And yet, the questions kept coming.
“Did you love her?” Jazz asked.
He went with the truth. “I did.”
“Do you still love her?”
His stomach unclenched. She knew nothing of Andy or she wouldn’t have asked it in those particular words, or with that faint, accusing tone. She was fishing to see if he might be cheating on someone. Thanks again went to his family for her sudden need to clarify his relationship status.
He wasn’t a player. He’d never lied to a woman just to get her into bed, and he believed in dating only one woman at a time. Admittedly, though, when things began to get serious, he did have a tendency to cut and run.
Maybe that was why he found Jazz so appealing. Her work was far more interesting to her than he was.
“No.” He surprised even himself with that answer. “What about you? Have you ever been in love?”
She skimmed one arm over the water, not looking at him. “From what I’ve seen, it’s overrated.”
Which wasn’t an answer. Had she ever been in love?
Was she still?
The hot spurt of jealousy was rich, considering his own precarious position right now. “Exactly what have you seen of it that’s left such a dazzling impression?”
“Desperation, mostly.” She ducked her head under again, then bobbed to the surface, treading water. Sparkling droplets of starlight clung to her long lashes before she blinked them away.
Dan should let it go. But she’d pried into his personal life, and besides, when it came to women, he’d never been smart. He floated on his back, kicking his feet to frustrate the current, and spoke to the stars as if her answer was of no importance to him whatsoever. “Let me guess. Your showgirl mother with the fascination for cowboys likes to love them and leave them?”
“Something like that.”
The carelessness of her reply said he’d gotten it wrong. So, if the showgirl mother didn’t love them and leave them, then chances were good that they loved her and left her, instead. He combined that assumption with Jazz’s distaste for money—or at least, for men who possessed it—and along with all of the other bits and pieces he’d gathered, he thought he had her pretty much figured out. It was so tempting to run a background check on her, just to see if the conclusions he’d drawn were accurate at all, but that would be cheating. He wanted her to tell him about herself on her own.
But that could come later. Tonight, he had other, more intimate, things he intended to learn about her.
Specifically, he wanted to know how she liked to be touched.
*
Jazz watched Danfloat beside her, idly kicking his feet.
He had a beautiful body. Long, well-formed, and muscled in an active, working man way, not through hours spent at a gym.
Even though he claimed he was no longer in love with the mysterious Andy, it was plain that they had unfinished business between them. While it was mildly unsettling to think he was here with her when he’d rather be with someone else, there was also a degree of freedom in it. No promises would need to be made. There’d be no unrealistic expectations to meet. She wouldn’t be human if she didn’t feel envy, but decided it didn’t matter.
Besides, she didn’t believe in love. Not the kind that supposedly lasted forever, at any rate. Her mother’s heart had been broken—and miraculously repaired—too many times for Jazz to buy into that crock. She’d had a few flings of her own—mostly with other firefighters, although there’d been one professional bull rider because she was her mother’s daughter, after all—yet not once had she been tempted to take it beyond sex.
Sex with Dan would be no different.
Now that she’d made her decision, however, she was growing increasingly impatient for him to touch her again. His hands felt like fire on her skin—and fire was something she liked very much. She reached down and shimmied out of her panties, then pitched them onto the riverbank. They caught on a fallen branch where they swayed like a white, lacy flag of surrender.
“I’m ready to call this a date,” she said. “If that’s the word we’re using for this. There’s just one more thing.”
“Why am I not surprised?” Dan said to the stars. “Okay, hit me. What is it?”
“Is this a one-off, or are you looking to repeat it?”
“That depends on how good it is for both of us, don’t you think?”
“Agreed. But as long as we’re having sex, we only sleep with each other. If we want other partners, we tell each other first.”