Page 47

I bite down on a smile as I shrug. “Obviously, I’d understand if that part didn’t happen. I’d be disappointed, but I’d understand.”

“That’s generous of you. What about the fact that you’d hate Iceland? You get cold when the office is set below seventy-two.”

“I—”

“And no owner of a small bed-and-breakfast can just take off for a few weeks to go to Iceland.”

I set down my fork. “Any other dreams you’d like to crush, Ben?”

“Well,” he says, “you’d have to share them with me first.”

I laugh, and then our eyes hold, and he’s smiling, and lust hits me out of nowhere. Not the normal kind of lust, not even the normal kind of lust I feel for Ben, but the sort that makes me feel a little deranged, that has me wondering if he’d follow me to the bathroom if I suggested it. Maybe that is sort of the normal lust I feel for Ben. I want him to pin me to his desk, just like he did the first time.

“Let’s get out of here,” I say.

His gaze sharpens, grows predatory, in a second’s time. I’ve never seen a man pay a check faster than he does ours.

His fingers twine with mine as we walk to the waiting car, and even that tiny bit of intimacy makes my breath catch. He climbs in beside me, and suddenly...we’re alone. In a small, enclosed space. I cross my legs and his eyes go to my bare calves and then my heels. He swallows and I can barely stand not to lean over and press my lips to his neck.

We get back to the parking garage in record time. He reaches over the console toward me, pulling my mouth to his. “I’ve wanted to do that all night,” he says.

“I want you to do a lot more than that.”

“God, yes,” he groans, resting his forehead against mine. “Your place?”

“Uh—” If he comes to my place, then I can’t get him to leave. Suddenly he’s staying the night, showering, leaving items behind. I pull back. “Let’s just go upstairs. It’s closer.”

He studies my face. “You only live a few blocks away.”

“Your office is twenty seconds away by elevator,” I argue.

I see a tiny flicker of disappointment in his eyes. “We aren’t having sex in the office again.”

My jaw drops. “Why the hell not? What was the purpose of all this, then?”

His hand reaches out to cradle my face. “Maybe I just wanted to get to know you better,” he says. “Or maybe I really wanted to poison you.”

“I know which of those is more likely,” I mutter, rolling my eyes, “so it looks like I’m heading to the ER. Thanks, Ben.”

He laughs, and then he gives me the sweetest, most tender smile. Not unlike the look he has on his face in Drew’s wedding photos. “I want to be someone you trust enough to invite home, Gemma. And I’m willing to wait for it.”

There’s a small squeeze in my chest, and I can’t tell if it’s pleasure or terror.

“I’m only falling for this whole dinner ruse once,” I say, unbuckling my seat belt.

He grins. “I’ll have to come up with something new the next time.”

I climb out. “There won’t be a next time.”

He waits until I’m safely in my car and driving away before he texts:

Ben: Sure there won’t.

I smile like a fool the rest of the way home.

25

“I can’t believe he told me no,” I complain to Keeley.