of the man. Was she sweet to his heart? All she really knew was they’d done it, bed or no bed, and she was in a state of helpless confusion over what it meant or might mean to either of them.
Before she could think of any reply to him, he shook his head at her and offered a wry little smile as he made the pertinent comment, “Neither of us can blame ourselves for spontaneous combustion.”
This implied he hadn’t planned what happened, any more than she had. An accident of Fate? Or a convenient excuse?
“Was it?” she asked suspiciously.
“What?”
“Spontaneous combustion.”
“It felt like that to me.” His brow puckered for a thoughtful moment. “I remember I was swinging in with all the support I could think of for your out-of-my-life act, socking it home to your ex, then…yes, I’d definitely have to call it spontaneous combustion. Mind you, the chemistry was always there. No denying it.”
Amy had to accept the undeniable truth that she’d played with fire, tempted the devil, and the ensuing conflagration could not be entirely laid at Jake’s door. She sighed, letting go the craven wish to dissolve in the bath. There was no escaping what had to be faced.
“So what do we do now?” she asked, looking for some signal from him.
He grinned at her. “I suggest we have dinner. Both of us need re-fuelling.”
Pragmatic Jake. One appetite burnt out…might as well get on with feeding another.
Which could then re-ignite the first and…Amy clamped down on that thought. She had to get sex with Jake off her brain. More practical matters needed to be settled.
“Okay,” she agreed. “You dry yourself off first and I’ll follow.”
He eyed her quizzically. “You’re not going shy on me, are you, Amy?”
It triggered a nervous laugh. “A bit late for that. I just want the bathroom to myself while I tidy up.”
In truth, Amy didn’t want to risk tangling physically with Jake, with or without towels. She needed some clear space here to tidy up her responses to him.
“Fair enough,” he said and whooshed out of the bath, the massive displacement of water almost causing a tidal wave.
He was a big man. Stark naked, there was a lot of him, all of it impressive. Amy couldn’t help staring. In every male sense he was well proportioned, well muscled and most decisively well endowed. Very well indeed. Her vaginal muscles went into spasms of excitement just looking at him, remembering how he’d felt and what he’d done.
It was just as well she was still lying in the bath. Jake didn’t even have to apply the art of temptation in the nude. He was it. He turned to reach for a towel and his backside scored a perfect ten beyond a shadow of a doubt.
Amy was struck by a powerful insight. Lust was not a male prerogative. Lust could hit a woman like a runaway train. She was left wondering how on earth it could be stopped.
A more urgent question was…did she want it to be stopped?
DINNER was good. Jake didn’t press anything but food on her. He played the charming host, ready to serve her every whim, encouraging her to try everything he’d brought, pleased when she did, obviously resolved on giving her a breathing space and setting a relaxed mood.
Amy appreciated it. She appreciated the food, too. It seemed to stabilise her stomach and clear her head. Her confusion over the sexual element that had scrambled their relationship, gradually sorted itself out into various straight avenues of thought.
Of course, it helped that Jake was fully clothed again. And she felt…safer, protected…in the jeans and T-shirt she’d planned to wear before Steve’s fateful intrusion. Probably her choice of clothes had alerted Jake to her nervous tension and reservations about any further intimate involvement. He was never slow on picking up signals.
Nevertheless, there could be no avoiding a discussion on where they went from here. As they cleared the dishes from the table, transferring them to the kitchen counter, Amy decided it couldn’t be postponed any longer. She could only hope Jake would understand her position.
“Coffee on the balcony?” he suggested.
Her gaze zapped to the armchairs and coffee table he must have put outside while she’d been in the shower prior to Steve’s arrival. “You thought of that before,” she blurted out, flushing with embarrassment as she recollected precisely when she’d noticed their removal to the balcony.
He shrugged. “It seemed a pleasant way to finish off the evening.”
She looked him straight in the eye, something she’d had difficulty in doing throughout dinner. “You didn’t come here to jump me, did you, Jake?”
“No,” he answered unequivocally. His face softened into a warm, whimsical smile. “I do genuinely care about you. I didn’t want you to feel alone.”
Her heart turned over.
Maybe caring made the difference.
“Besides, jumping isn’t my style,” he went on. “I’m only interested in mutual desire.”
Desire…lust…he’d probably cared about all the others, too.
His eyes gleamed their dangerous wolf-yellow. “And it is very mutual, Amy. Don’t put other labels on it.”
Don’t put love on it…that was certain.
Mutual desire was not going to lead anywhere good and it was no use wishing it might. Heat raced into her cheeks again as she tried to explain her spontaneous combustion away.
“Jake…it was just a moment in time…because of Steve…and…”
“No.” He shook his head at her. “At least be honest, Amy. We’re not ships passing in the night. What happened has been building between us for a long time. A progression…”
“But we don’t have to choose it,” she cried, agitated by the way he was validating what had been madness on both their parts. “We work together, Jake. Please don’t make it impossible for us to keep on working together.”
He frowned as though he hadn’t taken that factor into consideration.
“I’ll make the coffee,” she said, scooting off to the kitchen, hoping to keep the counter between them for a while.
Clothes didn’t really help, not when he started radiating physical charm and reminding her of the desires they had indulged so…so wildly. If he reached out and touched her, she wasn’t sure she could resist touching back. She had the feeling an electric current would sizzle her brain and her body would proceed on its own merry way to meltdown.
To her intense relief, Jake wandered out to the balcony. She stacked the plates and cutlery
