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“Am I? Reading your thoughts?” I don’t know why that idea excites me. It’s a wicked thrill to be able to understand this woman so easily.
“It’s scary how you see me,” she murmurs.
Well, that’s not helping me forget about her. “I like it,” I say, and it’s as if it’s just us, and nothing else matters.
“Same here.” She seems caught up too, floating on this buzz.
Buzzed. Yes, that’s how I feel with her, but what the fuck am I doing? Why the hell am I admitting this? Yes, I like being able to understand her easily, to read her closely, to sense what’s going on behind those eyes with their hints of hopefulness and loneliness.
But there’s no room in my life for her. More importantly, there’s nochancein my life for her.
I try to focus on what’s next. “And because I can see you so well, I know this show is important to you,” I say, my tone professional.
Finally.
“I’m not the only one,” she counters, keeping me on my toes. “Everything you said at lunch made it clear how much you want this deal to work. You have big ambitions.”
I’m not used to a woman I care for listening closely to me and absorbing the words and meaning so deeply. It’s…unnerving. And ridiculously appealing. She might be younger than me by more than a decade, and she might defer to me at times, but she listens. She pays attention. She’s an equal. “You’re right. We both have our dreams. I want you to reach yours,” I say.
“Well, guess what?” she asks playfully.
“What?”
“I want the same for you,” she says, laying it on the line, vulnerable and genuine.
My heart thumps annoyingly. But I fight off the threat of emotions. “We’ll travel together to Paris. We’ll work together as much as we have to on the show. It’s just a week. It’s not like we’re going to be running into each other every day on the production. I have meetings with marketers and sponsors, and you’ll be on location. We can handle it.”
“We can.”
She extends a hand. I laugh but then I take it, shaking like we’ve achieved some sort of understanding or a détente.
A détente from what though? Desire?
Maybe.
But the second I wrap my hand around hers, desire flares.
One simple touch electrifies my body. My skin sizzles. I want to haul her close, pin her against the brick wall of McCoy’s, and kiss the fuck out of her until she’s arching and begging for more.
My vision tunnels. The cars and the cabs and even the carriages across the street fade out of view. The midday spotlight’s only on her, sweet and seductive. She’s all I see.
With our hands clasped together, I run my thumb across her palm in circles, stroking her skin.
Her lips part and a soft breath seems to ghost past those gorgeous lips. I run my thumb over her fingers, and she shudders. A tease of a touch and it’s melting her on a New York street.
My eyes don’t leave her. “I want to see you in that lingerie,” I rasp out as lust takes me hostage.
“How much?”
“So much it’s driving me crazy.”
She licks her lips, mischief in those eyes. “Too bad I’m not wearing them right now.” Her eyes dart to the door of the restaurant. “Oh, you know what? I forgot something in the ladies’ room.”
She drops my hand and retreats into the restaurant. I know an opportunity when I see it, and I follow her there.
18
ABOUT TIRAMISU
