She said, “He called a few days ago. Another month.”
Cash’s grunt sounded like he had been gut-punched. “Rox—”
Her arms tightened around his neck of their own volition, almost pulling him down to kiss her again. Truly, her arms were doing this without her meaning to. Every time she breathed, her breasts pressed against his chest.
“This was an accident,” he whispered. “It doesn’t mean anything.”
He rocked back on his knees and hesitated, his head hanging, before he stood and helped her up.
Rox smoothed her slacks. “Cash—”
“We were drunk,” he said, his bare chest still working as he breathed. “We need to cut down on the wine. If you tell Grant, say that it was my fault. I was a horny bastard and couldn’t control myself.”
“That’s not what happened.” She leaned, almost stepping forward to wrap her arms around him. Her knees felt like they might collapse under her.
“It is what happened. It’s what I’ll tell him if he wants to know. I’m the type of asshole who would try to fuck a married woman. Just ask anyone.”
“That’s not what they say.” They said that wedding-ring diamonds were his kryptonite and that he never, ever made plays for married women, and he hadn’t ever with her. “And that’s not what I’ll tell him.”
When Cash looked up, a spark of anger lit his eyes. “Tell him that I said that you were beautiful and that I was there when you needed someone to take care of you.”
DETOUR
The next morning, Cash was sitting out on the deck when Rox found him. An empty cereal bowl lay on the table beside him, and the steaming mug beside him was probably his second cup from the sharp look in his eyes.
“Morning,” she said.
Cash cleared his throat. “Good morning.”
Oh, so formal. Not that anything was weird between them. No, sirree.
She said, “Since it’s Sunday, I’m going to the animal shelter where I volunteer. Do you want to come along?”
See? She was totally nonchalant. It wasn’t that darned hard.
Nevermind the fact that she had dreamed about Cash all damn night long. Every time she turned around in her dreams, he was there, holding out his hand, looming over her, whispering, “Say yes.”
No wonder he could have any woman he wanted.
In the brilliant morning sunshine streaming from behind the house, Cash gestured to his laptop. “I’ve been working on Valerie’s contracts. I did a spreadsheet this morning, and it appears that ten percent of them have gross irregularities. We need more evidence before we confront her.”
Spreadsheet? Rox revised her coffee estimate to three cups. He must have gotten up early.
Or not slept.
She said, “Come with me. The shelter is pretty close to here.”
“I really can’t.”
“Come on, give me company. They give newbie volunteers the cushy jobs like walking the good dogs and socializing the kittens.”
He typed something, bit his lower lip for a moment, and then said, “I was terribly drunk last night. I don’t remember a damn thing. Did anything happen?”
He was dodging the subject and ghosting again, saying that the kiss was just an illusion, that they could turn it to gossamer and blow it away like it had never existed.
Like hell.
Rox braced her hands on the arms of his chair and leaned over his laptop screen.
Cash looked up at her, startled. The bruises and scrapes from the accident had mostly healed, and he was gorgeous, stunning Cash Amsberg again except for that damn bandage on his face.
She said, “Don’t tell me that that kiss didn’t exist. That kiss meant the world to me, and I wouldn’t trade it for anything. It was real. Don’t pretend that it didn’t happen.”
“You’re married,” he said. The flatness in his voice disturbed her. “It didn’t matter.”
“It mattered to me,” she said. “Even if nothing can go any further between us because it’ll just end badly and hurt everyone, it mattered to me.” That was all the truth.
He stroked her cheek with the back of his knuckles. “You’re married,” he said, his eyes turning kind. “I can’t even argue because you’re married.”
She didn’t want to say, What if I wasn’t? because the answer was obvious.
If she wasn’t married, he would have fucked and chucked her by now because that was what he always did.
“Fine,” she said. “We won’t argue. Come to the animal shelter with me.”
If she hadn’t been right in his face, close enough to kiss him with only a quick move, she would have missed the subtle shuttering of his eyes and his faint sigh. His glance down looked like the whole world had come crashing down on him.