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“It’s yours?”
She stopped at the floor to ceiling glass windows, her breath catching at the incredible view of Melbourne and its surrounds spread out like a fairytale city in the dusk.
“Yeah, I bought it off the plan when they were building this place.”
With super human effort, she bit her tongue to stop from blurting what she was thinking: how could he afford a place like this? Instead, she focussed on identifying landmarks, taking in the sweeping vista from the Blue Dandenongs mountain range to Port Phillip Bay, from the beautiful Botanical Gardens laid out like a lush green carpet to the sparkling waters of Albert Park Lake.
And she thought she had great views in her tenth story Docklands apartment.
“You’re curious, aren’t you?”
“About?”
Turning to face him, she silently marvelled at his ability to read her mind. Time apart hadn’t dulled his astuteness.
Gesturing to a Chippendale sofa for her to take a seat, he said, “About this place.”
She sank into the deep leather and crossed her legs, grateful she’d gone with the mid-calf pencil skirt and not her favorite above the knee mini which she always slipped into after work.
“Yeah, I’m intrigued.”
Taking a seat next to her, he rested his arm across the back and leaned toward her.
“Intrigued by me or my place?”
Overwhelmed by his nearness, she took a deep breath, his aftershave filtering through her senses, the intoxicating scent of cedar and pure Blane encouraging her to bridge the short gap between them and bury her nose in the crook of his neck.Right on the tempting spot where his collar rested against his neck, where his impressive tan dipped away to broad shoulders covered in cotton, the sensitive spot she knew for a fact would drive him wild if she nipped it.
She could lie, pretend there was nothing between them, act like he didn’t affect her one little bit. But that wouldn’t be fair to either of them and they’d been through too much to start playing games now.
“Both,” she said, tilting her chin up to meet his gaze head on, challenging him to…what?
Say she intrigued him too? That was a given considering he wanted them to have a second chance.
Tell her she was crazy for contemplating giving him what he wanted? That went without saying, for no matter how many times she evaluated this logically, her emotional side would creep up and give her a big whack over the head urging her to go for it.
Kiss her senseless? Personally, the last option was her preferred choice but for now she’d settle for a healthy dose of honesty, starting with how he came to afford a place like this.
Cupping her chin, he brushed a thumb along her jaw, sending shivers of longing through her.
“Careful. Your roommate might go getting ideas if you say he intrigues you.”
Disconcerted by his unwavering stare, she aimed for lighthearted, anything to quell the urge to shove his hand away before she did something crazy, like hang onto it for dear life.
“So tell me how you got this place.”
With a slow, sexy grin that did wicked things to her heart, he said, “We didn’t exactly get around to discussing my job the other night or earlier this evening, did we?”
“That’s because you were too busy flexing your biceps.”
Her droll response elicited another laugh. “Nice to hear you noticed.”
She’d noticed all right, as her stomach dropped in a frightening freefall, her temperature ratcheted up by about a hundred degrees, and she itched to bridge the gap between them and clamber onto his lap.
She knew this cohabiting was a bad idea.
She’d barely made it through the front door and already her imagination had rocketed into overdrive, while her body…sadly, her body needed some attention, something she should definitely not get from Blane if she knew what was good for her.
“Tell me about your building business,” she said, opting for a nice, safe distraction, something that wouldn’t give him the opportunity to flirt considering she desperately needed a few moments to compose herself and to stop thinking about exactly how much of his body she’d noticed.
