Page 76 of Mr. Flirt

“I haven’t figured that out yet.”

But that wasn’t true. Everything about Lucy was like she’d been sent from heaven to mess with my emotions and make me feel again.

Something I hadn’t let myself do for a really long time. It was crazy to me how much Lucy and I had in common. After being burned when I was young, I stripped away the emotion from sex and focused on growing my business. It freed me to have company now and again without the heartache and hassle. The only difference was that Lucy chose to abstain from enjoying someone’s company.

“What are you thinking about?” she asked.

“You probably don’t want to know.”

“I wouldn’t have asked if I didn’t want to know.” She studied me while I took a sip of water.

“How much we have in common.”

She rolled her eyes and grinned. “Just because we both love Jingle Berry Balls does not mean we have a lot in common.”

But she dropped her expression when she saw I was serious. “Okay. Let me have it.”

“It’s going to blow your mind.”

Lucy laughed and shook her head. “We’ll see.”

“You love focusing on your career, and so do I.”

“But you know how to shut it off,” she pointed out.

I nodded in agreement. “True, but it wasn’t always like that.”

“Fair enough. What else?” She scooted a little closer.

“Neither of us knows how to open our heart up.”

She moved even closer and scowled at me as she lifted her hand to my chest. “Not fair.”

“What’s not fair about that?”

“I could open my heart up if I wanted to.”

I softly touched her cheek. “Are you sure about that?”

“Absolutely. But I know it wouldn’t be productive.”

“Don’t you think that’s more of an excuse than a reality?”

“Would you have gotten to where you are today if you’d been bothered with breakups and heartache and all that kind of tedious relationship stuff?” She rested her head on my shoulder, which I wasn’t expecting.

“Who knows? Maybe I could have built something even better,” I offered, wrapping my arm around her shoulders. How in God’s name was I suddenly the romantic, and the woman I fantasized about was the cynic?

The irony wasn’t lost on me.

She shook her head. “It’s not like that for me. I need complete concentration. I need time to devote to billable hours. I just don’t have room for a relationship.”

I let out a deep sigh. “Lucy, then why are you really here? We both know you don’t need lessons. You’ve made it explicitly clear that I offered up too many red flags to ever be a potential fit for you. What’s really going on?”

Lucy slowly straightened from me and let out a deep breath before turning around, balancing on the couch on her knees.

She didn’t answer me as her eyes locked on mine, and every part of me raged for her. I needed to feel this woman in my arms and take as much as she was willing to give me. Because I knew it wouldn’t be long before she was out of my life.

Before I had a chance to react, Lucy straddled me and rested her hands on my shoulders as she drew a deep breath.

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