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Then five after.
And ten after.
Finally, she locked the front door, flipped her sign, and headed to the back to shut off the lights. All the while, she told herself she was happy he’d listened to her. Thrilled. It made her life so much easier.
Twenty minutes past six, she turned off the light for the storage room and office, and yanked open the door to go upstairs. She was not disappointed in the least that he hadn’t showed. She wasn’t angry either—she was relieved.
Except, suddenly there he was, coming through the outside door from the back parking lot, carry-out bags in each hand. She pulled up short, her heart lodged high in her throat as excitement woke up her whole body with an electrifying shot of adrenalin.
Loyal smiled when he saw her. “Hi.”
She still wasn’t used to smiles instead of scowls. The flash of his white teeth through his dark stubble, and the way his eyes crinkled as if he was genuinely happy to see her made it hard to catch her breath. His dark gaze took stock of her black pencil skirt and form-fitting charcoal cashmere sweater. The heat in his gaze telegraphed to her body and spiraled down to settle low in her belly.
He wore business casual, as usual. Slim khakis, light blue shirt tucked, pants belted, with a dark brown vest. His usually styled hair was mussed, as if he’d run a hand through it a time or two. He should look nerdy, or stuffy, or something other than deliciously sexy.
“I didn’t think you were coming,” she said, striving for indifference.
“Yeah. Sorry I’m late. Josephine’s was swamped.” He let the door shut behind him and lifted the bags in his hands. “You want to take this upstairs, or sit at one of your shop tables?”
If she took him upstairs, she might as well take him straight to the bedroom. She absolutely could not do that. Not after her conversation with Asher. In fact, if she had any smarts at all, she’d tell him he was too late and she leaving to meet his brother and Honor at the pub.
Instead, she stepped back and held the door open for him to enter the shop.
She’d have to make do with half-smarts tonight.
As he passed by, the delicious smell of Italian spices almost covered up that faint scent of his cologne she loved so much. Almost. She took a discrete inhale and savored all the aromas in the air.
Loyal glanced right, into her dark office-storage area, then paused for a longer look to the left through the hanging beads leading into her reading room. Like in the store, she kept a Himalayan salt lamp lit twenty-four seven, and the orange glow was bright enough to make out her table and chairs, plus the large chaise lounge against the far wall.
But he didn’t stay there long enough for her to feel the need to explain, and as he moved on to set the bags on one of the tables, she followed to flick on the bright lights over the coffee station. There would be no leaving it to ambient lighting to give a romantic feel.
“You didn’t have to do this,” she told him.
“This is just one of many apologies I owe you from the past six years.”
Her heart warmed at those words, but she said, “The other night was apology enough.”
Loyal started taking containers fr
om the bags. “If that was an apology, then it definitely wasn’t enough.”
Heat flamed through her when she realized he thought she’d been referring to their time in the stables. “I meant on the bench,” she clarified. “You apologized on the bench.”
“I’ll apologize anywhere you want, Roxanna.”
How about right here?
But when he lifted his gaze with the husky statement, she swallowed hard and shook her head as much for herself as for him. “You have to stop that.”
He stared at her for a moment, then set down the container in his hands and stepped around the table. “Why? There’s no use denying the chemistry between us. Lord knows I’ve tried from the day we met.”
The words shocked her enough that a few seconds later, she found herself backed up against the coffee station. He trapped her with a hand braced on each side of her against the counter. Then he dipped his head until his stubble-rough cheek rasped against her smooth one.
All rational thought scattered as his warm breath fanned her ear.
“We’re both consenting adults here. What’s the harm in indulging?”
His lips brushed her ear before sliding across her neck, to the underside of her jaw. Roxanna started to tilt her head to give him better access, then she desperately latched on to one last shred of common sense.
