A Tricky Proposition(42)
“You haven’t done that yet?”
“I’ve been waiting for you to offer to do it for me.”
Robbed of a dreamy night in Jason’s arms and the pleasure of waking up with him in the morning, Ming let her irritation shine. “You said no about going in on a gift together, so you’re on your own.”
“Please come shopping with me.” He put on his most appealing smile. “You know I’m hopeless when it comes to department stores.”
How could she say no when she’d already agreed to help him before they’d started sleeping together. It wasn’t fair to treat him differently just because she felt differently toward him.
“What time tomorrow?”
“Eleven? I want to be home to watch the Oilers at three.”
“Fine,” she grumbled.
With disappointment of her own weighing her down, she plodded up the stairs and let herself into her house. Muffin met her in the foyer. She danced around on her back legs, wringing a small smile from Ming’s stiff lips.
“I’ll take you out back in a second.” She waited by the front door long enough to see Jason’s headlights retreating down her driveway, then headed toward the French doors that led from her great room to the pool deck.
While the Yorkie investigated the bushes at the back of her property, Ming sat down on a lounge chair and sought the tranquility often gained by sitting beside her turquoise kidney-shaped pool. She revisited her earlier statement to Jason. It made no sense for them to rendezvous each afternoon and have the best sex ever if all they were trying to do was make a baby. Only, if she was completely honest with herself, she’d admit that a baby isn’t all she wanted from Jason.
Her body ached with unfulfilled desire. Her soul longed to find the rhythm of Jason’s heart beating in time with hers. From the beginning she’d been right to worry that getting intimate with her best friend was going to lead her into trouble. But temptation could be avoided for only so long when all you’ve ever wanted gets presented to you on a silver platter. She would just have to learn to live with the consequences.
Finding nothing of interest in the shrubbery, Muffin came back to the pool, her nails clicking on the concrete. Sympathetic to her mistress’s somber mood, the terrier jumped onto Ming’s lap and nuzzled her nose beneath Ming’s hand.
“I am such an idiot,” she told the dog, rubbing Muffin’s head.
“That makes two of us.”
*
Jason hadn’t even gotten out of Ming’s neighborhood before he’d realized what a huge error he’d made. In fact, he hadn’t made it to the end of her block. But just because he’d figured it out didn’t mean returning to Ming wasn’t an even bigger mistake. So, he’d sat at a stop sign for five minutes, listening to Rascal Flatts and wondering when his life had gotten so damned complicated. Then, he’d turned the car around, used his key to get into Ming’s house and found her by the pool.
“Let’s go upstairs,” he said. “We need to talk.”
Ming pulled her hair over one shoulder and began to braid it. “We can’t talk here?”
Was she being deliberately stubborn or pretending to be dense?
Without answering, he pivoted on his heel and walked toward the house. Muffin caught up as he crossed the threshold. Behind him, Ming’s heels clicked on the concrete as she rushed after him.
“Jason.” She sounded breathless and uncertain. She’d stopped in the middle of her kitchen and called after him as he got to the stairs. “Why did you come back?”
Since talking had only created problems between them earlier, he was determined to leave conversation for later. Taking the stairs two at a time, he reached her bedroom in record time. Unfastening his cuffs, he gazed around the room. He hadn’t been up here since he’d helped her paint the walls a rich beige. The dark wood furniture, rich chestnut bedspread and touches of sage green gave the room the sophisticated, expensive look of a five-star hotel suite.
“Jason?”
He’d had enough time to unfasten his shirt buttons. Now, as she entered the room, he let the shirt drop off his shoulders and draped it over a chair. “Get undressed.”
While she stared at him in confounded silence, he took Muffin from her numb fingers and deposited the dog in the hallway.
“She always sleeps with me,” Ming protested as he shut the door.
“Not tonight.”
“Well, I suppose she can sleep on Lily’s bed. Jason, what’s gotten into you?”
His pants joined his shirt on the chair. With only his boxer briefs keeping his erection contained, he set his hands on his hips.