Page 17 of An Unexpected Home

“That means that we are in my office at the police station.” He stood and walked to stand in front of her putting out his hand for her to take. When their fingers touched, he got the same zing he'd gotten the night she’d first got into town. She stood up and had to tilt her chin to make contact with his eyes. “What if we had dinner and then we could talk more.”

“You want to have dinner with me?”

“Sure,” he said. “If we are thinking of maybe...getting together. Don’t you think we should?”

“No.” She shook her head and took a step back. “That wasn’t what I was asking. I wanted sex. Just sex.”

He blanched at how emotionless she sounded and then wondered if that was how he came across when he’d said virtually the same thing to many women.

Now that the shoe was on the other foot, he didn’t really like it.

“So you’re saying what, it’s just sex or it’s nothing?”

“Yeah. That’s the deal.”

“What made you choose me?” He’d been wondering that from the moment she’d opened her mouth and now he needed to know.

“You’re the first person I’ve been attracted to in almost two years,” she said. “And Carly said you ‘date’,” she actually used air quotes, “a lot.”

Damn Carly and her big mouth. “Carly doesn’t know anything about my personal life. She just likes to think she does.”

“So you don’t have a lot of sex?”

She was blunt and he liked that. A lot. He hated women who were afraid to say what was on their minds.

“I –” he stopped and thought. He didn’t want to lie to her, it seemed she’d been lied to a lot in recent years. Yet, he wasn’t sure he wanted her thinking that he only wanted sex from her. He wasn’t sure why, but it seemed he wanted a hell of a lot more than that.

“I will say this. I have women who I can go to when I want sex and they know that it is just sex. But I don’t sleep around.”

“Why can’t I be one of those women?” He heard the words and he knew what she was asking but for some reason it made him angry.

“You just can’t,” he said and turned, putting his back to her so he could go sit back down.

“I see,” she said, her voice sounding cracked almost like she was going to cry. Before he was able to sit down, he quickly turned back to her. And sure enough her face was full of doubt and sadness.

“You really think I don’t want you?” he asked.

“It’s pretty evident that you don’t,” she said and her hand was on the knob to his door. Ready to bolt again.

“Stop,” he said and covered her hand with his. “Stop being stupid.”

“I’m not stupid.” Her eyes flared with rage. “You don’t get to call me stupid. You don’t even know me.”

“And yet, you felt comfortable enough with me to ask for sex,” he threw back at her.

“Yeah, well, that was a mistake. One I won’t make again.” She pushed his hand away and turned the knob. Leaving him once again, watching her walk away.

He couldn’t help but wonder if the last twenty minutes had actually happened or if it had all been a hallucination.

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