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“I’d like to get to know the real you,” she said boldly, pegging him with those eyes again.
“The real me doesn’t have time right now to devote to … a woman like you.” A woman who could turn him into a man who made irresponsible decisions. A woman who could make him lose sight of his priorities.
“A woman like me?”
A-back-pedaling we will go...
“You deserve someone who can give you all his focus. I … can’t.” Which was true, even if he was laying it on thick. “I shouldn’t even be here right now. I’m supposed to be at a ribbon-cutting ceremony kissing up to Dr. Ramon Tennyson, Chief of Surgery.”
“The guy you interviewed with.”
“One of them, yes…”
“You played golf with him Sunday.”
“Is there anything I didn’t tell you Saturday night?” he said, attempting to keep his laugh light and not self-conscious.
“We talked for a long time — I think.” Mariah grinned shyly. “It’s not the clearest night in my memory either. If I did something or said something to offend you, I’m sorry.”
“Not at all,” he answered quickly. “The opposite, really. It’s the way I acted that’s offensive. Which is why I tracked you down tonight.”
She turned her body toward him on the bench, hooking her arm over the back and bringing them closer together. “You’ve already apologized, Sawyer.” His elbows were propped on his knees, and Mariah ran her finger absently down his forearm and back up. Her touch did way more to him than such a light, insignificant touch should do. Then her head snapped up as if she realized what she was doing. “It’s okay. We’re cool. And we should probably get back to the studio. Maybe you can still make it to the ribbon cutting.”
He took a final drink of Triple Berry and tossed the mostly empty cup into the trash can a couple of feet away. “It’d be too late by the time I got there, but yeah, we should get back.” Regret at his decision to skip the event was already building in his chest. He stood abruptly, and Mariah rose as well.
Without meaning to, he faced her at the exact moment she faced him. Their gazes locked, her green eyes intensely focused on his, and he felt something in his chest dip. Fall. His eyes followed suit, without his permission, and lowered to her lips. Her soft, moist, tempting lips that were parted slightly in invitation. He looked back at her eyes in time to see them lower to his mouth, and that small action was enough to set off an alarm in his head. If he kissed her, walking away would be harder. It was better that he didn’t remember how she kissed, because he had an overwhelming suspicion that Mariah’s kisses would be magical.
Sawyer forced his eyes away and his mind to the regret still simmering just below the surface, and as he knew would happen, the trance was broken. He swallowed, took a step back, and said, “Ready?”
The point he privately scored for resisting his urge to taste those sensual lips paled as the larger picture sank in. Skipping the ceremony tonight was yet another poor, impulsive decision. Once again, he’d veered straight off the path he was trying like hell to stay on. And once again, this woman was at the heart of his foolishness.
5
One last chance.
Mariah was giving herself one last opportunity to see Sawyer. And okay, she was giving Sawyer a final chance to give in to what she could swear was some serious chemistry between them. Chemistry and beyond.
He’d rejected her the other night after the juice shop, but his excuse was lame. Didn’t have time to date? She could accept that he was super busy. She respected that the prospect of a new job would take his focus away from his personal life for a while. But not once had he said he didn’t like her, and in fact, his body language said he did.
So she was going to test her theory.
Today — Friday — was his day off if she remembered right. Though she’d never been to his apartment, she knew where it was — yet another advantage of his chattiness last Saturday night. It took a considerable self-pep talk to get herself out the door, but once she was in her car, she was consumed by the mission. Determined to give it her all, because there was too much at stake to let this — whateverthiswas between them — go without her best effort. Not when just being near him set off alarms in her head and gave her romantic notions she’d never entertained before.
One kiss. That was the lump sum of her plan. One kiss, and either she’d know her reaction to him was all in her head or…
Or they’d both know it wasn’t.
Kisses didn’t lie.
* * *
It was Friday.Day of reckoning. Sawyer glared at the half-eaten apple he’d forced himself to get for lunch, then tossed it in the kitchen wastebasket.
You’ll hear something by the end of next week, they’d said during the full day of interviews.
It was as end-of-next-week as you could get. Though he might still get a phone call, it wouldn’t be a good one. They’d call the person they wanted to hire first — probably already had a couple days ago — and then they’d eventually get around to notifying the losers.
Though he’d held out his hopes before today, now it was undeniable — things did not look good.
