They stood less than a foot apart. She kept herself from reaching for him because she desperately wanted him to touch her first. She knew how it would be between them. An explosion. There would be nothing subtle or gentle, but she found she didn’t mind that.
“Good night, Ashley,” he murmured, and then he was gone.
Her lips parted and she gasped a protest, but it was too late. As quickly as it had blossomed to life, the moment died, leaving her feeling cold and incredibly alone.
Had she been wrong? Hadn’t he planned to kiss her? She would have sworn he’d been thinking about it as much as she had. Yet he’d resisted.
She wanted to run after him. She wanted to follow him and beg him to take her, to say that they didn’t need promises or commitments. She would accept just the moment and expect nothing more. Instead she sank onto her chair and closed her eyes.
She was a single mother—she couldn’t afford to live for moments. She had to be responsible. Whatever insanity caused her to think such thoughts about Jeff had to be ignored. Did she really plan to have sex with her boss? Talk about stupid. She was staying in the man’s house.
She sucked in a deep breath and forced herself to resume her studying. She had a lot of work to get through before she could go to bed, and the alarm would go off very early. But instead of numbers and text, she saw Jeff’s gray eyes. She remembered the fire she’d seen burning there and wondered how she’d ever thought his eyes were cold.
* * *
Ashley hovered outside of Jeff’s at-home office. She didn’t like to think of herself as a person who hovered, but no other word fit. Except maybelurkedand she liked that choice even less.
It’s not that she’d been avoiding him in the past couple of days. Okay, maybe she hadn’t exactly been around as much, but that was mostly because the kiss-that-had-never-happened had left her feeling embarrassed and stupid. She’d been thinking warm, fuzzy thoughts about Jeff and he’d been thinking less than nothing about her.
So in an effort to keep herself from making a complete idiot of herself, not to mention losing a great job, she’d stayed out of his way. Until now, when she was hovering and trying to gather the courage to step into his office and just ask him.
Finally she simply sucked in a breath and stepped into the study. It was early—only a few minutes after seven in the morning—but Jeff was already showered and dressed for the office. He was putting several folders into his briefcase, which made her wonder how late he’d been working the previous night and did the man actually sleep?
He looked up at her and gave her a slight smile. “Good morning. What can I do for you?”
She thought of about a dozen things, most of which had nothing to do with her reason for being in his office and everything to do with the large bed in his room and the soft feel of bare skin on sheets.
She had to clear her throat to speak. “It’s...um—” Her voice failed. What was she doing here? There was no way Jeff would even consider doing this.
“Ashley?”
She sighed. Idiot or not, she was going to have to ask. “I spoke to Cathy, at Maggie’s school. Today is their field trip to the zoo and they’re short a couple of parents. I’m already going, but Cathy asked if I knew anyone else who would be interested in accompanying the kids and I thought maybe...” She pressed her lips together and stared at the carpet. “You like Maggie and, well, it was a stupid idea.”
“Are you inviting me along?”
She nodded then forced herself to meet his gaze. What was he thinking? Please God, don’t let him be able to see her uncontrollable and growing attraction. That would be too humiliating to bear.
“Cathy likes to have one adult for every couple of kids, so if you went, we’d be responsible for four. One of them would be Maggie, of course.”
“You’d stay with me?” he asked. “I wouldn’t have to be alone with the children?”
She couldn’t help grinning. “Jeff, they don’t bite.”
“Sometimes they do.” He closed his briefcase. “I’d be happy to come along. Give me ten minutes to call the office and leave Brenda a message, then change my clothes.”
“Sure. Great.”
She backed out of the office before he could sense the elation that swept through her. He was joining her. They would spend the entire day together. Okay, they would have four rug rats with them and this was more about Maggie than her, but still. A shiver of pleasure rippled through her.
Ten minutes later Jeff walked down the stairs. Ashley was busy helping Maggie into her coat, which meant she was kneeling on the floor. A good thing because she probably would have fallen over if she’d been standing.
He’d changed his clothes. Nothing unusual in that. People did it all the time. But she’d never seen Jeff in anything but a suit, and in jeans and a sweater he was gorgeous. Broad shoulders pulled at the woolen fabric. His chest narrowed to his waist, where his jeans emphasized his slim hips. Soft, faded denim clung to thighs as solid and well shaped as a Greek god’s.
Maggie squealed when she saw him. “Mommy said you’re comin’ with us to the zoo. I wanna seeallthe animals. And baby kitties. And elephants, ’cause next to the kitties, I like them the best. Because of their ears.”
Jeff squatted next to her daughter, which put him way too close to herself. “Not the trunks?”
Maggie wrinkled her nose. “Trunks are silly. But they have neat ears.”
