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Which meant he hadn’t already found her.
Not that Faith thought he had. Just that part of her had hoped someday he’d realize how good it might be between them. Then again, she imagined Vale was the kind of man who it was always good between.
Between the sheets, between the car seats, between the sand and the waves.
Where had that thought come from? She wasn’t prone to lust. Was used to dealing with how he made her feel and usually did a great job of suppressing her baser instincts. So why hadn’t she then?
She gulped, tearing her gaze from him to stare out at the ocean. Coming here with him had been a horrible mistake. One she’d likely live to regret.
“What about you?”
“Me?” She knew his gaze was on her, but she didn’t dare look at him. He’d see too much in her eyes, would instantly realize that she’d met the man she wanted for all time during a job interview eighteen months ago.
No! She hadn’t met the man she wanted for all time. Vale was not that man. There was no that man. All she felt for Vale was physical attraction and professional admiration. That was it. Nothing more.
“Why haven’t you married?” he clarified, his words nipping at her soul as surely as the tide tugged at her feet.
“I imagine someday I’ll meet someone who’ll sweep me off my feet.” Someone who’d make her forget how Vale’s lips had felt against hers, how even now thoughts of him pushing her back onto the sand and kissing her danced through her mind. Not that she thought things would last with that man either. She didn’t.
Men left. It was what they did best.
“And give you babies to take to soccer practice?”
She tried not to let images of blue-eyed imps dribbling the ball toward the goal take over her mind. She did not want to have Vale’s babies. She didn’t want babies period. Sure, the making them might be fun, but then she’d be like her mother, alone, raising a child.
Only her mother hadn’t been able to stand being alone and had flitted from one loveless marriage to another, from one man who’d eventually leave her to another.
“I’m in no hurry at this point in my life to meet someone or even think about marriage and babies. My career is what’s most important.”
“Until you achieve your career goals?” he teased, but his eyes held a steely quality.
“It’s not as if I’m going to reach a certain point, mark my career off my life to-do list, then move on to marriage and children, Vale.” She glanced out at the horizon, spotting the silho
uette of a ferry off in the distance. “Just that at some point down the line I’d like to believe I can have all the things I want.”
She wouldn’t remind him that what she wanted was a real house with a real yard for her dog to play in. No man required.
“You’re a special woman, Faith. If anyone can ever have it all, I’m sure it’s you.”
She glanced at him, saw the sincerity on his face, and smiled. “Thank you, Vale. That quite simply might be the nicest thing you’ve ever said to me.”
“You jest.” His forehead wrinkled. “I’ve complimented you before.”
“About my work, yes. Me? No.”
He stopped walking, turned to face her. His hand squeezed hers reassuringly. “Just tonight I told you what a beautiful woman you are.”
“Tthat’s d-different,” she stammered, wondering at the light in his eyes. Was it the reflection of the last golden rays dancing across the sky? Or was Vale looking at her as if she really was beautiful?
His brow lifted. “Because you don’t believe me when I say that you are beautiful?”
“I’ve seen the women you date. I’m not even in the same league.” Models, actresses, heiresses, he went through them all.
“True,” he agreed, twisting the knife in her gut. He could at least have been polite and not said anything.
She’d never have him, knew she never would, and was foolish to have these momentary lapses where she dreamed she might.
“None of the women I’ve known hold a candle to you, Faith. Not a single one.”
