“She’s a grown woman. She makes her own decisions.”
“She should be at home. Dancing ballet again, dating again.”
Vivian sighed. “You don’t have a say in it. Ellie is the one to decide whether she dates, or whether she dances ballet again.”
Anger flashed across his handsome face. “I see. So you think it’s perfectly okay for my baby sister to be dancing in your strip club.”
“My club is not—”
He cut her off, his voice sharp and furious. “How could you do that to her? Why the hell did you give her that job?”
“Because she asked me.” Her own voice was quiet.
“You should’ve said no. Damn it, Viv! You had no right bringing Ellie down here. No right messing with her ballet career. No goddamned right screwing with her feelings, no, telling her how she’s supposed to feel and—” He stopped abruptly, his lips tightening.
The silence that followed was deafening. It lasted just long enough for a river of guilt to flow down her chest and into her belly, where it swirled around like a violent eddy. They weren’t talking about Ellie anymore, that much was blatantly obvious. What confused her was the look in his eyes. Anguished. Frustrated. Hurt.
Had she hurt him by leaving? She still felt bad about blowing him off the way she had. Not taking his phone calls, leaving town without letting him know. Not that she’d moved because of Josh. The thought of owning a nightclub had been genuinely exciting; the fact that it required her to leave San Francisco had just been an added bonus.
Josh Dawson was an attractive, charming, virile young man. He didn’t need to be saddled with a forty-four-year-old single mom who’d probably be hitting menopause any year now. That’s why she’d swiftly extinguished the flame that was determined to keep smoldering between them. She wouldn’t have been able to live with herself if she’d deprived him of what he really needed—a serious committed relationship with a woman his own age.
But with his pain-tinged words still hanging in the air and that wounded flicker still awash in his eyes, she wondered if maybe she’d made a mistake.
“I never told you how to feel,” she murmured, feeling like a teenager again as she avoided his gaze.
“Fine, I’ll rephrase. You never gave me the chance to feel.” An unmistakable splash of bitterness lined his voice.
“We both know that kiss was a mistake.” She squared her shoulders, stood up and turned away from him. She couldn’t look at him. Not unless she wanted him to see the truth in her eyes, which clearly conveyed the lack of conviction in her words. Kissing Josh hadn’t been a mistake, not when it felt so right. The mistake would be letting that one kiss become something more.
“You’re lying.” She nearly jumped when she felt him come up behind her, his rough beard scratching the shell of her ear and tickling her skin. His voice lowered to a smoky pitch as he added, “That kiss was the best thing that ever happened to both of us.”
She swallowed hard, gathered every ounce of self-control she possessed, then turned and took a few steps back. The passion glittering in Josh’s eyes was enough to make her legs tremble. Enough to make her giddy with desire. But she couldn’t bring herself to tell him he was right. Instead, she did the only thing she thought might put an end to this. Whatever this was. She changed the subject.
“What do you plan on doing about Ellie?”
She didn’t need to be a brain surgeon to know he was disappointed. He obviously wanted to finish what he’d started, but to her relief he let it go. Oh, he’d bring it up again, that she knew, but for now he’d granted her a much-needed reprieve.
“I’m not sure yet,” he replied, a distant look crossing his face. “But I don’t want her or Luke to know I’m in town just yet. Which is why I came here.”
Uneasiness crept up her throat. “What do you mean?”
“I need a place to stay.” He must have caught her startled reaction because he quickly continued. “There’s only one motel in this town and Luke checked into it. The next hotel is an hour’s drive from here, so I figured I can best lay low if I stay with you.”
Stay with her? And turn her home into a modern-day Garden of Eden, complete with temptation and forbidden fruit?
Oh God.
“What about Ellie?” she pointed out quickly, ignoring her pounding heart. “You think she won’t know if you’re in town?”
“She won’t if you don’t tell her.”
Wonderful. Now he was not only asking to stay in her house, but he wanted her to lie to the girl who had become her best friend.
“What if she stops by for a surprise visit?”
“We both know Ellie doesn’t own a car. And I doubt she’d be up to the walk, she lives across town. Chances are, she’ll call you to pick her up if she wants to come over.”