Page 27 of Rival Hearts

I knewexactlywhat he tasted like.

Stop it.

“Charlotte,” he said, as surprised as I was. “What are you doing here?”

“I think it’s pretty obvious what I’m doing here.” I glanced over my shoulder at the beach.

“No, I can see that. I mean, what areyoudoing here?”

I shook my head, flustered. I’d meant to pick a fight, to tell him off, but now that he was in front of me, my words weren’t coming as easily as I’d hoped.

His eyes were drowning deep, and that mouth…

I forced myself to look into his eyes again.

“Are you seriously going to hijack my press turnout?” I sounded less flustered than I felt.

“What?”

“Do you have any idea how much planning went into this cleanup, and now you’re using my crowd to advocate foryourside?”

“Myside?” Alex frowned, and damn if that didn’t make him even more handsome. His frown turned into a smirk. “I thought you were an activist, not an event planner.”

His smirk made me unbalanced. I’d been on top of shit that night when we’d talked and flirted and it had just beenuswithout all the extras. Now… he was the yacht manufacturer who destroyed oceans, and I was the activist pitted against him.

Damn it, could there be a more star-crossed couple?

Dramatic much?

I shook my head, trying to remember what I was fighting with him about but it was suddenly hard to think.

Alex took a step closer—presumably to keep the conversation between us instead of letting all the nosy reporters who craned their necks in our direction hear what we were actually saying—but his scent enveloped me, and if I’d thought it hard to keep my train of thought before, I was pretty much done for now.

“We’re on the same side,” Alex said when I didn’t answer him. I’d settled for glaring at him, hoping it would bring my point across in lieu of the words I couldn’t find. “We’re committed to sustainability.”

“You make yachts, don’t you? Blackwood Inc. is at the forefront of making mega yachts. Do you know what mega yachts do?”

He narrowed his eyes. “This feels like a trick question.”

“They havemegaemissions.” It sounded lame, even to me, and I groaned inwardly.

Don’t buckle, don’t buckle, don’t buckle.

He cocked a grin at me, his eyes amused, and my resolve was starting to waver. Why the hell was Alex here? And why the hell was he still so damn attractive?

I flashed again on his naked body, writhing on mine, his face riddled with concentration so he could last longer…

“You’re known for your extravagance, opulence, and neither of those takes the environment into account.” I crossed my arms over my chest.

“Your stereotypes cloud your judgement,” Alex said in a deep, velvety voice that had no business caressing me as intimately as it did. “I’m not here to flaunt my wealth or tohijackyour hard work. I really care.”

His words were hypnotizing. His scent would be my undoing, cologne, wrapping so tightly around me, making me come undone. And I wanted Alex to find a thread and keep tugging until I was completely unraveled in his arms.

But that couldn’t happen. Not after what happened when we weren’t at Gabe’s party. Mybrother’sparty.

And not now that the whole world knew we weren’t on the same side of the line.

“I don’t know if I can believe you,” I said.