Last night had been the hottest night of his life, hands down. The only other experiences that came close were the other times he’d been with Lily. She wiped memories of other women from his mind. He couldn’t even remember what appeal those other women had ever held. They were too blonde, too tanned, too thin, too surgically enhanced. There was nothing genuine about them.
They weren’t like Lily. Lily, who was soft and beautiful, who didn’t cling to him. Lily, who he gladly held all night long, when he’d never wanted to do that with any other woman.
“I need to go home,” she said suddenly.
His first thought was that he didn’t want her to leave. And he’d definitely never felt that way about a woman before. He hated to admit that that first reaction, the desire to hold her to him, keep her with him, scared him.
There was no point in caring. No point in wanting.
“Why?”
“I don’t have any clothes. I only have that dress.” She gestured to the black fabric pooled at the foot of his bed. “And when I leave, everyone’s going to know what was going on. No one wears a dress like that on Sunday morning.”
“My simple solution is that you could forgo clothes altogether.”
“No.”
“I’ll drive you back to your place. Is there anything else you need?” he asked.
“I usually work out today.”
He wasn’t surprised to know that she worked on her body. She took a lot of care with her appearance, not to the point of obsession, but just enough that she projected a very polished image. That was one thing that made ruffling her so much fun.
And if he could just focus on the fun and ignore all of the other things, their affair could continue for as long as they both wanted.
“I’ll go with you. I work out on Sundays, too.”
She nodded slowly, but he could tell she wasn’t thrilled with the idea. She was extremely cagey and very closed off with her emotions, something he normally wouldn’t notice or care about, but for some reason, with her, he cared.
When they were in bed together, or on the beach, her walls started to come down, and he reveled in those moments. He shouldn’t. There was nowhere for their relationship to go. Even if he wanted love and marriage, she was the wrong woman. What could they bring to a marriage? A mutual obsession with their own businesses, their own lives? And if he didn’t have his business, what other attraction could he possibly offer?
In business, they were well-suited, in bed, they were incredible. But that was all it would ever be. That was all it could ever be.
“Remind me never to work out with you again,” Lily said, rubbing her shoulders as she settled into Gage’s low-slung sports car.
“Too much for you?”
She groaned and leaned her head back against the seat. “Normally, I don’t like to admit defeat, but in this case, I’ll concede.”
“Are you hungry?” Gage asked, maneuvering the car into traffic.
“Very.”
“Do you want to go out?”
She grimaced. After a workout that intense, she wasn’t fit to be out in public. “I can cook for you. My condo is close.”
Gage hesitated for a moment before changing lanes and heading in the direction of her home. She didn’t know what she was doing, why she was inviting him to come home with her. Because she was certain that he would end up staying. That they would end up in bed together, and she was sure that was the wrong thing to do. She should have told him to drop her off at home, should have tried to start putting distance between them.
But she hadn’t. And even now that she recognized what she should do, she wasn’t going to do it. She wanted to be with him. Maybe she should stop analyzing everything and just be with him.
“It’s a two-car garage,” she said when he pulled into the lot of her condo. “Just stop here for a second.”
She got out of the car and keyed in the code for the garage and the door opened. She got back into the car while Gage drove it inside, parking next to her little commuter vehicle. For a moment, it seemed shockingly comfortable, to have his car parked next to hers, almost like they shared the space.
She shook her head and got back out of the car and moved to unlock her side entrance. Gage followed her in. She had always been proud of her house, and had hosted a few dinner parties for her friends when she’d had the time, not since she’d started working for Gage. It wasn’t as luxurious as his house, but it was hers.
“You have a view of the ocean from here?” he asked.
“From the bedroom.”
“I’ll have to take a look,” he said, giving her a wicked grin.
“Later,” she said, “but now I’m hungry.”