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“No.”
“That’s not what I meant. Well, that always seems to be in the background of what I’m feeling where you’re concerned, but I was thinking more along the lines of going somewhere to get a cup of coffee and talk. This,” he gestured around the party in full swing, “isn’t really my scene.”
Hers neither. She’d talked with the board members and their significant others, had put in an appearance because she respected and adored Dr. Luiz, even if she hadn’t quite forgiven him. She was ready to leave. But with Matthew?
Get a cup of coffee and talk. It sounded so innocent.
So tempting.
“Fine. Coffee. Talk. Nothing else.”
But if it really was innocent, if she really believed she was just going for coffee and talk, why did every warning bell in Natalie’s head sound?
CHAPTER ELEVEN
MATTHEW LET NATALIE make the rounds saying her farewells to several of their colleagues, to Dr. Luiz and his wife. He waited for her to leave, alone, kept an eye on her bozo ex to make sure the idiot didn’t follow, and within fifteen minutes made his own farewell rounds and left the party still in full swing.
He half expected Natalie to have changed her mind, for her to not be sitting in the coffee shop where they’d agreed to meet. It didn’t take a genius to see how torn she was about him.
That he understood.
There was a lot about her that had his insides torn as well. But having seen her ex pawing at her seemed to have tossed out his common sense and good intentions.
When he arrived at the coffee shop, she was sipping on a cup of something hot and reading on her phone. To the casual observer, she looked calm. Matthew wasn’t a casual observer. He noticed the little tremor in the hand that held her phone, the way she moistened her lips several times, the way her eyes closed and she appeared to be praying.
For what? For strength to tell him to get lost? For him not to stand her up? Or maybe the opposite; maybe it would be easier if he just turned and left, giving her something else to hold against him?
Something shifted inside his chest. Something monumental.
All because of this woman.
He wanted her.
At the moment, fighting the way she made him feel seemed ridiculous.
Which was, itself, crazy. Even if he could convince Natalie they weren’t toying with insanity and risking their careers to spend the night together, even if he could convince her to say yes, how would they react to each other on Monday?
Was it possible that if they had sex again it would dampen the fire burning between them? That maybe they could move on and have a truly professional relationship?
Could he risk everything to find out?
Carrie was adjusting to Memphis so well, loved being near Matthew’s family. No wonder, when he was such a screw-up stand-in parent and his family had stepped in and pulled the child into their fold. His sister had wanted Carrie to spend the night with her two girls. They’d been headed to a movie then having a girls’ slumber party. Carrie was no doubt having a blast with five-year-old Mandy and three-year-old Liz.
Matthew wanted to have the time of his life.
With Natalie.
What would one night hurt?
Perhaps sensing him watching her, she glanced up from her phone and spotted him, looking a little leery, like she wasn’t sure if she was glad he was there or not. Still, she managed a soft smile, and Matthew knew he was a goner.
Perhaps he’d been a goner from the moment he’d noticed her in the airport and not been able to get her out of his brain since.
Either way, he wanted her, knew she wanted him.
He intended to have her.
* * *
