He stroked back her wet hair. “Now, let’s figure out where you want to go for our next date. New Orleans? Miami? Or maybe you’d like to go west? Las Vegas? Chicago?”
When she was quiet for a long moment, he acknowledged maybe those spots weren’t the most kid-friendly. He tried to think of what would appeal to a young mother and came up with a new angle. “An RV trip to take in some national parks? I hear Yellowstone is something to see.”
“Why so far-flung?” she asked him at last. “There are plenty of local places we could go.” Switching spots with him, she leaned against the tile, arms crossed over her chest.
He regretted putting her on the defensive even more than he mourned losing the view of her beautiful breasts. Gently, he untwined her arms and stepped back into them. “I have a personal jet. Anywhere is local. Would you like to go overseas? We can do that as well with an extra day’s notice if you need to arrange things with the kids. Surely you take an occasional day off from work.”
A dismissive smile appeared on her lips. “You’re overwhelming me. I’m a simple, small-town girl.”
He lowered his lips to her face. Kissed her cheek, nose, forehead. In a too quiet voice, he made his plea. “And you also moved around the country. I grew up simply, too. If you don’t want to do a tourist kind of date, we could go to Seattle...my home.”
The water pattered on the stall floor. Otherwise, their steam-filled world stayed silent for more than a few heartbeats.
Finally, she swiped shower spray from her eyes and said, “You’re moving things along at light speed when I think we’ve already moved mighty fast.”
“Okay, I’ll concede this is a quick step forward, but, Natalie, you have to know I can’t stay here indefinitely. I have a business to run back in Seattle. But I’m not ready to call our time together just a fling.”
Natalie was worth so much more than such a flippant description. “What if that’s all I can give you?”
Her words slapped over him in an icy wave as if the hot-water tank had just run out. He forced himself to stop and think, to study her face rather than just react. As he looked deeper into her eyes, he saw the contradiction to her words.
He saw vulnerability.
Protectiveness pumped through his veins. He was right in pursuing her. He just needed to persuade her. “Trust me on this, Natalie. We can have more than a couple of nights and one dinner out.”
Her throat moved in a long swallow. “When I wake up each morning, it’s all I can do to think through twenty-four hours. And that’s because dough has to rise for the next day’s breakfast. I don’t have the energy to think longer than that. Maybe it’s because hope saps my reserves. Perhaps that makes me a coward—”
“You’re one of the strongest people I’ve met, and I have come across some of the toughest of the tough in the business world.”
“Thank you. Regardless, though, I can’t promise you anything more than one day at a time.”
He needed to retreat for the moment, and he knew it. He wouldn’t push his luck so hard that it cost him this woman. He straightened, finding that familiar devil-may-care smile that had gotten him this far. “Twenty-four hours at a time? I can live with that.”
“Seriously?”
“Yes, give me twenty-four hours to convince you we can enjoy twenty-four more on our own, away from here, just the two of us.” He sealed his mouth to hers, water sheeting down his back, trickling over them as he backed her against the tile wall. “Mmm...” He moaned against her mouth, then said hoarsely, “Can you arrange an overnight sitter? Or would you like to take the kids? I can hire a nanny.”
She leaned her head back against the tile, water clinging to her eyelashes as she blinked them open, full of passion. “I think it’s best the kids stay in familiar settings for now. You’re new to their world. For that matter, you’re new to my world. I don’t usually—”
He pressed a finger to her lips. “You don’t need to explain anything. I understand. Now, where do you want to go?”
She kissed his fingertips, staring at him. “Vegas sounds fun.”
“Vegas it is.”
A shift in her eyes matched the twitch in her lips. “But I was actually thinking perhaps Seattle. If it’s not an encroachment on your space, I would like to see your home.”
Not at all what he had anticipated. But a home-turf advantage? He could handle that. “I would like to show you my home and my offices.”
“What about the investigation here?”
“Actually, I’ve hit such a brick wall on that, I’m thinking fresh eyes would help. I had already been considering consulting with my CTO—chief technology officer—Will Brady. This would be the perfect time for him to scope out the town and data collected with objective eyes, without me here to skew his impressions. Then when you and I finish our date trip, Will and I can put our heads together.”
“You are quite the multitasker.” Her words barely registered as she pressed her mouth to his with another kiss.
He’d won the battle here, if not the war. A victory. For now, he could accept that much.
But for how long?