“I don’t think so.” Had she wavered? “I mean, no. I’m sure I’ll see him around, but we don’t have anything in common.”
Except for raging sexual chemistry.
He didn’t know any of the shows she liked. She didn’t work out a lot and he’d admitted it was one of his main hobbies. That and stepping in front of people if a bullet was flying. She didn’t like the thought of him getting hurt.
Was that why she was hesitating? Because he had a dangerous job and she couldn’t stand the thought of losing anyone else?
No. She was being logical, and she wasn’t ready for a relationship. She might never be ready for one. She was married to her work.
And he made her feel. Not merely physical things. He’d made her want to reach out and hold his hand, to let him take control. For a moment she hadn’t had to be anything but Owen’s lover.
Booty calls were about all she could handle right now. Lover meant something, something serious.
This was her time to have fun and play the field.
“Besides, I might have a date in a couple of days,” she admitted. She was going to get out there, play the field. She wasn’t going to spend all her time mooning over Owen Shaw.
He stopped, his eyes widening with surprise behind his glasses. “I thought you swore off dating.”
“No,” she corrected. “I took a sabbatical from interpersonal intimacy.” Not intrapersonal though. She’d had an excellent relationship with her vibrator and various porn sites.
She’d dreamed of being on her knees the night before, looking up at Owen, and when he’d smiled down at her, she’d known that he valued her for so much more than sex. In the dream, he took control in much of real life, too, allowing her to concentrate on her work while he handled their daily life.
She groaned inwardly. She really was dreaming of having a wife.
If only she was attracted to other women.
Her heels clicked along the tiles at their feet and she couldn’t help but notice Carter had gone quiet.
“Cathy’s got a plan to set me up,” she explained. “You know she’s kind of a matchmaker.”
He huffed with obvious disdain. “I’m sure she thinks she is. The dating scene isn’t for me. Women don’t want a smart man. They want a steroided-out asshole who looks like he should be on a movie screen.”
She wasn’t touching that one. “Okay, then. I will not put you on her list of available men.”
“I’m married to my work,” he insisted. “I certainly don’t need some clingy female. If I date, she’s going to be my intellectual equal. You were smart to not accept a date with that Neanderthal. He’s obviously not in your league.”
Yep, he was totally not in her league. He was in the majors. Any woman who looked his way probably wanted him, and it was obvious he hung out with the cool crowd. He and his friend, Robert, were both gorgeous and cut, sexy as hell.
“Don’t be a snob,” she said, but her brain was in overdrive.
It was a bad idea to get attached to some dude she’d done in the elevator. It was better to leave it where it was and to relegate the event and the man to her fond-memory files.
“Sometimes being a snob is all I have,” Carter admitted.
The train whooshed in and she was ready to go to work.
“What the hell was that?” Owen watched her stride out of the café, her lovely backside swaying. She was back in doctor mode, wearing a different shirt and skirt combo, flats and one of those cardigans. He wondered how many she had. This one was bright yellow and shouldn’t have been so wretchedly sexy, but he knew what she looked like trying to get one of them off. He remembered how she’d tossed it to the floor so it wouldn’t come between them.
“That was her blowing you off,” Robert explained, a cheery grin on his face. “It sounds like fun because the word blow is in there, but it actually refers to the opposite effect. That was her way of saying thanks for the sex, see you never.”
“Sex?” Nina looked at Robert and then Owen before handing over their second cups of coffee. “I thought the two of you were supposed to be having sex with each other, not the target.”
“It’s a sad but common tale.” Robert leaned against the counter. “My lover left me for a chick he found in the elevator.” He sighed and put his hand over his heart. “Such a faithless lover. One look at her and he forgot all our years of sharing our lives. What will we do about our two point five children and our rescue mutts? And who gets the china?”
“I was stuck in there with her for over four hours. It wasn’t like we looked at each other and went at it.” But when they had gone at it, it had been intense. “I got to know her. She’s a hell of a lady.”
“Yes, she is, and that’s precisely why you shouldn’t play games with her,” Nina said, her tone going frosty.
“It’s not a game. It’s a mission, and I’m not going to let her get hurt.” He’d made that decision the night before. “I’m not going to promise her anything I can’t make good on.”
“You’re actively spying on her, Owen,” Nina replied, her voice going low. “I can assure you she will get hurt. Think about that. I have to get back to work.”
He got the feeling he’d stepped into it with the new girl. And that she’d be updating Damon Knight as soon as she could.
Robert picked up his cup and tipped it Nina’s way. “Don’t worry about her. I think Rebecca Walsh can handle herself.”
Robert started for one of the swanky couches. The whole café was done up like someone’s living room with intimate spaces mixed in with traditional tabletops. Robert sank down as Tucker strode in.
“Morning, guys,” Tucker said. “Hey, Nina, can I get a plain black and a couple of muffins? Turns out the boss doesn’t do breakfast. Or buy groceries. Is there a reason I’m stuck with Ezra?”
“He needs a roomie and you’re the only one available,” Robert replied. “Jax gets bitchy when he can’t do his wife on every available surface wherever he’s living. Trust me. I stayed with them in Dallas. I did not eat off that table after I came home at a completely inopportune moment. Sasha and Dante are the only people who can stand sharing a room with the other, and Owen and I were in love until his dick took over. It was always going to be you and the boss.”
Owen rolled his eyes and looked at his partner for this op. “What’s got you in such a bloody good mood? Last night you were all prissy and today I’m getting the Big Tag treatment from you.”
Robert shrugged. “I’ve decided to go with the flow.”
Tucker sank down to the couch. “Ariel showed up at the bar last night and they made love eyes at each other for three hours.”
Robert frowned. “We did not make love eyes. What the hell are love eyes?”
Tucker’s baby blues went wide and he looked utterly ridiculous as he put his chin in his hand and batted his lashes Robert’s way. “‘Oh, Robbie, it’s so lovely to see you again and to let you creepily stare at me when you think I’m not watching but I really am because the truth is I love you, too, but I have a degree in psychology and that means I can’t sleep with the crazy ones. Oh, cursed fate!’”
He’d said it all in a terrible impersonation of Ariel’s upper-crust British accent, but he was probably dead on when it came to everything else.
Robert’s eyes rolled. “She’s not in love with me. It would be ridiculous for her to be in love with me.” A grin tugged his lips up suddenly. “She likes me, though. I think she likes me a lot.”
“Yeah, she does,” Tucker said as Nina strode up with a mug of coffee in hand.
“You are worse than any group of teenaged girls, you know that, right?” Nina gave them a judgmental stare.
Tucker merely shrugged. “We never got to be teens so we don’t know how to do it. And Big Tag is right. Gossip is super fun.”