Oh, shit! Laura thought. She could see the anger forming in him and she couldn’t blame him.
So all this time Laura had been blocking him, hiding from him—no, running away from him—and had fled straight into Mike’s arms because she thought he had a wife or girlfriend? Damn it! Leaving Jill’s pictures all over his bedroom had been just part of his life; he’d never even considered taking them down. Hadn’t really noticed them as part of the scenery. They were just there.
It gave him pause now. Was he really over Jill? He knew Mike wasn’t, had never even begun to heal, but Dylan assumed he was past the worst of it, and that Jill would just remain as a lingering “what if.” The three of them had started to talk about having kids the year before she was diagnosed. That potential had been shut down fast by chemotherapy and radiation and just getting through life day by day. Whatever remained of Jill inside him, though, was bigger than he had realized. If a bunch of pictures were that overwhelming and made Laura think he was a two-timer, then it was time to re-evaluate himself.
Laura’s entire demeanor had changed from a defensive, angry countenance to one of apology and self-reproach. “Dylan, I don’t know what to say. I am such an idiot! Idiot, idiot, idiot!” She lightly smacked her forehead with each repetition of the word. He smiled. Ah, how well he knew that feeling.
“I totally see where you made that leap, Laura.” He closed his eyes and inhaled, partly to figure out what to say next and partly because the room was so cold and corporate it was giving him the heeby-jeebies. “We haven’t known each other for very long.” He took a step toward her. She didn’t move back. Good, good. “And I can only imagine what it was like to wake up in the middle of the night in my bedroom.” Step. “Surrounded by pictures of Jill.” Step. Two more steps and he’d be within range to reach out and touch her.
Gorgeous, long blonde hair pulled tightly back made her look like a cold career woman and less like the Laura he’d fallen for on their date. She seemed remote, but as her face melted into something he recognized—arousal and intrigue—his heart warmed and a little swagger grew in him. He had a chance here. As the seconds passed, the odds leaned more and more in his favor. He glanced at the door. A lock.
Good. They would need it.
She relaxed against her desk, letting her arms drop from across her chest, and casually unbuttoned her suit jacket. Her fingers fluttered to her mouth, a gesture of contemplation as she seemed to measure what she was about to say.
“I need to say something.” Here it comes. She’s going to tell me about Mike. She pulled on her lower lip with her index finger, then touched a loose strand of hair, twirling it in her fingers, the gesture making her seem much younger and achingly vulnerable. “Guys like you don’t go after women like me,” she said quietly.
“Oh, come on, Laura—that’s not—”
Palms facing out, she made him stop mid-word. “Let me say my piece.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Her furrowed brow made him worried he’d mis-stepped. “You are a former model. Women pay thousands of dollars to go out on a bachelor auction date with you.”
He choked. “You know that?”
“I Googled you. There are more images of you than there are links about you, Dylan.”
“Oh,” he said. Anything more would seem like he was bragging. The swagger grew. How about that? Nice.
Looking down, she stared pointedly at her belly, her legs, and used her hands to flow down her body. “So what does a guy who looks like you want with a woman who looks like me?”
“I—”
“That night with you was unreal. Un-fucking-real. A little too unreal, you know? When I woke up and saw all those pictures of this surf-n-ski bunny all over you—”
“Jill wasn’t—”
“I’m sure she was more than that. Really.” She cocked her head and seemed to have a sudden flash of insight, but whatever it was she kept it to herself. This conversation most definitely was not going where he’d thought it would, but it was fine. Laura was sharing. Her willingness to be this open, this real, reminded him of Jill. How lucky was he? And why hadn’t other men seen the goodness in her? They—not Laura—were the true idiots.
“Laura—”
“So I ran.” Tears filled her eyes. “It was too good to be true. In my mind, you were just another asshole, like Ryan.”
“Who’s Ryan?”
“The last guy I dated before we met. He turned out to be married.”
“Ouch.”
“Yeah. See why I ran? Why I blocked you? I just— we’re so different, and I assumed you just wanted a one-night stand. So I gave you one.”