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She guessed they were both being careful. Which should have made her feel better, but with the looming get-together tomorrow night at the Cameron house, everything just felt harder.
“How many of these do you think I can fit into my mouth at once?”
She looked up from her end-cap design for the local pet shop to find Marcus holding a jar of gumballs. “Why…would you do that?”
He shrugged. “You like to dare me to do things.”
“No, you like to dare me to do things. I like to work.”
He set the gumballs on the corner of her desk. “Gift from Lonnie over at the candy store for the design we did last month.”
“Oh, thoughtful.”
“Are we going to talk about what happened at the mansion?”
She dragged her gaze from the colorful gumballs. Marcus had retreated to the doorway, where he leaned against the frame, arms folded, feet crossed at the ankles. He looked strong and sturdy and like he’d give her a hug if she asked. She pictured him without a shirt and felt, to use a Dolly-Partonism, “swimmy-headed.”
“You mean the ghost?” she asked.
“I mean the sex,” he said. Bluntly.
Her cheeks grew warm and then warmer when he shut the door behind him and then crossed the room. He sat on the corner of her desk, one khaki-encased thigh way too close for comfort. Her eyes trickled from his crotch to sinewy forearms to the open collar of his shirt. Finally, when her gaze reached his face, she said, “What about it?”
“You don’t want to have sex with me again,” he stated.
So not true. She wanted to have sex with him right now.
“I…don’t think we should. Do you?”
“You think the mansion was a fluke.”
So, he wasn’t going to answer her questions either. “I think it was…intense. The environment. The circumstance.”
“Intense,” he repeated flatly.
Images of that night flashed on the screen of her mind and her breasts grew heavy.
He tipped her chin with one finger. “I dare you to go back there and spend one more night with me.”
She let out a choking sound. “Are you insane?”
“No. I’m determined. To prove to you that what’s between us wasn’t a trick of the light. It had nothing to do with the circumstances. We have something that could be something, McIntire. But I need you to admit it.”
Shuffling papers that didn’t need shuffling was a great way to avoid looking at him. “Well, I’m… That’s not going to happen. Willow Mansion can keep its secrets because I’m not setting foot back inside.”
“Or back in bed with me.”
She shook her head. The truth was she’d love to, but it was also true that there was too much on the line if she did.
“I see.” He nodded grimly and stood.
Before he left, she called out, “Don’t forget your gumballs.”
“Keep them,” he said. “We’ll see if you’re able to keep your hands off me tomorrow night at our friends’ house.”
“What—”
But before she could finish whatever she might have said, he shut her door behind him.
