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But when she’d been comparing kitchen options on her tablet, she’d simultaneously been investigating a wide receiver’s shoulder injury and a competing team’s new blitz packages. No wonder she’d all but forgotten the details until now.
“Anything is fine.” She wasn’t in the mood to eat, her body still humming with awareness and a sensual hunger of a more unsettling kind after those heated few moments earlier.
Even in this giant house, Dempsey’s magnetic pull remained as potent as if they were separated by inches and not feet. When he walked toward her, her breath caught. Her heart skipped one beat. Then two. It had been one thing to ignore her reaction to him when he’d always treated her as a friend. But now that he’d opened that door to a different kind of relationship, teasing her with hints of the possible chemistry they might have together...her whole being seemed to spark and simmer with the possibilities. That kind of distraction would not make figuring out her professional life any easier.
First she needed to strategize a method for dealing with him and this fake engagement, then find a way out of the house as soon as possible. She couldn’t survive spending twenty-four hours a day with him, especially when she wasn’t sure if he genuinely felt some kind of attraction, too, or if he’d always known about the feelings she thought she’d kept well hidden. Would he be so cruel as to use that attraction now to his advantage?
“Gervais has a full-time chef at his place now that Erika is having twins.” He gestured in the general direction of the house on the hill where his older brother had settled his soon-to-be wife, a beautiful foreign princess who would fit right into the Reynaud family. “It’s easy to have something sent over.”
“I’m too wound up to eat.” She shrugged. “I would make some tea, though.” She peered around the kitchen, not seeing a kettle or any other signs of basic staples.
“Tea.” He typed in something on his phone and shook his head. “I’ll ask for a few things.” He set the device aside. “Evan will bring it over in half an hour or so. I’ll show you the rooms so you can choose one. You’ll be safer from the press here. You have to know that my family’s security rivals that of Fort Knox.”
The very last thing she wanted to do was choose a bedroom in Dempsey’s house, especially when her pulse fluttered so erratically just to be near him. It didn’t matter to her body that she was angry with him and his high-handed move. Some fundamental part of their relationship had shifted today; a barrier that she’d thought was firm had caved. She felt raw from having that defense ripped away.
He stalked through the family room into the western wing of the house and pushed open the door of an expansive bedroom with carpet and walls in blues and grays, a king-size modern bed with a pristine white duvet and a white love seat in front of yet another fireplace, this one with a gray granite surround.
The en suite bath on the far end of the room had a stone bathtub the size of a kiddie pool, spotlighted with an overhead pendant lamp on a dim setting. Gray cabinets and white marble were understated accents to the dominant tub.
“You didn’t take this one for your room? I thought you had chosen that tub especially for you,” she asked over his shoulder, realizing as she said it that she’d allowed herself to stand very close to him to better see the whole space. If she leaned forward just a little, she could rest her cheek against his back where broad shoulders tapered to a narrow waist.
It didn’t help that she’d been thinking about him lounging in that huge custom tub, muscles glistening.
“The view is better from the suite upstairs.” He turned to face her and it was all she could do not to scuttle backward. She did not need to have both Dempsey and a bed in her field of vision. “I’ll show you the bedroom near mine.”
“No. I mean—there’s no need.” She would sleep downstairs by herself if it meant they could end this tour faster. “I can sleep here tonight.”
She wasn’t committing to spending any more time than that in this house. One night was bad enough, but she had too much to work out with him to leave just yet.
“Are you sure you’ll be all right alone down here?” He frowned. But then, he knew when they traveled she preferred a room close to his. Her house had been broken into as a teenager—after he’d moved away from her. And she felt jittery at night sometimes.
“I’m certain. Your family’s security rivals Fort Knox. Remember?” She nodded, knowing she wouldn’t sleep well under Dempsey’s roof for entirely different reasons than that long-ago robbery where she’d hidden under her bed for half an hour after the thieves had left. “But you mentioned discussing a plan for the next few weeks?” She backed up a step now, out into the hallway away from the warmth of his broad shoulders. “I’ll rest easier once we talk through this. Actually, if we can come up with a plan, I’ll say good-night and leave you to watch your game film.”
