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Then the rest of her words sank in. Honest? Always?
Shit.
His conscience and his body went to war. If he told her, he’d never feel her body against his again. She’d give him that same look, the resigned hurt mixed with disdainful anger. He much preferred the hot, sultry look of curiosity in her eyes now.
To hell with his conscience. He wanted to take her up on that look.
“Mr. Drake?”
Dex yanked his gaze from Zoe’s to glance at the hotel manager. “Sir, we have a problem at the pool.”
“The pool?” Dex glanced out the window. It had to be forty degrees outside.
“Mrs. Drake was hosting her weekly pinochle club. Somehow, it changed into a…” The man glanced at Zoe, then grimaced and lowered his voice. “A séance by the pool. Apparently someone panicked and fell in. It sparked a, well, rather enthusiastic reaction from the other attendees and now the pool is filled with octogenarians who are rapidly turning blue.”
Dex closed his eyes and sighed. Why hadn’t his parents warned him that it wasn’t the inn that’d be so much trouble to watch over? It was his grandma.
Zoe’s snicker was quiet, but Dex heard it anyway. He gave her a mock glare. She giggled. “I forgot how much fun your grandma was,” she said. Something shifted in her eyes. The heat cooled, replaced by affection and something else. Memories, maybe?
“I guess I need to go fish some people out of the pool,” he said, nodding to the manager, who left with a relieved sigh. Dex couldn’t figure out why the change in her expression bothered him. “I’m sorry to cut our reunion short.”
“I have to go anyway,” she told him. Then she leaned forward and laid her hand over his. Warm tingles danced their way up his arm and straight down to his crotch. Then, before he could turn his hand over to take hers, she pulled away.
She stood slowly. Dex’s gaze slid over her body as she rose. Damn, she was beautiful. He was developing a major fetish for leather. He wanted to wrap his hands over the sweet curve of her hips, pull her against him and nibble his way across her belly.
“It was good to see you, Dex.” He met her gaze, saw the confusion, then a reluctant decision in the beautiful depths. “Reunion s are supposed to be for catching up with old friends but we both know you’re the only one I had here. I’m glad to have a chance to renew that friendship.”
Dex frowned. Her message was clear. She planned to let the chemistry between them go unexplored.
So he let her go. He knew Zoe. Her words said not interested, but those were just words. He looked into her eyes, saw the heat and interest lurking beneath the amusement. Yeah. They’d talk again soon. As soon as he figured out the next move in the game.
“See ya,” she said, grabbing her phone then sauntering away as though she didn’t have a care in the world. He watched her stop at the hostess’s desk and talk to the woman there, gesturing to the table and giving him a wicked smile. He grinned back, amused at what was obviously girl talk when his hostess shot him a wide-eyed look of laughter. Then, as if she had no idea his gaze was cemented on her butt, Zoe left the restaurant in a slow, hip-swinging strut that made his mouth go dry. Dex lifted his cup of coffee to his lips, as if the caffeine might restart his brain.
Her words said no. Her hips said maybe.
Game on.
5
INEXPLICABLE SADNESS tangled with confused lust as Zoe sashayed across the lobby toward the elevators. She had to force herself not to turn right around and run back into the restaurant to beg Dex to forget they’d once been best friends and do her on the table.
But that’d be crazy. Because this was Dex. It was one thing to lust after a masked hottie who kissed her crazy in the dark. It was another to choose lust and risk her friendship—granted an old and not well-maintained friendship, which was beside the point—over it.After all, she hadn’t had many friends in her life. So it would be stupid to risk losing one, wouldn’t it? Even if it had been ten years since she seen or heard from Dex and she wasn’t sure if he still counted as a friend or not. Did it count if she didn’t feel friendship so much as intense, powerful and gut-clenching desire?
And what kind of friend was she that she’d let the distraction of wondering if Dex’s hands were as talented as they looked stop her from prodding, poking and getting the details of what he was actually up to these days? For a brief second, she wondered if Dex could be Gandalf. But then she shook her head. Nah. For one thing, he’d been working in I.T. last year. And second, Dex had always been the ultimate geek. A math and science whiz, but totally uncreative and shy. Definitely not the “develop a fantasy video game” kind of guy.
