Roughing It With Ryan

just happened wasn’t the norm for me, I want you to know that.” He’d been with other women, he’d even done it in a kitchen before, once with whipped cream, but even that hadn’t been close to what he’d just shared with Suzanne. Chocolate ice cream or not, this hadn’t been just sex. When she’d been in his arms, he’d felt…whole. And when he’d sank into her body, she’d shattered him, heart and soul.

“It’s late,” she said. “I’m sorry.” And she walked out of the kitchen. A moment later he heard her bedroom door shut.

Leaving him standing there in the kitchen with his ego on the floor at his feet next to his pants.

TWO MORNINGS LATER Suzanne stood in the same kitchen in which she’d allow Ryan to eat her up, literally. Chocolate was involved this time as well, though not quite in the same mind-blowing manner.

She was putting little dollops of frosting on top of cookies, preparing a dessert tray for her third catering event of the week. A luncheon, a referral from the party she’d catered at Ryan’s.

Ryan.

Only two nights before he’d rocked her world right here in this very kitchen, looking at her with those dark, dark eyes as if she could quite possibly be the one for him.

And she’d ruined that by walking away.

Which had left her lying in bed, staring at the ceiling for two nights running, wondering which exact gene she’d inherited that had made her such an fool.

With a sigh, she popped another fattening cookie into her mouth. It made for an even dozen. The chocolate melted in her mouth, the cookie dissolved beautifully.

Well, good. If she couldn’t keep her personal life on track, at least she made a hell of a cookie.

AFTER THE LUNCHEON, Suzanne drove through South Village, trying to clear her head. Everything had gone smooth. Better than smooth. She’d booked two more jobs for the following week.

Pretty good for a hobby, she supposed, and ignored the little voice that said it should be more than a hobby.

Maybe she just hadn’t been born to be regimented, responsible or serious.

It was afternoon and the streets were humming with action. Businesswomen were out on break shopping and lunching. Men were watching the women shopping and lunching. There were bikers, walkers, joggers…all talking, laughing or, in the case of a roller-blading teen, singing at the top of his lungs. Scents from the sidewalk cafes contrasted with the scents of Southern California air-flowers and smog.

Suzanne stopped to buy a newspaper, thinking she still needed a job, then drove around some more, checking out a few newer cafes and restaurants.

She came back to reality when she ended up at Ryan’s office.

To get out or not, that was the question now. She wondered what it meant that she couldn’t come up with an excuse for being there other than the simple one. She wanted to see him.

“Hey.”

At the husky voice in her ear, she jumped. Ryan stood next to her car, looking so good her hands itched to touch, though his smile seemed a bit strained and there were things in his eyes that…oh, God, the things in his eyes.

“Hey,” she said back. “I…just wanted to…” She couldn’t remember. “Um…”

He looked at the newspaper on the passenger seat. “Job hunting?”

“Still.”

“What’s up with the catering?”

“It’s just-”

“A hobby,” he said with her, then smiled.

“It is.”

“I know it. What I don’t know is what you’re so afraid of.” He said this softly, without any censure or reproach.

And maybe that was why she was able to give him a helpless smile and admit the truth. “It’s the usual.”

“Failure?”

She nodded, struck dumb by how well he understood her. Had anyone ever understood her so well?

“Suzanne, don’t you love catering?”

“Of course.”

“Don’t you love being in charge of your workday?”

She sighed. “Yes.”

“Are you making money at it?”

She nodded, then covered her eyes. “I know, I know, it’d be a perfect way to get responsible.”

“I meant it’s a good way to make you happy.”

No one had ever worried about her happiness, no one.

“Suzanne, just because your past relationships haven’t worked out, doesn’t mean you’d fail at this.”

When she would have looked away, he leaned in and touched her face. Made her look at him. “And since we’re listening to what I think…I think I am very glad those other relationships didn’t work out. That was fate. You running your own business is fate. And Suzanne? We’re fate, too.”

She closed her eyes. “Ryan.”

“Come to dinner with me.”

Bad idea. “I’m not hungry.”

“Then let’s go walking.”

“I’m…”

“Anything, Suzanne.” His voice was low, his eyes fierce. “Let’s do anything, even just stand here and stare at each other.”

That wouldn’t work either. She’d made a promise to herself, and no matter what he did to her insides, she had to keep that promise. It was all she had. “I’ve got to go. I’m sorry,” she whispered, and reversed out of the lot, praying she didn’t run over his foot.

She made it back home before she let herself think.

She needed ice cream. Nope, she couldn’t even count on that as comfort food any more because she couldn’t eat it without thinking of wild, hot, on-the-table sex with Ryan.

Chips, she decided as she climbed the stairs. She could go for a big bag of barbecue chips. Yeah, that would work, there was absolutely nothing sexy about a bag of chips.

Unless of course they were scattered across the magnificent body of one Ryan Alondo. Now that would be sexy because she could start at his toes and eat her way up his long, lean form and-

Bad Suzanne, very bad.

She’d have to skip the chips, too.

Taylor’s front door was open. She’d been out shopping at estate sales again, Suzanne thought with a fond grin as she skipped her place and stepped into Taylor’s living room. A three-foot-high brass frog greeted her, as did an ornately carved wooden umbrella holder and a glass shelving unit upon which sat a collection of pewter figurines from Alice In Wonderland.

She knew Taylor couldn’t help herself, that collecting was firmly entrenched in her blood, but to gather more stuff when she’d only have to sell them off to finish the building? Suzanne wondered how long before they were both out in the street.

There were voices in the kitchen, several low and male, and at least one female, but it was the gathering of men that made Suzanne’s heart start pumping.

Ryan? Had he beat her here for some reason? “Taylor?”

“Come on in!”

Suzanne did with pitiful eagerness. There were two men at the table, bent over a set of plans. There was also a young woman, her dark hair cut spikey and close to her face, with a multitude of earrings up one ear. She wore frayed jeans, a handkerchief for a top and sported a diamond in her belly button. She sat filling out something on a clipboard. “Hey.”