“I needed to sort some things out.”
“Thought that was why I was here.”The words were out before she thought them through, and she held out a hand like a stop sign, though it was too late.
The towel swished down and she grabbed it up and pressed it against her chest.Telford was rich.Hot.He’d probably had women who looked like supermodels and had a plastic surgeon and designer on speed dial.She’d always liked her small breasts and made the most of them—usually eschewing a bra, but she knew men fantasized about more than a handful.
“Forget I said that.You have a right to privacy and to get sweaty alone.”
She closed her eyes.Yup.Somehow she’d said that.
“Ayana,” he said softly and she felt him take a step closer—for real the air around her crackled and parted like she’d been in a bubble he’d unzipped by his supremely masculine presence.
She clung to the towel, despairing that she was acting like some Regency virginal debutante when she was anything but.
“I value your opinion, and I want to discuss the new… let’s call it a development with you.By leaving, I slipped into bad habits.I want to have better ways to socially cope and not get overwhelmed and run away—literally.”
She gaped at him before remembering to finally close her mouth.A man admitting a flaw?Apologizing?It wasn’t done in the Family, but she’d also come of age in diners and restaurants, eking out a living, and the customer was always right.
“You cope just fine,” she whispered still staring at his body that could be hers for six months or a year.She just needed to take a step forward.Maybe two.
And then what?
Could she really walk away from all that glorious masculinity?She already felt connected to him emotionally.Physically would add to the danger of succumbing to a connection, giving up her freedom.
She took a step back.
“Sorry.I’m sweaty,” he said quietly.“Have you eaten?”
He actually smelled like something she wanted to taste.Hunger clawed in her belly—sexual and for food.“I waited for you.”
“I’ll take a quick shower, and we’ll order room service… unless you want to go out.”
“Stay in.”
“And we’ll debrief.”
The word sounded funny in a hotel room when she was naked and he was about to be, but technically she was his employee.And his wife.
“Yes.”She nodded, trying to get her cool back and not be a drooling, hormonal female.
“Ayana?”
“Yes?”Was this the new her?Agreeable?One-syllable answers?
“Thank you.And at the risk of being unbearably crude, your ass is as gorgeous as the rest of you.”
He strode past her and she swung around realizing that there was a large, antique mirror in the bathroom, so while she’d clung to the towel thinking herself covered, he’d seen her very naked backside.
An embarrassed and amused laugh burbled out of her.She was getting in deep and she was still standing in the shallow end.
“Future me problem.”
Chapter Eleven
Telford kept hissunglasses on in the Java Café on Marietta’s Main Street.He probably looked like a rich poser.But he didn’t want to generate any more gossip.It was unnerving that in the couple of days he’d been in town, so many people took double takes or worse, struck up a conversation assuming him to be a Telford and in town for the wedding.He’d been dragged into three chatty conversations this morning at the medical lab when all he’d wanted to do—as Ayana so charmingly put it—was spit in a tube.
He paid and turned back toward the crowded café, already regretting that he hadn’t ordered their lunch to go.The café, the lunch, the sitting at a table to take inlocal colorhad been, naturally, Ayana’s idea.She happily engaged everyone in conversation to the point where he felt like a minor character in his life.Coming to Montana was his plan.He should be leading.
“Stop looking like the sheriff is outside building a scaffolding for a public hanging,” she said biting into her veggie sandwich and humming happily about the curried relish—whatever that was.
