There was another choice, Dillon thought. One that neither one of them was mentioning. One that, if he remained much longer, he had a feeling would be made for him.
Dillon’s eyes met hers.
She felt as if he were looking straight into her soul. And the electricity between them was so strong, she was surprised that one of them wasn’t shooting off sparks from their fingertips.
Hailey took a breath, doing her best to stabilize herself.
“Tell you what,” she suggested, possibly a bit too cheerfully. “Why don’t I pour you a glass of wine since the bottle is already open? It would be a shame to let it go to waste.”
As she talked, Hailey took out two wine glasses from the cupboard overhead. Putting them on the counter, she took the bottle out of the refrigerator, removed the cork and proceeded to pour two glasses. She brought the glasses over to the coffee table and placed one in front of Dillon as she sat down on the sofa with the other.
“To the continuing success of all your projects,” she said, raising her glass in a toast. “You are all to be commended. You and your brothers have brought fresh life to this sleepy little town.” She smiled warmly at him over the rim of her partially filled glass. “Thank you for all you’ve done.”
“It was Callum’s doing, really,” Dillon told her quite honestly just before taking a sip of wine. He put his glass down. “He’s the one with the vision,” he said. “I just came along for the ride.”
“You’re being incredibly modest,” she told him. “Don’t forget, I saw what the spa building looked like before you worked your magic on it, transforming it into an absolute work of art in comparison.” It was, she thought with pride, the first thing that new clients commented on.
“I’d hardly call it magic,” Dillon protested uncomfortably.
“Maybe you wouldn’t, but I would,” she told him. Hailey moved closer to him without being aware of it. “You managed to take an ordinary, lackluster building and transform it into a work of art that offers its clients hope—not to mention a variety of classes to help get them achieve their goals and get into shape.
“Which reminds me,” she said, her enthusiasm for her subject growing by leaps and bounds as she talked, “I’ve decided to add a couple of new classes to the roster. One of the classes focuses entirely on yoga and the other is a beauty treatment oriented for every inch of your body. Well, not your body,” she corrected, her eyes traveling over him. “Your body’s definitely firm enough.” Realizing that she had gotten carried away, she cleared her throat. “So, what do you think?”
He didn’t want to tell her what he was really thinking. That way only led to trouble. So instead, he played it safe and said, “I think that the term spa typically leads people to think that they’re going to be lying around and getting massages and toning treatments.”
“Oh, we still offer that, too,” she assured him. “But the massages aren’t nearly as exciting to the clients as the other things we’re putting together. We’re approaching wellness from all different angles.” She smiled like a proud parent showing off her brand new baby. Hailey’s eyes sparkled as she asked Dillon, “So what do you think?”
It wasn’t up to him to approve or disapprove, but he liked her asking his opinion he thought, taking one last sip of wine, then setting down his empty glass on the coffee table. “You’re the manager, not me,” he told Hailey. “I’m just the guy who designed the building and oversaw the work.”
“Oh, I think you did a little more than just that,” she assured him. “Tell me, is your modesty a congenital thing, or is it something that you grew into gradually?”
“I was raised to think that bragging was wrong.”
“And I appreciate that,” she told him. “But there is a difference between bragging and accepting your due. Don’t get me wrong,” she added quickly, “I find your modesty charming and very sweet,” she told him truthfully. “I just want you to know how good you really are, that’s all.
“Sometimes,” she continued, “with everything that’s going on, simple things—like words of appreciation—tend to get lost and I thought you needed to hear it, at least once in a while.”
Humor curved his mouth. He couldn’t help thinking again how this woman was something else. “You did, did you?”
“I did,” Hailey replied in all seriousness.
By this point, egged on by her enthusiasm, there was very little space left between the two of them. So little that there was only enough room to fit in a piece of paper between their bodies. A very thin piece of paper at that.
“Well then, allow me to thank you,” he said, completely mesmerized by her lips with every movement they made.
“You’re welcome.”
Her words came out in a low sultry whisper that in any other situation might have been referred to as the beginning of a siren’s song.
Dillon would have liked to have blamed it on the wine, but he had only had a couple of sips. And even if he had downed the whole glass and then the rest of what was in the bottle after that, wine wasn’t nearly as potent or intoxicating as the woman sitting so close to him.
One moment he was allowing himself to be mesmerized by watching her lips move as she spoke, the very next moment he was kissing those same lips, leaving himself utterly open and vulnerable to their magic.
The last two times he had given in and kissed Hailey, he had somehow managed to be smart enough to anchor his thoughts to something, so that he could stop himself before he got too swept away.
But this time, there was no anchor to keep him from being pulled in. This time he knew he was lost the second his lips came in contact with hers. Because
