She’d chosen where to spend wisely—

She’d chosen where to spend wisely—on wallpaper with playful motifs and on beautiful fabrics for the window treatments—and where she’d saved by choosing simple furniture that could withstand the wear and tear of little people. A sofa was rendered that much cozier by a hodgepodge of throw pillows.
His imagination revved into sixth gear as he pictured just how cozy the sofa might be if he could figure how to get Jordan on it. But the sight of the toys put the brakes on that idea.
An easel in the corner had a chaotic scribbled crayon drawing on it; wooden train tracks were laid in loops and figure eights on the carpet; a stack of multicolored building blocks was piled against the wall. In another corner, three rocking horses stood in a neat row, waiting for a good gallop.
The forcible reminder of her three very real children, and the whole messy package of domestic commitment and responsibility they represented, should not just have dampened his libido, it should have annihilated it. That Jordan still tempted him showed the power of the attraction he was fighting.
Christ, what was it about her?
There were plenty of beautiful, talented, and beguiling women in the world. No need to get involved with this one.
When Jordan began talking, he was filled with relief. The running debate going on in his head was growing tiresome.
“As I warned you, the room’s pretty basic. I’m sure you’ll want to present a more sophisticated look at Hawk Hill. Am I right to assume that the decorating will be on spec? Or do you have a buyer lined up already?”
“No one yet,” he replied. “But over the years I’ve learned that potential buyers have an easier time envisioning themselves in a furnished home, so now I always get a decorator to put the finishing touches on the houses. Bare walls, like a blank canvas, can intimidate the hell out of people. Sometimes the buyers like what we’ve done so much they want to move into the house exactly as it is, lock, stock, and barrel.”
He watched her slender throat work as she swallowed. “So no pressure on me at all.”
And he remembered exactly how she had smelled just below the line of her jaw when he’d brought his face close. How her breath had caught …
“Not a bit,” he replied, managing to hide his distraction. “You just have to dazzle an imaginary customer. Think Nonie Harrison to the power of ten. That’ll do.”
“Thanks. Now I’ll never get any sleep.”
He could suggest lots of things that would help her sleep like a baby. Will you get a damned grip, he told himself sternly.
“Uh, the kids’ rooms are just down here if you want to take a look.”
“Sure.” Was it possible she was unaware that her reluctance to show her own room only increased his curiosity?
The first bedroom she showed him was the little boy’s. “How long have you been here?”
“It’ll be a year next month. Why?”
He shrugged, looking at the pictures and photographs that she’d affixed to one of the cork-backed walls to create a visual archive for her son. He thought of the frequent moves of his own childhood as his nomadic parents traveled from one foreign post to the next. Photographs were certainly taken, to be then stuck inside albums, which in turn were stored on bookshelves, or boxed in a storeroom if the rented apartment was too small. City after city, his bedroom walls remained invariably blank and indifferent. “Tommy’s a lucky kid.”
“Max, you mean?” she asked with a smile in her voice.
“Right, Max. Sorry.” He’d have expected her to be insulted rather than amused that he couldn’t recall her kid’s name. “So what about your room?”
“My room?”
“Yes, I’d like to see what you do with a grown-up bedroom,” he said, determined to get back on familiar footing. Quaint childhood memories and warm, fuzzy family interiors were not it. Although his parents were fine people, they simply hadn’t been parenting material. Unfortunately, they only realized their complete lack of interest and talent after he came along.
As they crossed the hallway, he assured himself that he was focusing on business. But the anticipation building inside him belied the notion. Jordan, clearly dreading what was coming, walked beside him with the boardlike stiffness of an aristocrat heading toward the guillotine.
Whereas in the other rooms she had employed an artful blend of patterns, textures, and colors, Jordan’s bedroom was a different kind of experience. His immediate thought was that they’d stepped into the soothing white of a cloud on a hot summer’s day. And like a cloud, the whiteness of her room was actually a nuanced symphony of many shades, ranging from bluish violets to grays. The flashes of pale gold mimicked piercing rays of sunlight.
The pieces here—a vanity table topped by an oval mirror and a bench with gently flared legs, an armchair with a matching damask upholstered ottoman—were deeply feminine without being girly-frilly. But it was the bed that captured Jordan’s character perfectly.
Sensuous yet restrained. That was how to describe the four-poster bed with roped carving. He pictured her lying there against the snow white matelasse coverlet, her hair a cinnamon red, her naked body pale as poured cream, smooth and delicious.
His heart had begun pounding like a sledgehammer against a stone wall. Christ, why was he fighting his attraction anyway? There was no law against what he was feeling, a healthy dose of I-really-want-to-fuck-this-woman. They were both adults …
This was worse than she had imagined, Jordan conceded. Far, far worse. For all his smooth, worldly polish, Owen Gage was pure male, and being forced to watch him prowling around her room, her private haven, put her on high alert. When he passed her vanity table and casually picked her atomizer of Chanel’s Cristalle, she almost shrieked, Don’t touch that!
The command died in her throat as he lifted the bottle, sniffed it experimentally, and then replaced it with a frown.
Okay, so he was obviously something of a scent freak. What really worried her, though, was that she found his preoccupation—heck, obsession—arousing.
Or was it the barely leashed energy she sensed in him that was causing her nerves to vibrate to the point where she could all but hear them hum? When he abruptly pivoted, approaching her with all the dangerous grace of a leopard, Jordan fought to suppress the whimper that threatened to tumble from her lips.
It was a miracle she could make any sound at all when she was this close to hyperventilating.
She edged toward the door. “Well, that’s it for the grand tour. Jade will have finished tacking Doc. I should head down to the ring.” She took a hasty step backward that didn’t do any good in maintaining distance between them.
He was way, way too close. “What … what are you doing?” she said breathlessly. She couldn’t remember being this nervous or this aware of another person.
“I’d think that would be fairly obvious.”
His voice was as warm as the hand he’d slipped around the nape of her neck. How had he managed to do that? she wondered stupidly, her brain struggling to process what was happening. His fingers lightly stroked her skin, his touch simultaneously thrilling and yet disconcertingly foreign. A fine trembling seized her, want warring with bone-deep uncertainty.
His face, already so close she could count the gold chips in his eyes, came nearer still as he angled his head. As if hypnotized by the sensual spell he’d cast, her lids grew heavy, her body strangely languorous. Still, some part of her resisted, tried to prevent what she feared, what she hoped was coming. “I think—”
“Bad idea to think. Especially when we can do this,” he whispered, bringing his lips to hers.
The touch of his lips was a slow and easy graze. Its very lightness sparked her desire. A millisecond that could have been an eternity elapsed while everything in her went still and waiting, just waiting, for his lips to meet, to taste hers again.
She lifted weighted lids to find his eyes focused on her. Lord, he was so beautiful, his face the sculpted perfection of a Renaissance statue, his eyes a rich, burnt umber lit with gold. Trapped in her chest, her breath escaped in a soft moan.
At the hushed sound, a signal of her acquiescence, his gaze burned brighter. Again his mouth claimed hers, this time boldly, his lips clinging, learning. Sensations rushed through her like a storm breaking and her heart thundered. She trembled, buffeted by the force of her response.
Solid and strong, he pressed closer, his mouth commanding, silently urging her to open for him. Instinctively she obeyed, inviting the bold sweep of his tongue. She registered the taste of him—warm, exotic, slightly salty and deliciously male and then their tongues were tangling, rubbing in a sleek erotic slide that unleashed a flood of heat inside her. She breathed in citrus and sandalwood on his warm skin, the scent intoxicating enough to make her head spin, her toes curl into the rug, and her hands fist against the hard wall of his chest as everything inside her went fluid and soft, melting with desire.
Oh, oh, oh, she chanted in a silent litany, rendered mindless by his kiss, by the touch of his hands on her fevered skin. Knowing only need and want, she opened her mouth wider, kissing him back hungrily.
Her response earned her a rumbled groan of approval and more, as he deepened the kiss, plundering ever more boldly, as the fingers of one hand tangled in the base of her ponytail, his other hand wrapped around her waist and then slipped beneath her cotton shirt, drawing her flush against his hard length … his very hard length.
The dual, high-voltage shock of his warm hand splayed over the small of her bared back and the unmistakable bulge of his erection had her jumping back as if scorched.
“No.” The word was an alarmed yelp.
Owen’s hooded eyes closed for a second and then opened.
“No?”
“No.” Dear God, what she would give to make her voice sound steadier right now.

Hasil (Bahasa Indonesia) 1:

Ia memilih mana untuk menghabiskan bijaksana — pada wallpaper dengan motif yang lucu dan indah kain untuk perawatan jendela — dan dimana ia telah menyelamatkan dengan memilih furnitur sederhana yang dapat menahan dan keausan dari orang-orang kecil. Sofa ini diberikan yang jauh cozier oleh campur aduk bantal.Imajinasi revved ke keenam gigi seperti ia membayangkan betapa nyaman sofa mungkin jika dia bisa menemukan cara untuk mendapatkan Jordan di atasnya. Tapi melihat mainan Letakkan brakes pada gagasan itu.Kuda-kuda di sudut telah menulis krayon kacau Menggambar rel kereta api kayu tercantum dalam loop dan delapan angka di atas karpet; tumpukan blok bangunan warna-warni ditumpuk terhadap dinding. Di sudut lain, tiga goyang kuda berdiri di baris rapi, menunggu gallop baik.Pengingat paksa dari ketiga anaknya yang sangat nyata, dan paket keseluruhan berantakan domestik komitmen dan tanggung-jawab yang mereka wakili, seharusnya tidak hanya memiliki dibasahi libido nya, itu harus memiliki seluruhnya binasa itu. Bahwa Jordan masih mencobai dia menunjukkan kekuatan daya tarik ia berjuang.Kristus, apa itu tentang dia?Ada banyak wanita yang cantik, berbakat, dan memperdaya di dunia. Tidak perlu untuk terlibat dengan yang satu ini.Ketika Jordan mulai berbicara, ia dipenuhi dengan lega. Menjalankan debat yang terjadi di kepalanya tumbuh melelahkan."Karena aku sudah memperingatkan engkau, Kamar yang cukup mendasar. Saya yakin Anda akan ingin menyajikan pandangan yang lebih canggih di Hawk Hill. Apakah saya benar untuk mengasumsikan bahwa dekorasi akan detail spec? Atau apakah Anda memiliki seorang pembeli yang berbaris sudah?"Tidak seorang pun belum," Dia menjawab. "Tetapi selama bertahun-tahun saya telah belajar bahwa pembeli potensial memiliki waktu lebih mudah membayangkan diri dalam sebuah rumah yang lengkap, jadi sekarang saya selalu mendapatkan dekorator untuk menempatkan sentuhan akhir pada rumah-rumah. Dinding yang telanjang, seperti kanvas kosong, dapat mengintimidasi neraka keluar dari orang-orang. Kadang-kadang pembeli seperti apa yang kami lakukan begitu banyak mereka ingin pindah ke rumah persis seperti itu, lock, stock dan barel."Ia menyaksikan tenggorokannya ramping yang bekerja seperti yang ia menelan. "Sehingga tidak ada tekanan pada saya sekali."Dan ia ingat persis bagaimana dia telah berbau hanya di bawah garis rahang nya ketika ia membawa wajahnya dekat. Bagaimana nafas dia telah menangkap..."Tidak sedikit," Dia menjawab, mengelola untuk menyembunyikan gangguan. "Anda hanya perlu untuk menyilaukan pelanggan imajiner. Pikirkan Nonie Harrison kekuatan sepuluh. Itu akan lakukan.""Terima kasih. Sekarang saya akan pernah mendapatkan tidur."Ia dapat menyarankan banyak hal yang akan membantu dia tidur seperti bayi. Anda akan mendapatkan pegangan yang terkutuk, katanya kepada dirinya tegas."Eh, anak-anak kamar yang hanya di sini jika Anda ingin melihat.""Pasti." Apakah itu mungkin ia tidak sadar bahwa dia enggan untuk menunjukkan kamar untuk dirinya sendiri hanya meningkatkan rasa ingin tahunya?Kamar tidur pertama dia menunjukkan dia adalah anak laki-laki. "Berapa lama Anda telah di sini?""Ini akan menjadi tahun bulan depan. Kenapa?"Ia mengangkat, melihat gambar dan foto-foto yang dia telah ditempelkan ke salah satu dinding gabus yang didukung untuk menciptakan sebuah arsip visual untuk anaknya. Dia berpikir bergerak sering kecilnya sendiri ketika orangtuanya nomaden bepergian dari satu posting asing ke yang berikutnya. Foto diambil pasti kemudian terjebak di dalam album, yang pada gilirannya disimpan pada rak buku, atau kotak di gudang jika Apartemen Disewa terlalu kecil. Kota setelah kota, dinding kamar nya tetap selalu kosong dan acuh tak acuh. "Tommy dari anak-anak beruntung.""Max, maksudmu?" Dia bertanya dengan senyum dalam suaranya."Kanan, Max. Maaf." Dia berharap dia menjadi tersinggung daripada geli bahwa dia tidak bisa mengingat nama anak-anak Nya. "Jadi apa tentang kamar Anda?""Kamar saya?""Ya, saya ingin melihat apa yang Anda lakukan dengan kamar tidur dewasa," katanya, bertekad untuk mendapatkan kembali pada pijakan yang akrab. Kenangan masa kecil kuno dan hangat, kabur keluarga interior tidak itu. Meskipun kedua orang tuanya adalah orang-orang yang baik-baik saja, mereka hanya tidak telah pengasuhan bahan. Sayangnya, mereka hanya menyadari kurangnya minat dan bakat mereka lengkap setelah ia datang.Seperti mereka menyeberangi lorong, dia meyakinkan dirinya bahwa ia berfokus pada bisnis. Tapi antisipasi bangunan dia mengingkari gagasan. Jordan, jelas takut apa datang, berjalan sampingnya dengan kekakuan boardlike aristokrat menuju guillotine.Sedangkan di kamar lain, ia telah bekerja perpaduan berseni pola, tekstur, dan warna, Jordan di kamar tidur adalah pengalaman yang berbeda. Pikir langsung adalah bahwa mereka telah melangkah ke dalam putih menenangkan awan pada hari musim panas. Dan seperti awan, keputihan kamar nya benar-benar sebuah simfoni bernuansa banyak corak, mulai dari kebiruan Violet untuk abu-abu. Kilatan emas pucat menirukan menusuk sinar matahari.Potongan-potongan di sini-meja rias atasnya oleh cermin oval dan ottoman kain bangku dengan kaki lembut menyala, kursi dengan pencocokan damask — yang sangat feminin tanpa girly-berenda. Tapi itu tidur yang menangkap Jordan's karakter sempurna.Sensual namun menahan diri. Itu adalah bagaimana untuk menggambarkan tempat tidur 4-tiang dengan ukiran bertali. Ia digambarkan dia berbaring terhadap salju putih seprai Matelasse, rambutnya kayu manis merah, tubuhnya yang telanjang pucat, sepucat menuangkan krim, halus dan lezat.Hatinya mulai berdebar-debar seperti palu godam dinding batu. Kristus, mengapa ia berjuang dengan daya tarik anyway? Tiada hukum terhadap apa yang dia rasakan, dosis yang sehat I-really-want-to-fuck-this-woman. Mereka orang dewasa kedua...Ini adalah lebih buruk daripada Dia membayangkan, mengakui Jordan. Jauh, jauh lebih buruk. Semua nya halus, duniawi Polish, Owen Gage adalah laki-laki murni, dan dipaksa untuk menonton dia berkeliaran di sekitar kamarnya, surga nya pribadi, meletakkan waspada tinggi. Ketika ia melewati meja rias nya dan santai memilih nya penyemprot Chanel's Cristalle, dia hampir menjerit, jangan sentuh itu!Perintah meninggal di tenggorokannya dia diangkat botol, mendengus itu eksperimental, dan kemudian diganti dengan kerutan.Oke, jadi dia adalah jelas sesuatu yang aneh aroma. Apa benar-benar khawatir, meskipun, adalah bahwa ia menemukan pikirannya-heck, obsesi — membangkitkan.Atau apakah itu energi nyaris leashed dia merasakan kepadanya yang menyebabkan sarafnya bergetar ke titik di mana dia semua tapi bisa mendengar mereka hum? Ketika ia tiba-tiba diputar, mendekati dia dengan semua rahmat berbahaya macan tutul, Jordan berjuang untuk menekan merintih yang mengancam untuk jatuh dari bibirnya.Itu adalah keajaiban dia bisa membuat suara apapun sama sekali ketika ia masih ini dekat dengan sesak napas.Dia beringsut menuju pintu. "Yah, itu saja untuk grand tour. Jade akan selesai memaku Doc. Aku harus menuju ke cincin." Dia mengambil langkah tergesa-gesa mundur yang tidak lakukan apapun baik dalam menjaga jarak antara mereka.Ia adalah cara, cara terlalu dekat. "Apa yang... apa yang Anda lakukan?" katanya terengah-engah. Dia tidak bisa ingat ini gugup atau ini diketahui orang lain."Saya akan berpikir itu akan menjadi cukup jelas."Suaranya sebagai hangat sebagai tangan ia telah menyelinap di sekitar tengkuk leher. Bagaimana ia telah berhasil melakukan hal itu? Dia bertanya-tanya bodohnya, otaknya berjuang untuk proses apa yang terjadi. Jari-jarinya ringan membelai kulitnya, sentuhan-nya secara bersamaan mendebarkan dan belum disconcertingly asing. Gemetar halus merebut dia, ingin berperang dengan tulang-mendalam ketidakpastian.His face, already so close she could count the gold chips in his eyes, came nearer still as he angled his head. As if hypnotized by the sensual spell he’d cast, her lids grew heavy, her body strangely languorous. Still, some part of her resisted, tried to prevent what she feared, what she hoped was coming. “I think—”
“Bad idea to think. Especially when we can do this,” he whispered, bringing his lips to hers.
The touch of his lips was a slow and easy graze. Its very lightness sparked her desire. A millisecond that could have been an eternity elapsed while everything in her went still and waiting, just waiting, for his lips to meet, to taste hers again.
She lifted weighted lids to find his eyes focused on her. Lord, he was so beautiful, his face the sculpted perfection of a Renaissance statue, his eyes a rich, burnt umber lit with gold. Trapped in her chest, her breath escaped in a soft moan.
At the hushed sound, a signal of her acquiescence, his gaze burned brighter. Again his mouth claimed hers, this time boldly, his lips clinging, learning. Sensations rushed through her like a storm breaking and her heart thundered. She trembled, buffeted by the force of her response.
Solid and strong, he pressed closer, his mouth commanding, silently urging her to open for him. Instinctively she obeyed, inviting the bold sweep of his tongue. She registered the taste of him—warm, exotic, slightly salty and deliciously male and then their tongues were tangling, rubbing in a sleek erotic slide that unleashed a flood of heat inside her. She breathed in citrus and sandalwood on his warm skin, the scent intoxicating enough to make her head spin, her toes curl into the rug, and her hands fist against the hard wall of his chest as everything inside her went fluid and soft, melting with desire.
Oh, oh, oh, she chanted in a silent litany, rendered mindless by his kiss, by the touch of his hands on her fevered skin. Knowing only need and want, she opened her mouth wider, kissing him back hungrily.
Her response earned her a rumbled groan of approval and more, as he deepened the kiss, plundering ever more boldly, as the fingers of one hand tangled in the base of her ponytail, his other hand wrapped around her waist and then slipped beneath her cotton shirt, drawing her flush against his hard length … his very hard length.
The dual, high-voltage shock of his warm hand splayed over the small of her bared back and the unmistakable bulge of his erection had her jumping back as if scorched.
“No.” The word was an alarmed yelp.
Owen’s hooded eyes closed for a second and then opened.
“No?”
“No.” Dear God, what she would give to make her voice sound steadier right now.