Page 16 of Wicked Fantasies

Trying to appear relaxed, Ross closed his eyes and leaned his head back against the edge of the tub. He didn’t have long to wait.

“What happens when we leave here?” she asked.

Ross opened his eyes, but didn’t lift his head. “Here?”

“The cabin.”

“What do you want to happen?” he asked, throwing the ball back into her court.

“I—I don’t know,” she stuttered. No doubt she was shocked he was leaving it up to her. He rarely gave a woman the upper hand in his liasons and Julia knew it.

“I mean, I can’t live without you as my editor or my friend,” she continued. “If what we’re doing here is going to jeopardize that, I want to stop right now.”

“I will always be your friend, I promise you that, but I have every intention of riding this train to the end. There will be no stopping along the way for cold feet.”

“Ross, we’re both adults. You know as well as I do sex changes things, complicates them. I know the relationships you’ve had, especially lately, are fairly casual, but even you have to admit, when they ended, everything ended. You don’t see any of your ex-girlfriends, period—not as friends, not even as acquaintances. I don’t want this to continue if we can’t go back to the way things were. I would hate not having you in my life anymore.”

“What we do here isn’t going to affect our friendship. I’m not sure when you started seeing me as such a heartless prick, but you must know after all these years I’d rather cut off my left arm than hurt you. Besides, there is one major difference between you and the other women in my past that you seem to keep forgetting.”

“What’s that?” Julia asked, attempting to move away from him on the bench.

Ross halted her escape by wrapping his arm around her shoulder and pulling her toward him.

He grinned as he recalled her earlier comments. “What did you call them?” he asked. “Oh yeah, the Miss America brigade.”

She rolled her eyes.

“I wasn’t best friends with any of them. Hell, I wasn’t even friends with them.”

“That doesn’t seem like something to brag about.”

Her dry words were so familiar, Ross laughed.

“Besides, you’re forgetting something important.”

“What’s that?” she asked.

“We’ve already done the deed, Brown Eyes, and there’s no taking it back.”

Sighing, she leaned against his arm and he felt some of the tension leave her.

Testing the water, he added, “Are you saying you would want to see this evolve into a real relationship?”

His answer was painfully apparent as Julia blanched.

“R-real relationship?” She glanced away from him. “Don’t be silly.”

Well, he couldn’t blame her for not wanting to rush into a relationship with a confirmed bachelor such as himself.

Clearly, he had a lot of work to do to convince Julia he was sincere. While he considered their long-term friendship a blessing, he’d be a fool not to realize it was a detriment as well. Julia knew him better than anyone in the world—his parents included.

Which meant she knew that nowadays he never stayed with the same woman for more than a month. His last long-term relationship had been with Bridget and that ended over four years ago.

“Relax, Jules,” he said quickly. “I know how you feel about relationships. That’s not what I’m pushing for.” The lie tasted bitter on his tongue and his temper flared briefly at her obvious relief.

“So, we’ll just go back to being friends after this,” she said without question, as if trying to picture the end of this brief romantic interlude in a few days when the snow began to melt.

Unwilling to risk putting a deadline on the most incredible sex of his life, Ross shook his head. “Sweetheart, the barn door is open and the cow’s not coming back. You can’t expect to give me only a sample of all the sweetness you have to offer and then not allow me to gorge myself at the feast.”

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