Page 68 of 7 Days and 7 Nights

Olivia let her gaze travel down the length of his lightly muscled torso, hesitating for just a moment at the waistband of his jeans before traveling on to the part of him with which she had become intimately reacquainted.

This was no child. And if he was tired, it was because he’d stayed up all night making love to her. Being with Matt turned her into someone she barely recognized. She wanted to hate him for it, but just thinking about last night brought a satisfied smile to her lips.

No, anger wasn’t going to cut it. There was no blame to be cast. He hadn’t pressed alcohol on her, he hadn’t taken anything she hadn’t been embarrassingly anxious to give, and this morning, when he’d had the chance to expose her to her listeners, he hadn’t. Matt Ransom just kept popping out of the box she kept trying to stuff him into.

Yanking her gaze back up to his face, she found his eyes open.

“Well, good morning, sleepyhead,” he said.

"I wish itweremorning.”

He gave her a smile that made her want to curl up next to him on the couch. She combated the weakness by reminding herself that doing one teensy-weensy honorable thing didn’t make a man trustworthy.

“Really? I don’t know how you face all that angst first thing in the morning. If you ask me, those women are way too—” .

“Matt,” she interrupted. “I’m trying to say thank you.”

“Oh, it was nothing. I enjoyed myself too, Livvy.” He waggled his eyebrows at her.

“We’re talking about you filling in for me. Diane told me what you did.”

“Oh... your show. Well, I enjoyed that, too, in a way, but it wasn’t anywhere near as great as—”

“Matt,” she warned.

“Why, Liv, you’re blushing.” His eyes danced. “You’re very cute when you blush.”

“I’m not in the mood for jokes or compliments, Matt. I haven’t figured out what you’re up to yet, but I won’t let my guard down like that again.” She felt the heat climb to her cheeks again and dropped her gaze.

“Ahhh.” Matt stretched his arms out and then folded them to pillow the back of his head. “Would you care to be more specific?”

She lowered her voice, “Last night was a one-time thing. It won’t happen again." She watched his face carefully, looking for some sign of the regret she felt, but his smile never faltered.

“I assume you’re not referring to the meal.”

“You know perfectly well what I’m referring to.”

“Well, why don’t you go ahead and spell that out, too. We guys can be incredibly dense sometimes.”

She cleared her throat. “I’m sorry about what happened under the kitchen table.”

He nodded sagely, but the dimple in his cheek nearly split his face in two.

“I shouldn’t have done that, and we shouldn’t have… y’know ‘shared that dessert’, she tipped her head obviously trying to convey that dessert was code for sex. It was uh… fattening, and not good for our health.”

Matt crossed one ankle over the other and settled deeper into the couch. “Ahh, Livvy. There you go again, stressing unnecessarily, making dessert seem like a bad thing. Dessert is just dessert.”

“I beg your pardon?”

He shrugged. “We had a great evening, really great. And some delicious dessert. But it’s no big deal.”

Olivia stiffened.

“It’s one dessert, Livvy. There’s no reason to beat yourself up over it.”

She stood, drawing herself up to her full height. "Silly me. I forgot how you treat…dessert.” She looked down at him, her eyes carefully blank, determined to match his careless tone. She’d cut out her tongue before she admitted how deep his lack of interest cut. “I guess we’re both in agreement then. We have three shows left between now and Monday morning. It’s time to take the gloves off and come out swinging.”

Chapter Twenty-Three

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