he said.
“Of course it’s the meeting.” She yanked hard and he let go of the bra.
“It’s the bed,” he said. “I said
She covered her gorgeous breasts with her bra and hooked herself in without answering.
“Yeah,” he said grimly, some of his after-sex glow fading. “The thought of my bed scares you.”
“Don’t be ridiculous.”
“What then? Tell me.”
She grabbed her dress off the floor. “Why would a bed scare me?”
“I don’t know, we’ve never done it in a bed. Maybe a bed represents something other than sex. Maybe a bed says we mean more to each other than just a quickie on a couch.”
“Or in a backseat,” she said.
“Yeah, or an elevator.” He held her gaze. “Or a bathroom.”
“Wade.” She covered her eyes and breathed in deeply. “Do we have to do this now?”
Quiet, a little unnerved at the urge he had to try harder to coax her into staying, he watched her nip and tuck herself together, then twist her hair up.
And voila.
In less than three seconds she went from sweet, warm, tousled Sam to all-business Sam.
Frightening how good she was at that.
She moved past him to the door, and he barely caught her hand.
She looked down at their entwined fingers instead of meeting his gaze, and suddenly he was forced to face an unsettling fact.
For the first time in his life, he wasn’t trying to figure a way to get rid of a woman he’d just slept with. He wasn’t running for the door. He wasn’t working up an excuse or a pretty lie about why he had to go. Because he didn’t want to get rid of her. He wanted more.
He honestly hadn’t seen that one coming.
“I have to go,” she whispered.
“Yeah.” He waited until she met his gaze, her own unusually bright. “I see that.” Still a little bowled over by his own thoughts, he dropped his hand from hers, watching as she stepped to the door.
“It’s not what you think,” she said, her back to him.
He’d never pushed for more with a woman, ever. It made him feel a little bit like he was standing balls-out- naked.
“That I don’t want to be with you. I do.” She paused, then turned to face him. “I do. But I know your terms, Wade. Light and fun and easy. Only sometimes something inside me forgets, and I have to back off to regroup.”
At her words, his chest ached. “Sam.”
“I just need to regroup,” she repeated softly. “That’s all. I’ll see you later.”
And with that, she was gone.
Sam ran into the meeting with one minute to spare. Gage looked up, then frowned. “You’re almost late and you’re… smiling. What’s up?”
She’d noticed the smile in the rearview mirror on the way over here. Even with the seriousness of the conversation she’d had with Wade after the whole couch-sex thing, she couldn’t get rid of it. Damn multiple orgasms. “Nothing.”
He looked her over very carefully, then let out a low breath. “I could use a
Sam survived the meeting, and then the phone call with her father as she informed him of her intention not to resign her contract when the season was over, that she’d instead be starting up her own PR firm. She’d sounded cool and collected as she told him that she hoped he would hire her an as independent contractor to continue to run the Heat’s PR needs, but that she’d have other clients as well, and would no longer be a McNead employee.
He’d argued. He was unhappy with her decision, and claimed that she was letting the family down, but she thought the truth of it was that he didn’t want her out from beneath his thumb.
But for her it was as good as done. Maybe she couldn’t choose her family, but she sure as hell could choose her own path.
And when she hung up, she was still smiling. Seems sex really did a body good.
She was still smiling that night over macaroni and cheese with Tag. But when she got up the next morning, the smile was finally gone. She lay in bed and thought about getting herself over to Wade’s for another twelve-hour smile, but she couldn’t come up with an excuse so she called him. “How are you?”
“Define okay,” he said, his sleepy morning voice rough and sexy enough to make her nipples hard.
“Not a murder suspect would be good.”
He blew out a breath. “Then I’m okay. At least for now. But don’t worry, I’ve seen a lot of movies. I think I can get away with it without getting arrested.”
“What’s he doing?”
“Breathing.”
“Is he drinking?”
“Oddly, no. At least not that I’ve caught him at. But he’s eating me out of house and home, and he won’t stop talking.”
“Are you feeling better?” she asked. “Your head? Your ribs?”
“I can’t feel anything but my blood pressure rising. Can your blood actually boil? I think mine’s boiling.”
“You need to watch a movie,” she suggested. “Or eat some brownies. Relax.”
“I’ve got a better way to relax.”
She actually felt herself go damp. “Sex isn’t the answer.”
“Sam, sex is
“By the time I got there, we’d only have five minutes.”
“Five minutes is all I need.”
“Maybe I need more.” Like six. She could probably do it in six if they skipped the preliminaries and got right to it.
He sighed. “You’re right. Maybe you’ll come over tonight.”
“I’ve got Tag and you have your dad.”
“I’ll hire us both babysitters, and we can sneak off. Maybe to the beach. Since a bed scares you, let’s do it on the cliffs,” he said, his voice husky, like he was already picturing it.
And now so was she… “Wade.”
“See this,” he said, “this is why life is better when it’s all fun and games.”
She laughed and disconnected, then woke up Tag for breakfast.
“Outta milk,” he grumbled sleepily. “What are you going to put in your coffee?”
“You’re worried about my coffee, or your Frosted Flakes?”
“That, too.” He smiled sweetly.
Her heart tugged. She knew he wasn’t missing his dad as much these days, if he’d ever really done so. Most likely what Tag had missed was being at the only home he’d known, and Sam wanted to think that she’d given him a more than decent replacement. Given the lack of recent complaining on his part, she figured she was at least on the right track. Problem was, she’d gotten herself good and attached to him, and knew that at the end of the three months, when Jeremy came for him, it was going to hurt like hell.
Apparently that was the story of her life. Fall in love for a predetermined amount of time, then get her heart stomped on. “How about we go out for breakfast?”
Tag sat straight up. “Really?”
“Not fast food this time, but really.”
Tag leapt out of his chair and headed for the door.
“Bring your backpack, your tutor’s meeting us at my office today.”
“’Kay. Can we get pancakes with strawberries and whipped cream?” He batted his already gorgeous eyelashes
