He nodded and gave her a cautious smile as he opened the passenger door on his car and closed it when she was comfortably seated inside. He knew the likelihood of her finding a car service to come all the way out here on such short notice was probably slim. After the day she’d had already, he wasn’t keen on sharing that particular truth just yet.
“So,” he said as he sat in the driver’s seat. “After the morning you’ve had, I’d say I have the perfect thing to lift your spirits, Vanessa.”
“Yeah?”
Her voice drained of any of the sass or fight he knew her for and that made him uneasy.
“What’s that?”
“Strawberry pancakes from the local diner. They are heaven on earth.”
She shook her head. “No thanks, I don’t need the carbs.”
“Nonsense,” he answered. “You have to have them. They’ll make you feel ten times better.”
She looked like she was prepared to argue again and get herself all worked up. Desperately needing to avoid that, he gave her what his friends called his “officer look,” eyes focused on his target, arms folded over his chest, and lips pulled into a straight line. As always, it worked like a charm. Vanessa dropped whatever she was going to say. Instead, she lifted her hands as she shrugged. “What the hell, might as well indulge in sugary goodness that’s gonna end up on my hips if I have to be stuck here, right?”
He looked down at her full curves, unable to help the appreciation he knew must be all over his face.
She was gorgeous.
It was Michael’s job to see the details, and hers were carved intohis memory. Even seated, and obviously annoyed, there was no hiding her deep curves or the resulting thickness that made him want something he shouldn’t. The idea of her losing any of her lushness to fit into some stereotypical, unobtainable, bullshit standard of beauty grated on him more than it should have.
He shouldn’t care. She was practically a stranger to him. It was only a very unique set of circumstances that crossed their paths. He shouldn’t be invested in her in the least.
Yet, sliding his gaze back up her seated form and caressing the dips and valleys of her body, the resulting struggle made him grip his steering wheel to keep his cock from hardening.
Convinced he had himself under control, he cleared his throat, hoping his voice wouldn’t betray the lust bleeding through his entire being the way his eyes had.
“You don’t need to lose weight.”
His voice was gravel mixed with sand. Although the sound was foreign to him, he couldn’t deny those were his words. And from the intense stare he met when he finally brought his eyes to her face, she’d picked up on the undercurrent of want lacing the edge of his voice too.
“I wasn’t suggesting I did,” she answered, her gaze steady, never wavering even once as she openly bathed in his appreciation. “Strawberry pancakes sound exceptionally decadent. I shudder to think what my body might do if I indulged in all that sweetness regularly.”
She tilted her head, lifted her brow, and locked her eyes directly on his. She wasn’t hiding from him. She wasn’t playing coy. She was giving him as good as she got, and it sent a shiver of need through him that both surprised and delighted him.
Even from his limited knowledge of her, nothing he’d learned made him see her as anything other than a strong and capable person. The fire he saw flashing in the depths of those deep brown eyes,however, made him wish more than once that they’d met under different circumstances. Because if she’d been any other woman on the street and not the woman who would ultimately break his sister’s heart at his insistence, he’d be all over the not-so-subtle innuendo in her reply.
Chapter 10
Vanessa stepped into the diner as Michael politelyheld the door open for her. It was quaint but festive with its bright yellow walls and white trim. There was a quiet hum of conversation as people ate and talked that felt usual and welcoming in a way those Michelin-star eateries she’d patronized while married to Karl never could.
Michael placed his hand at the small of her back as he guided her toward the far end of the diner. The gesture was polite and couldn’t be misconstrued as anything other than him being the gentleman he appeared to be. Nevertheless, that bit of truth didn’t stop the resulting spark of something hot and dangerous inside her.
Get a grip, girl.
It wasn’t as if she hadn’t been around handsome men during or after her marriage. She definitely had, and none of them made her feel needy as Michael did.
Well, it has been a while.
“A while” being a euphemism for nearly three years. As soon as she’d discovered Karl’s infidelity, she’d refused what little physical attention her ex-husband paid her. And these last two years sincethe divorce… Well, rebuilding your life from the ground up took too much energy to spare on physical dalliances.
Her libido had been a nonexistent thing in all this time. Why was this man ringing all her bells now?
They arrived to a booth in the rear. He waited for her to take her seat and slid into the other side of the booth, giving her an amiable smile as they settled in.
“I promise you’re gonna love the strawberry pancakes.”
