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”I figured you’d date someone again eventually,” Liam said between huge bites. “But I have no idea what a woman like her wants with you. And from the look of things, you don’t know, either.”
Ethan stood there, watching his brother eat cake, and wondered for the umpteenth time what he was getting himself into.
Not because Liam wasn’t sure what was going on between Ethan and Rue.
But because Ethan wasn’t, either.
Chapter Five
Rue loved the second Thursday of the month. She had a standing date with a friend—not at a bar or a club, but working together for an utterly adorable, thoroughly worthy cause helping local shelter animals find homes. This one didn’t quite take her to the ends of the earth, but while it didn’t feed her need to wander, it made her heart burst with joy.
Those Thursdays were the absolute best.
Except when her friend cancelled on her.
Rue stared at her phone. There was no way she could handle her part alone, which meant she needed a plan B. And she knew the perfect man for the job. If this gig didn’t make Ethan relax, he was beyond help.
Inspired, she shot him a text.
Meet me at the coffee shop by your apartment building in thirty.
And then she waited, fully expecting him to deny her. He hadn’t seemed comfortable in his own apartment the day before, but as far as she was concerned, that was more reason for him to get out of there. Whether the tension had been naturally his or a product of having her there, she didn’t know, but it didn’t matter. He needed a distraction.
She glanced at the time. It was after Fusion’s regular hours, although it was possible he was working late. She hoped not. She hoped he’d be free and willing to admit to it, but she wasn’t so sure she’d get her wish.
Five minutes later, his response surprised her.
Okay.
Short and no indication it was sweet, but at least he didn’t argue. And, in fact, when he arrived, he was early. She glanced up from her path on the sidewalk to see him standing, leaning against the bricks, and her heart did a half dozen back flips. He had a thing for jeans, and jeans had a definite thing for him. The denim was faded and well-worn in all the right places, the effect at once rugged and soft. He had the body of a man who knew the value of physical work, with muscles firmly in place although his stance against the wall was casual with one foot kicked in front of the other. When he glanced up and saw her, the smile that followed nearly melted her into the hot sidewalk.
He’s taken. He’s soo taken.
The warning did little to rein in the blatant attraction rampaging through her. She’d seen the man in his underwear, and he was definitely rampage-worthy.
And taken.
Still, he tossed an easy smile her way. “Hey,” he said.
“Hey.” She would have said more, but when he pushed away from the wall and enveloped her in all of his green-eyed warmth, she lost her breath. And her sanity, because he could be the most available guy in the world and he’d still be off limits…at least to her. She had every intention of leaving the city for parts unknown. She might be stuck as a photographer’s assistant for now, but she had the talent and the drive to do more. Much more. Her dream of traveling the world professionally was so close to coming true that she could practically touch it. She was one of three finalists in a chase to join a world-renowned conservation photographer in the Galapagos Islands. If she won the paid internship, that flight in three weeks would take her a few hundred miles off the coast of Ecuador, where she’d be surrounded by the vast Pacific Ocean.
Definitely not the time to get involved with anyone, let alone a man who was still in love with his dead wife. Ethan Chase was not fling material.
Even if he was so physically fling material.
Despite her misgivings and a sea of waving red flags, she remained utterly, ridiculously drawn to the man. She often worked with male models and thought herself impervious to the effects of a hard body and seriously good looks, but Ethan upped the ante in ways she couldn’t begin to comprehend. Either he didn’t know he was stupidly hot, or he didn’t think anything of it, but either way, the effect was mesmerizing. All of his intensity seemed to settle in one place, and at that moment, the focus of that attention was her.
