Page 37 of Temptation at His Door

Joa heard Sam’s call for Ronan and she forced a smile onto her face. Pointing to the stairs, she gestured for him to go. “I’ll see what Sam needs, you go on down. Your family—” her voice hitched on the word and she hoped Ronan didn’t hear it “—is waiting for you.”

Nine

Organizing a last-minute date had never been a problem for Ronan, and even though seven years had passed since he last invited a woman to dinner, for a drink, it was as easy as it had ever been.

Janie was a divorcée he’d met at the kids’ school and they’d become friends, mostly because she was the least obvious and in-your-face of the mommy crew. She’d let him know she was interested in seeing him outside of school hours, and now that he had both a nanny and a new attitude toward sex and dating, he could explore his options.

Making love with Joa had released the cork holding all his sexual impulses at bay, and in the week since that happened, he’d had a lot of time to process their coupling and the ramifications of that life-changing encounter.

Sex, as his brothers had been telling him, was a natural and normal urge and Ronan finally accepted the idea that he could...well, indulge. In his desperation to honor his wife and his marriage, he’d sublimated all those urges, bundling sex and love and marriage together. Sleeping with Joa had made him realize something he’d long forgotten: sex wasn’t love and didn’t need to be.

Sex was sex and he could share the physical experience with a woman other than Thandi, understanding that love and marriage belonged to her. And always would.

She wasn’t here; their marriage was, on a physical level, over. He would always think of her as his wife but sleeping with someone else wasn’t cheating on her...

He was sure it wasn’t.

Ronan looked at the cool blonde sitting opposite him, felt a surge of panic and quickly reminded himself there was nothing wrong with sharing a meal with a nice woman. He was entitled to have a social life.

He couldn’t sleep with or date Joa; she was his employee, at least temporarily. So he was going with plan B...

Ronan watched Janie’s mouth move and nodded, hoping he was giving the right response. Since sitting down in this small, intimate West Roxbury restaurant, she hadn’t stopped talking and he’d lost track of her conversation ten minutes ago. God, for all he knew, he could’ve agreed to a holiday in Saint Bart’s or to buy her a house.

He really should concentrate.

“I insisted that Pasco be given extra reading lessons so he didn’t become bored.”

Ronan looked down at his perfectly baked fish and hoped Janie would, and could, discuss something other than her kids. This was his first date in so long and he would prefer to discuss something other than child-rearing.

He wanted to flirt, to laugh, to see if there was a chance of ending the evening with a bang... Ronan pushed away the image of Joa’s perfect breasts, those responsive nipples, the citrus tang to her skin. Two kisses and one couch-based coupling and he couldn’t stop thinking about her...

“And Michael is an amazing natural athlete. I have enrolled him with a private tennis coach...”

Blah-blah, yada yada. Ronan took a bite of his fish, keeping his eyes on her pale blue eyes, wishing he was looking into a pair of mysterious silver eyes instead.

Joa again. Ronan mentally threw his hands up in the air and reluctantly accepted that not thinking about Joa was an impossibility...

Janie was pale while Joa was darker, her skin a rich light brown with peach undertones. Janie’s hair was short, streaked with various shades of blonde. Joa’s was a straight, luscious fall, as dark as a sable coat.

Ronan looked down at his fish, thinking it tasted like sawdust in his mouth. Janie was just picking at the salad she’d ordered as a main course, taking tiny bites between long, overenthusiastic sentences.

He didn’t want to be here; this wasn’t any fun. And, let’s be honest here, he didn’t want to sleep with Janie, he didn’t want to sleep with women in general.

He just wanted to sleep with Joa again...

But Joa, now working for him as his nanny, was completely off-limits. So if he wanted sex, he’d have to give Janie some sort of hint that he was interested...

Problem was that he wasn’t interested.

Janie dabbed her mouth with her linen napkin and carefully placed it to the side of her plate. She leaned back in her chair and looked at him for a minute, maybe longer.

“You’re not having any fun.” Janie verbalized his earlier thought, breaking the tense silence.

“Uh...” Ronan inwardly cursed and wondered how to edge his way out of this conversational minefield.

Attempting to change the subject, he gestured to her plate. “You’ve hardly eaten anything. Would you like to order something else?”

Janie shook her head. “And spend another hour trying to rack my brains to come up with something to talk about? No, thanks. I tried to connect with you over our boys, the school, parenting in general, but you didn’t engage with me at all.”

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