“You’ll find out when I see you.”
The sound of his voice held promises she wasn’t sure she wanted him to keep. She’d been having a lot of mixed emotions since meeting Chance. A part of her knew that getting involved with him was not a good idea, but then another part of her—the one that lately was constantly reminding her that she was a woman with needs—was egging her on to enjoy what he was offering. At least within reason.
“All right. Would you like to give me your flight information now?” For the next minute or so, she jotted down the information that he gave her.
“Well, I’ll let you go now. I’m sure the shopping trip tired you out.”
“Yes, it did somewhat. I appreciate you calling.”
“I told you I would. I just hope my doing so hasn’t raised Tiffany’s suspicions. I know how much you don’t want the kids to think anything is going on between us.”
“No, I don’t think your call did. In fact, she said she thought it was very considerate of you to call and make sure we were all set for this weekend.”
“And are you all set for this weekend, Kylie?”
More than I need to be, she thought, thinking of all the new outfits she had purchased with the hopes that he’d like each and every one of them. “Yes, I found all the items on the list, including the snake bite kit.”
“Good girl. Now do something tonight when you go to sleep.”
“What?”
“Think of me.”
CHANCE SETTLED BACK IN the bed after placing the phone back in the cradle. He hadn’t been able to concentrate on the summit all week because Kylie was on his mind. Hell, for the past couple of nights, he hadn’t been able to sleep a wink.
It had been during Horace Doubletree’s speech that day when he’d suddenly came to the realization that it was a waste of time trying to fool himself any longer and that things for him had moved past him trying to get to know Kylie better. The truth of the matter was that he knew all he wanted to know. His heart had decided. He had fallen in love with her.
How such a thing was possible he wasn’t sure; especially when the woman had been sending out conflicting signals since the day they met. She was attracted to him, although she was determined to fight that attraction every step of the way. Her independence, while a turn-on, had ironically become a major obstacle to the relationship. That meant he needed to probe deeper and somehow break through her defenses. He also needed to take one day at a time and wipe away the fifteen years of hurt and pain she’d endured and prove that with him there would only be happier days. Even without her realizing she’d been doing so, for the past couple of weeks she had been extracting an unusual type of strength from him.
A strength of will.
He’d been fighting an intense longing, a deep-rooted desire for her since that day he’d walked into her florist shop. He could now admit that the first time their eyes had connected his heart had slammed into fifth gear. No wonder lunch at the Racetrack Café had seemed fitting as a place for their first date. Even then he’d known that something special was within his grasp.
After Cyndi died he’d actually thought that he could never love another woman again. And even with the few affairs he’d indulged in over the years, he’d never allowed his emotions to go any deeper than affection or desire. Yet here he had fallen hard for a woman whom he had never actually taken out on a real date, had never slept with and had never really spent more than a few hours with at a given time. His brothers would say such a thing was utterly insane. They would call in the shrink to have his head examined, or they would take him out somewhere and beat some sense into him. But then they would one day realize that some things in life were not meant to be understood, just accepted. Today he had accepted the fact that he had fallen in love.