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“Dinner’s about a strong-willed woman demanding she pay me for services rendered. So the way I see it, a date has the potential to be something else entirely.”
A sizzle of anticipation licked along her veins, her pulse picking up speed in pace with her hopes. Blane had the potential to light up her life again, to give her the buzz she’d been craving since he’d walked out a lifetime ago.
So why was she hesitating?
She knew.
It always came down to her difficulties to conceive and the ramifications of what that may have on any relationship she’d be foolish enough to enter.
Though there was more to it this time and she knew it. Was it possible that deep down, she knew letting Blane into her life for any length of time could tempt her to want more?
Maybe have a marriage for real this time, despite what she couldn’t give him?
The thought terrified her and her stomach flipped with dread that she might be silly enough to make the same mistake twice.
But she wasn’t silly. She wasn’t the same person anymore. This time, maybe she’d get to have her tiramisu and eat it too.
Leaping up from the sofa, she pulled him up with her. “Come on, let’s go have that dinner I owe you.”
“Why the rush?”
“The sooner we eat, the sooner you get to convince me why I should let you take me out on a date.”
Smiling, he picked her up and whirled her around and she flung her head back and laughed, relishing this amazing, carefree feeling.
He’d done the same thing when she’d agreed to marry him, though back then he’d spun her around so fast and for so long they’d both tumbled onto the cushiony moss at the foot of the old cedar tree, breathless and laughing and kissing, enchanted by the moment, so wrapped up in each other the world around them ceased to exist.
He’d been her everything. Before vanishing into nothing, and she’d be foolish to forget, no matter how good it felt to laugh with him again.
He stopped and she slid down his body, slow and deliberate, soft cotton slithering against smooth silk, her skin tingling, yearning for full body contact, the shift from playful to lustful as his gaze riveted to hers.
“How about we pencil in next weekend for this date I’m going to persuade you to go on?”
“I do the rosters quarterly so I’m tied up every weekend for the next three months. The earliest weekend I’m free is June.”
“That should give you plenty of time to get used to the idea.”
“If you convince me, that is,” she said, giving in to an impulsive urge to entwine her hands around his neck and drag his head down for a swift, passionate kiss. “And believe me, I’m going to be a very hard sell.”
Resting his forehead against hers, he murmured, “I think you know how persuasive I can be,” before stepping away, offering her his hand, and gesturing at the door with the other.
As she slipped her hand into his, Camryn knew that with Blane’s charm offensive, she didn’t stand a chance of refusing.
Chapter Seven
Camryn sighed with relief as she sank into the plush suede sofa, curled her legs under her, and propped the giant plastic bowl filled with popcorn on her lap.
It had been too long since she’d had a night off, let alone the freedom to watch a chick-flick, and with Blane called out on an emergency meeting this had been too good an opportunity to pass up.
Not that he hadn’t made her feel welcome and told her to make herself at home. In fact, he’d gone out of his way to ensure she treated the penthouse like her own for however long she needed to be here.
Not long, if she had any say it.
Living with Blane was pure and utter torture.
Not in the rooming sense, for he was the perfect housemate: own bathroom, clean kitchen, stocked fridge and he didn’t touch her stuff, toilet seat always thoughtfully down. He respected her privacy, didn’t expect her to make small talk in the morning when she was at her grumpiest, and didn’t hound her for leaving a trail of magazines around the place, His tolerance made him perfect in her eyes.
But therein lay the problem. Blanewasperfect, from the top of his mussed hair to the bottom of his sexy bare feet as he padded from his bedroom to the kitchen in the middle of the night for a drink of water.
