Page 51 of Love Overdose: St. Louis

Her fingers stilled.

“I know what you intended this to be,” I continued. “You planned to have a clean exit this morning. I agreed because I wanted you, and one night was better than continuing to wonder how you would feel beneath me.”

“Now you know.”

“I do.” I slid my hand over her exposed thigh. “And I want more than what we planned.”

A quiet breath moved through her.

“What does more look like to you?”

“Spending time together. Continuing what we’ve started. Allowing this to become whatever it’s going to become without pretending last night satisfied my interest in you.”

She raised her eyes to mine. “That sounds suspiciously like dating.”

“We’ve been dating.”

“We’ve been on dates.”

“That’s generally how it begins.”

Frankie smiled, but the vulnerability in her eyes remained.

“Are you always this sure?”

“When I have reason to be.”

“And you’re sure about me?”

“I’m sure I want to know you beyond what I already do. I’m sure I don’t want another man receiving the parts of you I had last night. And I’m sure I have no interest in returning to whatever I was doing before you.”

“Which was what?”

“Working.”

“That’s it?”

“For the most part.”

She pushed herself higher against me, and the movement drew the satin farther up her body.

My hand closed around her hip.

“Are you avoiding my question?”

“I answered it.”

“For the most part, it means there were women.” Her fingers traced a slow line along my chest. “Has there ever been anyone serious?”

I could have given her an easy answer and kept the morning light. But asking her to take me seriously meant giving her the truth when she asked for it.

“There was someone I thought could become serious.”

Frankie waited.

“We enjoyed each other. There was potential, but my schedule made it difficult to build anything consistent. I canceled plans. Left dinners early. Missed things that mattered to her because patients needed me.”

“She ended it?”