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A shrink would have a field day in his head with all his Mommy and Daddy issues. Jeez. And here he’d thought once he’d left for L.A. he’d left all of those years behind.
“They will really appreciate that,” he told her.
Shrugging, Cassie maneuvered around him and grabbed a small blanket from the couch and started folding it. “I’m no Linda, but I do enjoy baking when I have the time.”
She laid the folded blanket across the back of the couch and looked back at him. He couldn’t stop his eyes from traveling over her again. How could he help the fact he found her sexier than any woman he’d ever met? She probably wouldn’t believe him if he told her that her curves were enticing, her low maintenance a refreshing change.
Cassie tugged on the hem of her shirt. “I should probably go change.”
“No.” He held up his hand to stop her. “This is your house—you should be comfortable. Besides, I’ve seen it all.”
Her eyes flared with remembrance and passion as Ian closed the space between them and looked down at her mouth. “I’ve tasted it all, too, if you recall.”
With a shaky nod, she said, “I remember.”
The pulse at the base of her throat increased and Ian ran a hand over his face as he took a step back. “I swear, I didn’t come here for this.”
Cassie’s bright blue eyes darted away. “I understand.”
“No, you don’t.” Great, now she thought he was rejecting her. “It’s not that I don’t want you, Cassie. That’s the furthest from the truth.”
Shoving her hair back from her shoulders, Cassie shook her head. “Ian, it’s okay. You don’t have to make excuses. I’m a big girl. I can handle the truth. Besides, we’re past this awkward stage, right?”
“Yeah,” he agreed because right now he was feeling anything but awkward. Excited and aroused, but not awkward. “I don’t know what possessed me to show up at your door this late, but...”
Cassie produced that punch-to-the-gut smile. “You can stop by anytime.”
How did she do that? Instantly make him feel welcome, wanted...needed. There was so much more to Cassie Barrington than he’d first perceived. There were sides to the confident vixen, the single mother and the overworked trainer he had yet to discover.
Cassie was giving, loving and patient. He’d known instantly that she was special, but maybe he just hadn’t realized how special. This woman embodied everything he hadn’t known he’d been looking for.
“Why are you looking at me like that?” she asked, brows drawn together, smile all but gone.
Ian took a step toward her. He’d been mentally dancing around her for days and now he was physically doing it as he made up his mind on how to approach her.
“Because I just realized that all of your layers are starting to reveal themselves, one at a time.” He slid his fingertips up her arms and back down, relishing the goose bumps he produced with such a simple touch. “I didn’t want to see all of that before. I wanted you to be unattainable. I wanted you to be all wrong and someone I could easily forget.”
Those vibrant eyes remained locked on his as her breath caught.
“But there’s no way I could ever forget you, Cassie. Or us.”
He didn’t give her time to object. He claimed her lips and instantly she responded—opening her mouth to him, wrapping her arms around his neck and plunging her fingers into his hair.
Ian knew he wasn’t leaving anytime soon. He also knew her T-shirt had to go.
Eleven
Cassie had no idea what she was doing. Okay, she knew what she was doing and who she was doing it with, but hadn’t she just had a mental talk with herself about the hazards of getting wrapped up in Ian’s seductive ways? Hadn’t she told herself she’d already been burned once and was still recovering?
But the way his mouth captured hers, the way he held her as if she were the rarest of gems, Cassie couldn’t help but take pleasure in the fact that Ian pulled out a passion in her that she’d never known existed.
When Ian’s hands gripped the hem of her T-shirt and tugged up, she eased back and in an instant the unwanted garment was up and over her head, flung to the side without a care.
Dark-as-sin eyes raked over her body, which was now bare of everything except a pair of red lacy panties. The old Cassie wanted to shield herself with her hands, but the way Ian visually sampled her gave her the confidence of a goddess.
“I could look at you forever,” he said, his voice husky.
Forever. The word hovered in the air, but Cassie knew he was speaking only from lust, not in the happily-ever-after term.
