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She gave him her address and they hung up. Aiden texted Kane that he wouldn’t make it to his place tonight for poker then ignored the texts from Kane, Gage, and Rafe ragging on him for missing the game and then giving him crap about who was keeping him away.

Rafe was the only one to guess it was Lily.

Chapter Nine

“Have you always wanted to cook? I mean, you do more than just nutrition. You’re a really amazing chef,” Aiden said, pushing back from his all but licked clean plate. She’d chosen the restaurant and it was fantastic. A small hole-in-the-wall in her neighborhood owned by an older couple that had traveled all over the world before opening their dream restaurant. They served dishes from Italy, France, Spain, and even Cambodia. It was eclectic, but he was stuffed and completely sated.

Well, in one arena. In another? Not so much. Looking at Lily across the table from him the whole night, the way she laughed and told stories with so much animation, so much enthusiasm, was intoxicating. He wanted to drag her across the table and pick up where they’d left off the other day, taking it much further this time.

This was not good. He’d thought he could just take her to dinner, get her into bed, get this damned itch out of his system, and be done with her.

But, actually executing his brilliant plan? Yeah, that wasn’t working out as planned. He was hard as a rock under the table, but there was a lot more to this than his attraction to her. He was also having a damn good time. Every time she smiled at him or laughed, he felt himself drawn in more and more.

“I used to cook with my mom and sisters all the time,” she said. “We still do whenever we’re together.” She looked a little wistful, and he wondered where her family was.

“Do you see them often?”

“No, only holidays, really. They’re still all out in Wisconsin.”

He grinned. “So, lakes and cheese, huh?” He should have known she was a Midwest girl—so sweet and outdoorsy, and girl-next-doorish.

She laughed again at him. “We have more than lakes and cheese.”

But he didn’t miss the way her smile fell a little, and she toyed with the food on her plate.

“What brought you here? So far away from your family?”

She shrugged a shoulder. “I came out here with an ex-boyfriend. Not only for him. I wanted a change, too. I wanted to see more of the world, experience something outside of my little cocoon. And, then we got here, it became clear I wasn’t going to be what he wanted. He left me, but I stayed here anyway. I fell in love with the city. I had made friends, and I’d started school.”

He watched her quietly, as he drank another gulp of beer, willing himself not to ask, not to go there.

“Why weren’t you what he wanted?”Epic fail, Aiden. Epic fail.

She crinkled her nose up. “He wanted a stay-at-home wife who could go to his firm’s events with him at a moment’s notice. He was a lawyer,” she said, with another little crinkle of her nose. “He needed a showpiece, and it turns out, I’m not all that good at being a china doll.”

He smiled. “No, I can see how you wouldn’t be good at that. You need your own life, your own dreams and goals.”

This earned him a wide smile as she nodded and began to eat again. And, as he watched her, he felt his boat sinking. He was done. A goner. Because there was just something too damned appealing about her. Too hard for him to resist.

New game plan. More than one night. Date her. Sleep with her. But don’t get too close. Just fun. Nothing but fun.

* * *

Lily was more than a little shocked at Aiden. She hadn’t expected him to take such an interest in her. Not in her business or her life. She thought they’d spend the evening talking about him and then he’d make every effort to get in her pants before tossing her aside for the next cute girl to smile his way.

But, that wasn’t at all what he was like.

They talked about all kinds of things over dinner. He was interested in her life, her work, her family. And, he told her about baseball. Not about his part in it or his fame or how great he was. But, about his love of the sport. He described the way it felt to be in a baseball stadium as a kid. How much he’d loved sitting next to his dad, watching the action play out in front of him as his dad analyzed every play for him, taught him the ins and outs of the game. He told her how much better hot dogs tasted at the stadium than anywhere else in the world, and then talked about what it felt like the first time he walked out onto the field as a player in his first major league game.

Watching him made her realize it wasn’t the fame he loved or the attention or the money or women. It was the game. And, he still looked as though he loved the game as much as he had sitting next to his dad in the stands as a kid. It was almost magical, really.

After dessert, they walked around the little neighborhood a bit, and Lily realized how nervous she was with him. He held her hand as they walked, throwing her completely off balance. She almost wished he’d been the jerk she assumed he was, because it would have made it easier to stay away from him. And, for some reason, even though her preconceived notions of him had been shattered, she still knew one thing for certain. He wasn't a guy she could have a future with. He wasn’t someone who wanted to get married, settle down, and raise a family.

A big part of her knew this was a really good reason to walk away. But, an equally big part seemed drawn to him. She began to wonder if maybe it wasn’t time to just let herself have fun for once. After all, she’d dated those guys who wanted to settle down and where had that gone? Heck, Craig had only wanted her to be another rung in the ladder to a coveted partnership at his law firm. She saw a lot of parallels between Aiden and Craig. Both seemed single minded in their ambition to succeed, to be the best at what they did. And, both had reasons to want a pretty girl on their arm, but not someone who would have demands or needs. Just a showpiece.

She hadn’t known that going in with Craig and it had hurt like hell to find out. But, maybe knowing was half the battle. Maybe knowing what Aiden could and couldn’t give her, knowing it couldn't be anything other than sex, would make it different. Why shouldn't she just have fun with him, if that’s what she wanted?

So, when Aiden turned to her and told her almost apologetically, “I can’t make any promises, Lily. I can’t give you anything permanent. Nothing down the road. No future. Just a fling for however long it lasts,” she shrugged and smiled at him.

Source: www.allfreenovel.com
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