together at the Double Diamond tonight while their wives were at some book club and had asked him to join them. He had declined the offer, but now decided that a night relaxing with his friends was exactly what he needed.
“Thanks for the suggestion, Ms. Dixon,” he said. “But I’m fine right here. Now if you’re done wasting my morning . . . “
The flicker of fire was back in her eyes, but this time she didn’t try to hide it. This time she stared right through him. Like always, he felt like she saw much more than he wanted her to see. “It doesn’t look like you need any help wasting your morning, Mr. Sterling.” She turned on a boot heel and headed out the door.
Unfortunately, her feet got tangled in his sheet that pooled on the floor and she stumbled. Instinctively, he dropped the sheet and reached out to keep her from falling. His arm curled around her waist and pulled her back against his body, making him immediately aware of the differences between a skinny woman and a full one.
Reba’s body hadn’t been starved or overworked on a cardio machine. It wasn’t all stringy muscle and fragile bone. The body he held was lush and abundant. All her soft curves and sweet swells seemed to overflow and fill all his empty hollows. Empty hollows he hadn’t even realized he had until then. For the first time in a long time, he felt . . . complete. Which probably explained why his arms refused to let her go.
Even when she turned her head and looked at him with wide, shocked eyes. “Mr. Sterling?” she said in a whispered huff of breath that smelled like the chocolate chip cookies his mom always had waiting for him when he got home from school. The love she had baked into those cookies had made whatever bullying had happened that day at school tolerable.
He had given up eating his mom’s chocolate chip cookies. Just one more sacrifice he’d made in his transformation from geek to successful author. He hadn’t regretted it . . . until now. With the delicious scent filling his lungs, he craved a chocolate chip cookie like he had never craved anything in his life. Since there were none around, he took the next best thing.
Reba lips were as soft as her body—two plump, heavenly clouds that opened in a startled intake of breath. He took advantage of her surprise and delved deeper into the heat of her mouth. She even tasted like chocolate chip cookie straight out of the oven—warm, delectable, and addictive. He certainly couldn’t get enough. He turned her in his arms and had just introduced his tongue when she drew back and slapped him hard across the face.
“No!” Her eyes flared as her voice shook with anger. “If you think you can put sex on your long list of demands, Mr. Sterling, you can think again. I have cooked your special low-carb meals, ironed your prissy shirts, and washed your Darth Vader undies, but I will not be bullied into having sex with an arrogant, selfish asshole. I will not fall into that trap again. Now pack your bags and get out!” She headed out the door, slamming it closed behind her.
Val flopped down on the bed and ran his hands over his face, knocking his forgotten glasses off. What the hell had just happened? He had never forced himself on a woman in his life. Obviously, all the bad reviews had screwed with his mind. And staying up all night hadn’t helped. He needed sleep. But after his run in with Reba Dixon, he knew he wouldn’t be able to sleep.
Bullied?
After his childhood, she couldn’t have used a more demeaning word. It was true. He had been bullying her. He had been treating her like she was beneath him and having her do things that he knew weren’t in her job description just because she made him feel uncomfortable and inadequate. He had let his ego turn him into the type of person he despised.
He got up from the bed and grabbed the black jeans she’d folded so neatly.
He found her in the kitchen. She was standing at the counter taking chocolate chip cookies off a cooling rack and placing them on a plate.
“So that’s where the smell came from,” he said.
She jumped, dropping a cookie on the floor as she whirled around. Her curls were even more messy than usual, and he suddenly