“I said yes, I’ll have dinner with you, all alone, any night you choose.”
Where on earth had that come from? The thought was quickly followed by another. He was drinking beer. And it had softened his brain.
“Really.” The word was a statement. One meant to show him she knew he was egging her on and she wasn’t falling for it.
Not that Jem was the type of person who toyed with people. At least, not in what she’d seen of him in the few weeks she’d known him, but what did she know?
“Of course, really.”
He sounded completely sincere. Kacey had pointed out on more than one occasion that he was paying as much or more attention to Lacey as he did Kacey. She’d even caught him looking at Lacey over the dinner table that night, when Kacey had been the one talking.
Of course, Lacey had noticed, too. All the way down to her toes. But she didn’t think it meant all that much.
So, he wanted to have dinner with her.
“Why?” She’d never have asked if not for the distance afforded by telephone communication.
He half sputtered, half chuckled. Like he was choking on a sip of beer. “What do you mean why? You’re a beautiful woman. I’m a normal male with normal urges and I’d like to spend some time alone with you.”
“Okay.”
“If you’re worried that I just want you for the sex, then...”
“I wasn’t,” she interrupted as her panties started to get moist. What in the hell was the matter with her? She didn’t have those kind of reactions. Even in her fantasies. She had too much control to let anything get that far.
“Don’t get me wrong,” he continued, his voice lowered. “I do want to have sex with you. As soon as possible. But I want to have dinner with you, too. And this late-night phone conversation is pretty cool, too.”
“You’re nuts.” She laughed. The fantasy he was building was going to consume her if she’d let it. And he was teasing her. He had to be teasing her. “You hardly know me.”
She couldn’t afford to believe he really liked her even half as much as she liked him.
Because something told her that losing him in the end would hurt far worse than any pain she’d ever known before.
“You’re wrong about that.” How a voice could sound so sexy she had no idea. But just listening to him talk was making her want to go to bed with the man. Which was not a good thing. At all.
Maybe in the secret recesses of her mind. But nowhere else.
Of course, these days, people had sex without even dating. Or dating exclusively. They had sex without love. Or even a great deal of affection.
People. Not her.
But he didn’t know that...
“We might not have known each other long,” he continued, “but the way you came into my life was pretty intense.”
Sure was. She’d told him he was under suspicion because there were reports his son was being abused. “I suppose.”
“I had the hots for you the second I saw you standing on my doorstep.”
If that had been a confession, he’d sounded way too proud of himself to be seeking forgiveness.
And she was too busy accepting the fact that he’d had the hots for her when she’d been all Lacey. On the job. Completely herself. Her heart fluttered.
And then slowed.
He’d had the hots for her before Kacey came to town.
Other guys had chosen her, too, before they’d met Kacey. Before they’d known a larger-than-life rendition of her, one who was equally nice, existed.