She pressed her lips together and tried to stop looking at his mouth, but his eyes weren't any better than his beautiful lips.

"Don't call me sweetheart," she said in a no-nonsense tone, though she sensed that he knew he had her right where he wanted her. The lion hovered over his prey.

Suddenly everything shifted as he relaxed back into the couch.

"I shouldn't be messing with you," he said, "and I apologize for that 'dumb' comment. It's just that I've spent most of my life being treated like a brainless jock. It gets pretty old after a while." Not only was Julie immediately chastened by what he said, but she felt like a complete and utter idiot. He hadn't been coming on to her. She was nothing special to him.

He was just messing with her.

She should be celebrating the fact that she was going to make it out of his underground lair free and clear with all of her clothes intact, after all. So why wasn't she happier about it?

Why did she feel like crying?

"And I apologize for the 'smart-ass' comment," she forced out. Trying to get back on track, she said, "I think the best thing for your image would be a series of charity events throughout the Bay Area."

"As long as they don't interfere with football camp next week."

"Sounds to me like you won't make it to camp if you don't take care of this," she pointed out. Something flashed in Ty's eyes and in an instant he was the predator again. "Have you ever been wrong about anything?"

"Excuse me?" she asked.

He moved closer. "I think my question was pretty clear."

She swallowed, tried to lick her lips. "Rarely."

"Okay, then. How about surprised?"

He'd just surprised her by bringing her to his private sanctuary, and she'd been surprised by how strongly her body reacted to his nearness after all these years.

"No," she said, but her voice was weaker.

His smile was wicked this time. "Good thing there's a first time for everything." She should move to the other end of the couch, or better yet, run up the stairs and out the door. Anything to get away from the sensual pull he held over her.

"I've been surprised before," Ty said, not seeming to expect a response—which was good, since she wasn't capable of giving one at the moment. She was too busy trying to remember how to breathe, how to keep her head on straight, how not to dive at his mouth and tear all his clothes off and beg him to take her right this goddamned second!

He leaned down and said, "Don't you wonder what I was surprised by, Julie?"

"No." But what she meant was, "Yes, oh yes!"

He brushed one finger against her cheek and said, "You."

She was so caught up in his touch, in the way he was looking at her like she was everything he ever wanted, that she forgot about running. Forgot that she hated him. That he was only equipped to hurt her, no matter how good he was capable of making her feel.

Her silence amused him, she could tell by that lazy grin, the way his fingers moved across her lips. She felt funny all over, like she'd left her real body, her brain elsewhere.

"Don't you want to know why?" he asked. Desperately.

But she couldn't admit that. Not even now that she'd almost given herself to him by not pushing away his hand, by not reading him the riot act for slamming through the client-consultant boundary. If she spoke she'd only betray herself, her longing. She tried to shake her head no, but all her small movement did was cause his fingers to slide all the way across her lips. That way lay madness.

She had to say something. Had to let him know that she was here for business and business only.

She cleared her throat. "I don't care about our past, Ty. Only the future—the one where you act like a respectable celebrity and I get a paycheck for a job well done. The only reason I'm here is to turn you into a decent human being and make sure that photos like these never happen again." She'd never told so many lies in one breath before.

CHAPTER SIX

Bringing Julie downstairs and surprising her with his art and books had been a stroke of genius. He was going to have to thank Bobby for the brilliant idea of hiring an image consultant. All these years, part of him had been hoping Julie would materialize in the crowds at a football stadium. Who would have thought Bobby Wilson would be the mastermind behind their long-overdue reunion?

She was so sexy when she got flustered and tried to pretend she wasn't wanting him just as much as he was craving her. Ty couldn't remember the last time he'd had this much fun.

"Okay," he said, his lips an inch from hers. She clearly thought he was about to kiss her, but he couldn't. Not yet, anyway. It was imperative that she kiss him first. Otherwise she'd cry foul, blame him for taking advantage of the situation. "You tell me what I need to do and I'll do it." Her eyes went wide at his sudden about-face and she looked more than a little disappointed. She'd thought he was about to swoop in and take her lips, taste her, pin her beneath him while she moaned in ecstasy.

A little patience, that's what she needed to learn. Because sometimes drawing out the anticipation was worth the resulting fireworks.

Julie quickly recovered her composure. "Fine. Good. I'm glad we're on the same page. First off, you need some practice looking conservative in pictures."

He raised an eyebrow. "How do you plan to do that?"

"We'll hire a media consultant to train you how to answer questions and pose for photos."

"That's a nice offer, but I don't think a media consultant can help me with my problem." Her eyebrow arched up. "Which problem would that be? The fact that you're too rich? Or too good-looking? Or, maybe, that you're too successful? Woe is you."

"If you hadn't noticed, women can't resist me."

Her eyes narrowed. "Uh-huh."

"So if they're going to throw themselves at me no matter what I do, you'd better teach me another way to deal with them."

"You mean other than Frenching them in public?"

That little quip was downright snarky—which meant they were finally getting somewhere. He liked to see that bit of fire in her eyes, knowing it would translate into great things in the sack. And his bed was definitely where they were heading, whether she realized it or not.

"See, that's why your company is so successful. You know exactly how to frame a situation with a few simple words."

"Your point being?"

It shouldn't be this easy. It really shouldn't. "Kisses like this"—he held up the magazine—"are how I've been kissing all my life. It's all I know."

She raised her eyes to the ceiling. "If you were anyone else, I'd know you were joking." He found himself holding his breath for a long second as she paused. "But you, I think, just might be serious." He held back a smile. An easy five yards on the first down. The next five should be just as easy.

"So, say I'm sitting on a couch with a woman who wants a piece of me. Assume there are cameras and that someone is going to take a picture that ends up in the papers the next day."

"Do you actually think I'm going to do this kind of role-playing with you? I'm starting to wonder what goes on in your alternate reality."

He couldn't help grinning this time. It had been far too long since he'd had such an enjoyable conversation with anyone, let alone the opposite sex. His guy friends mostly drank and screwed around and played video games. And the women were either trying to get into his pants or his bank account, or trying to convince him to hook them up with another football player's bank account and/or pants.