, fuck.

The sparks fizzled out with nary a sound and whatever heat they had started in my midst dissolved into a lukewarm puddle.

This man might be handsome as sin and his voice slide through me like a cup of hot chocolate on a cold winter's day, but lawyers, police officers and journalists were exactly what my mother had always warned me against. I usually stayed clear of all species of those professions.

"The firm I work for," Ben continued, "does pro bono work for the BRP and other charities like it. A few of my colleagues are here tonight, and my boss too."

I tried for a polite smile, but it faltered when I met his eyes and a faint spark fluttered to life again at the bottom of my spine. Maybe it hadn't really left. It only grew the longer I looked at him.

A solicitor doing pro bono work for a rehab charity could by definition not be all bad, and I had been here for six months without anyone in the slightest questioning the past I had invented for their sakes.

Surely that past would hold up for a few more days for this man, solicitor or not. This gorgeous man with the sea blue eyes and the sexy dimples who could set light to the sparks between us with a mere touch.

Why would he ever even begin to wonder about my background?

Getting to know me – or I him – wasn't what this was about. It was just a one-night stand, a brief encounter. Which, judging by the look in Ben's eyes, shouldn't be too hard to arrange.

My last few days in London suddenly looked a lot more fun.

The smile on my lips turned real. "How long have you been on the board?" I asked. I had only met the chairwoman, Liz Parker, who was in her sixties and had been at the head of the board for almost twenty years, but Ben looked to be around thirty, three or four years older than me.

He looked down into his glass for a brief moment before he replied. "Since last spring. I learnt about the BRP a few years ago and wanted to help them. I told my boss about them and what sort of help our firm could provide, and he liked the idea. At first, I was mostly helping the patients with various legal matters, but then last year one of the board members retired, and they asked if I wanted to step in. I couldn't refuse."

"Commendable," I said, and I meant it. Ben Graves would be attractive in any setting, but knowing that he was also caring and generous enough to give of his free time and knowledge to a charity like the BRP only made the sparks fly higher. It definitely made the heat spread to certain parts.

Though his physical attractiveness helped with that too.

Those hard planes of his shoulders called for my hands to slide over them, over the ripped chest hinted at beneath his shirt. How soft would his hair feel if I ran my fingers through it? Would the stubble on his jaw tickle my palm? The inside of my thighs?

He lifted his glass and my gaze followed, stared as he drank, his lips on the rim of the glass and his throat working, and I suddenly found it difficult to breathe. I was hot all over.

Ben's lips curved into a knowing smile and the appearance of his dimples didn't cool me one bit. They were calling for me, calling for my tongue.

I blinked, abruptly raised my eyes to his. My breathing hitched.

"I agree," he said in that low rumble, and for a second I wondered if I had said it all out loud. It wasn't my comment about his charitable work he was agreeing to.

Ben's gaze did an almost exact copy of mine and moved down over my tight, black dress, over bare legs and all the way down to my red heels, and without even touching me, he sent a fresh lick of heat up my spine. All the way up to my neck and back down to my core.