He cocked his head to the side, his gaze a little soft from the wine he had drunk. “But you’re married. It could never have been anything more.”
Oh, yeah. That. “That, too.”
“It was just a rough day, yesterday. Nothing more. We’re just friends.”
“That sounds about right to me.”
He stuck out his hand. “Deal.”
His palm was warm in hers, and he kept smiling the whole time they shook on it.
They watched television for a few more minutes, and then they went to their respective bedrooms.
In her own room, Rox paused, still wearing the expensive black silk bra and panty set that she’d bought online. It had been delivered that afternoon.
Yeah, she had been wearing lingerie again, just in case Cash had made some sort of a move.
Buying lingerie when she wasn’t even in a relationship was stupid, especially when the guy was so far out of her league.
And it hadn’t mattered that she had shaved her legs that afternoon, either.
She didn’t even want Cash to make a move, she reminded herself. She wanted to keep her job and work with him, be buddies, and be the one woman that Cash wouldn’t fuck and chuck.
That had been her goal all along.
Just because she fantasized about him sometimes, that didn’t mean that she really wanted to sleep with him. He was gorgeous and ripped. Every woman around him probably fantasized about him.
But she put her pajamas on over the lingerie because it made her feel like some guy, somewhere, wouldn’t mind that she was chubby and wouldn’t fall into a massive depression just because a fat chick had made a move on him.
Man, she had really hoped that Cash would make some kind of a move, even though she didn’t want him to.
MOONLIGHT
Casimir paced the hallway, looking at the framed paintings of pottery and landscapes but not really seeing them.
From the first moment he had met her, he had always known that Rox was married.
The first time she had walked into his office to discuss a contract, he had seen the rings on her left hand, and so he had known that he had to leave her alone. To not leave her alone would be to cause heartache.
But he hadn’t.
Casimir unlocked the French doors and walked out onto the deck, shutting the door behind him lest the cats get out. A wedge of moonlight sparkled on the ocean waves. The surf roared and pounded its fury on the rocks far below.
He had let himself get too attached to her, first depending on her at work, then becoming too friendly, too open with her, then insisting on rescuing her and her cats when just finding them a hotel would have been the more professional option, and then asking her to stay with him while he recovered because he couldn’t fathom letting even anonymous nurses see him when he was hurt, and now this.
He was an idiot who had fallen in love with a married woman.
Years ago.
Of course, she had rejected him.
It had nothing to do with the fact that his face was all twisted up again.
Except that the echoes in his head made it all about that.
He had been shoving those whispers down all day.
Somehow, at night, in the dark and the silence when everyone around for miles was asleep, everything seemed worse.
The bandage itched on his face where his beard was growing out. Once the five o’clock shadow poked out of his skin, that stupid gauze pad scratched at him. Before that, the tape itched when he smiled, or talked, or twitched, or anything.
He peeled the bandage from his face and crumpled it up, dropping it in a flowerpot that he used as a trashcan out there. Cool air touched his face, and he ran his fingers over the tight skin. The stiff scar tissue felt hauntingly familiar.
Behind him in the night, the French door clicked and scraped, discernible even over the ocean crashing against the shore.
He heard Rox ask, “Cash?”
Ah, crap. Right when he had ripped off the damn bandage. That gnarled skin on his cheek itched, and he pressed his hand over the monstrous scar.
It was too dark for her to see him, and he would just keep that side of his face turned away from her. “I’m just looking at the moon.”
In the ghostly moonlight, he could just see the outline of her as she leaned on the railing beside him. “I know. I trust you.”
He almost laughed aloud. Well played.
He said, “I think we should find you a house tomorrow. I can help with a down payment or whatever you need. I appreciate that you stayed here while I needed someone to take care of me.”
“Anytime, buddy. I can find a place. Don’t worry yourself.”
He looked over the dark sea, the roaring wavelets crested with silver glimmers. His house would echo with her and the cats gone. Maybe he could convince her to leave Pirate with him. “I think we managed to behave admirably, when you think about it. Two healthy adults, cooped up in a house. It’s a good thing you’re married. Otherwise, unspeakable things might have happened.”