knows where I am. Only Kate.”
“So you’re running away. That’s what these past few days have been?”
She didn’t have anything to say to that, it was too close to the truth. A truth she didn’t want to own up to.
But even if she couldn’t be honest about how she felt about herself, she could be honest about how she felt about Jason.
“Do you want to know why I came up here? Why I left my parents in the middle of Sunday brunch,
praying that you’d be at your restaurant and that you wouldn’t take one look at me and kick me back out onto the sidewalk?”
The set of his lips was hard, but his tone was soft. “Tell me why, Emma. I need to know.”
Her voice on the verge of breaking, she said, “Because when you walked into our reunion and I saw you again I knew that I had to be with you. That I’d made the worst mistake of my life in college. And then in the lake…” She swallowed, but wouldn’t let herself wimp out. Not this time. “When you touched me, I remembered. Everything. How you made me feel. How wonderful you were. It’s never been like that for me, Jason. Like this. So incredible. Not with anyone. Only you.”
She thought he was going to reach for her then, but he didn’t and so she kept filling the space with words.
“I’m here because I want to be with you. To see if we can make this work, whatever it is we’re doing. All I know is that when I’m with you, I feel whole.” A bird chirped above them, but it didn’t break the spell, nothing could. “I’m happy. Please believe me. I may not have any other answers, but the one thing I know for sure is that I want to be with you. You’re the only thing that makes sense.”
A mix of expressions moved across Jason’s face, through his eyes. Disbelief warred with hope, desire with pride. She could see it all and she didn’t blame him. How could she? She was asking him to trust her. Now all she could do was pray that he would risk even half of what she was risking on him.
Because Emma already knew that this time, she was risking it all.
The smart thing to do would be to get up, head back to his restaurant, bury himself in work, and forget all about Emma. She was no good for him, she never had been, even if his heart—and his cock—wanted so badly to believe differently.
She’d answered his questions and yet, there was so much she hadn’t said. But he was loath to press her, because if he did…shit, who was he kidding?
He wanted her to say all the right things so that he could convince himself it was all right to forgive her.
That it was okay to lose himself in her body, her beauty, in the sheer pleasure of being with her.
He was doing it again. Giving up his power to her, letting her reel him into her web. Hadn’t she just given him all the ammo he needed to destroy her? She’d said he made her feel whole. That by leaving her he could rip her heart to shreds.
Emma was as vulnerable as she’d ever been. She was an open wound, desperately trying to figure out what was going on in her life. Crushing her now would be easy. So easy.
But he just couldn’t do it.
Couldn’t. Do. It.
Stupid f**k that he was, everything in Jason refused to hurt Emma like that. And already he knew that tonight, and from here forward, he was going to do everything in his power to forget their past and give in to pleasure.
The pleasure of Emma’s warm body and her sparkling company.
As he pulled a chilled bottle of Fumé Blanc from his basket along with two glasses, he gave credence to the part of his brain that told him he was giving up on his plan for payback way too soon.
Rather than make love to Emma, he should be f**king her raw. But no matter how he’d tried, he couldn’t help but fall for her again.
Certain that he was headed for trouble, but unable to stop himself, he expertly popped the cork, then poured the wine and handed a glass to Emma.
Her hands were shaking slightly. Working to lighten her mood—better yet, to get her in the mood and out of her clothes—he said, “Don’t worry, I won’t bite. Unless you