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“Would you like to come in for a drink?” she asked.
“I’d love to,” he walked behind her to her front door, keeping his hand on the small of her back the entire time.
Her waist was small and pronounced, her hips larger but not too big. He brought his other hand to her waist because he wanted to see what his hands looked like on her body. He really wanted to hold her like this when she was naked. To see the full curves of her bare derrière.
“What are you doing?”
“Imagining you naked,” he said.
She blushed and dropped her keys. She bent to pick them up and he moaned as the fabric of her skirt was pulled taut against her buttocks. He let his hands slide down her curves, skimming along the outside of her hips until he almost reached the hem of the skirt.
She stood up, put her key in the lock and opened the door. “Don’t do that.”
“Why not?”
“Because we still have a business arrangement. A deal for me to publish feature articles about your family—we shouldn’t have a personal relationship on top of that.”
“We aren’t working together, Ainsley,” he said, stepping over her threshold and forcing her to take a step back. He closed the door behind them and leaned forward to cage her against the wall.
“What we have is so much more than a business arrangement,” he said.
“Really?” she asked. “Because it seems to me that you’re the type of man who’ll only say that until you’ve been in my bed.”
Ainsley was seduced by everything about Steven. He was a charming dinner companion and he knew how to pay attention to a woman. He leaned in when she spoke, listened to her answers and then asked her questions that invited her to talk more deeply. It was something that no other man had done when she’d been out with him.
But this feeling was similar to ones he’d evoked in her before. And after those short few hours spent together talking, he’d left and ruined her life.
With this new body she knew that men found her attractive. It was silly to say but she still felt like the chubby girl who sat in the back of the classroom alone. She doubted that was going to change anytime soon.
Having Steven’s attention wasn’t going to make it easier. Yet she wanted him. She wanted to be the kind of sophisticated woman who could take him to her bed and have no regrets if he walked away in the morning.
But she wasn’t. He was so close to her that she could feel his body heat. His hands were on either side of the wall next to her head. He surrounded her.
She glanced up at him, trying once again to see something in his eyes that would tell her what kind of man he was. All night long she’d asked probing questions—used her best reporter’s techniques from the old days—and she’d gotten nothing from him.
A few answers to a few questions, but nothing that she could hang her hat on.
“What is going on in that head of yours?” he asked. His tone so very British that she wanted to melt. She loved the accent, so different from her soft Southern twang.
“I’m trying to gauge the measure of the man before me.”
Steven didn’t move, but she felt as if he’d stepped closer to her. His left hand shifted slightly on the wall and he stroked her cheekbone with his thumb.
His touch was electric. She’d realized that earlier when he’d kissed her by his car. She was powerless against it. No man had ever touched her like that before. No man had ever made her feel…sexy.
She realized then that there was no way she would turn him away. He was the first man to look at her since she’d lost all her weight and made her feel like she was a woman.
“Have I come up lacking?” he asked.
“No, Steven, you haven’t,” she said.
“I like the sound of my name on your lips,” he said.
“Really? Why?”
His thumb moved lower on her face caressing her lower lip as he stared down at her. She was glad she’d left the light on in the living room because it cast a soft glow in the foyer.
“Your voice softens when you use my name. Otherwise, you’re all business,” he said.
In the quiet of her foyer she felt safe admitting the truth to him. “My job is my life.”
He arched one eyebrow at her. “The same has been said of me.”
“And is it true?”
He shrugged. “Many believe it is. But I have other interests.”
“Like what?” she asked, hoping to learn something that she hadn’t read online or in a magazine. Steven Devonshire raised privacy to an altogether new level.
“Skydiving.”
That took her completely by surprise. Skydiving was a risky venture, despite the safety measures taken by everyone who participated in the sport. By the same token, she could see the appeal in the sport for Steven. He thrived on risk and excitement.
