He might have started out just massaging her neck, but when Stephanie had walked in he’d been about to kiss her.
The worst part was that she’d let him touch her. As much as she wanted to believe she would have stopped him, she wasn’t so sure that she would have. If Stephanie hadn’t interrupted, she’d be swapping spit with the worst playboy she’d ever encountered.
With Addy in the next room.
Had she completely lost her mind?
“I came to tell you Dorothy is leaving in just a few. Addy is helping her finish the last of the mailers.”
Drawing upon all her strength, Blair kept her shoulders high and walked around the desk. She checked her watch. Almost eight on a school night.
“I need to go, too, but I’m off duty on Saturday. Would that be an okay time for Addy and I to come back?”
Stephanie’s curious eyes lit with gratitude. “That would be wonderful. Addy was a great help with the envelopes.”
“I’ll take the list home with me and finish making the calls while I’m at lunch tomorrow or Friday. Perhaps even at Dr Talbot’s tomorrow night if he naps. Maybe I can get the rest marked off between now and Saturday.”
“I’ll be here on Saturday, too. I’ll bring Dr T with me if he’s up to it. He needs to get out of the house.” Oz moved behind Blair, not so close that he was touching her, but enough that his scent enveloped her, taking her back to the moments before Stephanie had walked into the room. No. No. No. She did not wish she’d kissed Oz.
“We’ll go over what we have covered for the fund-raiser,” Oz continued, oblivious to the effect he was having on Blair. “Hire out what we don’t, grab some lunch, then spend the rest of the day with Dr T.”
“Thanks.” Stephanie smiled knowingly at them, a pleased smile, making Blair even more self-conscious. “I’ll just go tell Dorothy goodbye and leave you two alone so Oz can go back to…um…helping.”
Great.
The moment Stephanie was gone, Blair spun toward Oz. “What do you think you’re doing?”
“Don’t go all defensive,” he warned, giving her a frustrated look that said perhaps he wasn’t as calm as he’d pretended. That maybe he had been aware of the effect his nearness was having on her and that he’d been just as affected.
“I’m not being defensive,” she spat back, determined not to go soft on him again.
“Yes, you are. I understand.” The blasted man stroked his knuckles across her face. “We should go somewhere and talk.”
Talk? Yeah, right. Oz wasn’t known for talking to women.
Glaring at him, Blair pulled back. He couldn’t touch her. She couldn’t let him. He was dangerous. Too dangerous.
Just look what had happened the last time she’d let a man get close to her. She’d ended up pregnant and alone, mourning the death of a man she hadn’t known had been married to someone else, much less that he’d had other “girlfriends.”
Now, she had a great life that she’d worked long and hard to forge. She wouldn’t let a man destroy her a second time.
“We have nothing to say to each other.”
“We need to talk about what just happened.” Was he staring at her lips?
Dear Lord, he was.
She swallowed. Hard.
She’d known he hadn’t really wanted to talk. Did he think she was a fool? That he could just almost kiss her and she’d fall at his feet?
“Nothing happened, Dr Manning,” she snapped coolly. “Even if Stephanie hadn’t walked in, nothing would have happened. I don’t like you, and I certainly didn’t want you to touch me or kiss me.” The words ground out between gritted teeth. “I prefer for you to stay away from me and my daughter. Got it?”
Oz had wanted to kiss Blair more than he recalled ever wanting to kiss any woman.
He’d wanted to kiss her so much he ached with need from the ends of his hair to the tips of his toes and all in between.
He’d especially ached in between.