Australia: In Bed with the Playboy. Emma Darcy

cocked her head consideringly. ‘I’d have to say I enjoyed your company, too. Though I’m not sure how well that would wear over time. I don’t think we have much in common.’

      Oh, yes they did! Fantastic sex together. Unforgettably fantastic!

      Maybe she read that thought in his eyes. A tide of heat whooshed up her neck and burned her cheeks. She wriggled in her chair, probably discomforted by an attack of hormones charged-up with the same memories he had. He had to shift a bit himself to accommodate his own charged up anatomy. If they weren’t in a public place…but the sex hadn’t kept her with him last time. He had to make more inroads into her psyche.

      He tried a disarming smile. ‘I like it that you don’t see me as a trophy.’

      That was a good, testing line.

      She shot it down in flames, instantly firing derision at it. ‘Too tarnished by a lot of careless wear.’

      ‘I care about you,’ he shot back at her, throwing all cynical caution aside. ‘We have something special going between us. Too special to dismiss. I’ve never waited for a woman as I’ve waited for you. And don’t tell me you don’t feel it, too, because you do, Ivy. This is us and it’s not like anything in the past. Face it. Give it a chance. It might be the best thing either of us could ever have.’

       A chance…

      Yes.

      Ivy’s whole body yearned to feel again the pleasure he could give her and the intensity he was transmitting made his arguments too persuasive for her to fight any further. It had been special. Unique for her as well as him. Of course there was no guarantee it would last but what guarantee could be attached to any relationship these days?

      ‘How do you see it working?’ she blurted out.

      He leaned forward eagerly. ‘We could start with weekends. This weekend.’

      Her heart instantly kicked into a gallop. She hadn’t come ready for this. ‘I didn’t bring anything with me. And I’m still not on the pill.’

      ‘You don’t need anything. I don’t want to share you with anyone. Not today or tomorrow. And I’ll take care of protection while you’re arranging your own.’

      Panic seized her. This decision felt too rushed. ‘You forgot last time.’

      ‘I promise you, I won’t forget again.’

      No, he wouldn’t, not after being worried about getting her pregnant. Having a child with her was not on his agenda. It might never be. She had to think of this as a trial period and not get too…too…stuck on him. He’d been a playboy for so long, it was best if she didn’t let herself believe their affair might turn out any different to his previous relationships. All she was committing herself to was giving it a chance.

      She eyed him with fierce intensity. ‘Don’t send me any roses. Ever!’

      ‘Sending them to your mother did bring us back together. It got the right result, Ivy,’ he reminded her seriously.

      ‘I don’t mean them!’ she said in emphatic dismissal. ‘I mean the roses you send as a matter of rote to all the women who have held your interest for a while.’

      He frowned, puzzled by her knowledge of intimate details of his past affairs.

      Ivy gritted her teeth and revealed the truth. ‘You order them from me, Jordan. It’s my rose farm you deal with over the Internet. From this moment on, I’m writing you off as a client. When it’s over with me and you find someone else, find yourself another rose source. Okay?’

      He looked totally gobsmacked.

      Ivy didn’t care. Involving herself with Jordan meant there was no way of continuing to hide her business and she simply couldn’t bear the idea of him resuming his Rose Valentino modus operandi with other women in the future. Not through her farm anyway.

      The waitress arrived at their table with their coffees and the plate of toasted sandwiches. Ivy was too churned up to eat anything but she was grateful for the coffee. It was hot and sweet and strong and her shredded nerves needed soothing. She sipped it, covertly watching Jordan gradually recover from his shock and wondering how he would react to her revelation.

      It was actually a good test of his feelings towards her. He wanted honesty. She’d just laid it out to him. He didn’t reach for a sandwich or his coffee. He sat completely still, eyes lowered, a pensive expression on his face, probably reflecting on how much business he’d done with her farm over the years.

      ‘I see,’ he finally murmured, an ironic tilt to his perfectly sculptured mouth. Twin blue laser beams targeted Ivy’s eyes. ‘I now understand how sceptical you must have been over my intentions and how reluctant you still are to get involved with me. But you’re here thinking about it, and I’m here fighting for a chance with you because we connected so strongly we’d always wonder what might have been if we didn’t pursue it. That’s the truth of it, isn’t it, Ivy? The honest truth.’

      ‘For me, yes,’ she answered, her own mouth quirking with irony as she added, ‘Where you’re concerned, it requires a leap of faith I’m not sure I can make.’

      He nodded. ‘Make it. Take the risk. It’s worth a try.’ He flashed her a dazzling smile. ‘Remember how good it was. Think how good it can be again.’

      She hoped it would be, because the decision was already made. The buzz of anticipation was in her blood and she was no longer physically capable of backing away from this man.

      He made a flip-flop gesture, unsure of where she was at. ‘You can always end it if I let you down.’

      She smiled, her eyes mocking the off-hand offer. ‘I don’t think you’re too good at accepting an end you don’t want, Jordan. My mother can testify to that.’

      ‘But I hadn’t let you down, Ivy,’ he reminded her. ‘You just assumed I would. Let’s be fair now.’

      She laughed, giddy with the sense of taking an even more dangerous step with this man. ‘Okay. I promise I’ll be fair.’

      One black eyebrow arched in appeal. ‘No harking back to my past?’

      ‘I’ll take you as I find you until you do let me down.’

      ‘Done!’ His hand smacked down on the table in triumphant satisfaction as he rose from his chair, emitting an electric energy that sent Ivy’s pulse zooming into overdrive. ‘Take me to wherever you’ve parked your car,’ he commanded, his eyes blazing with the desire to move her with him to a far less public place.

      The car…images of wild sex bloomed in Ivy’s mind, flustering her into a hot flush. She waved at the plate of sandwiches in a rush of agitation. ‘What about this?’

      ‘Not what I’m hungry for. Are you?’

      ‘No.’ Impossible to eat anything with lustful thoughts running riot and there was no point in delaying what she’d decided to do. ‘You haven’t paid,’ she said, trying to sound in some control of herself as she pushed up from her chair.

      He took out his wallet, removed a fifty-dollar note, anchored it on the table under the sugar bowl, then reached for her hand. She gave it to him, consciously feeling every sensation of his touch: the power of the fingers entwining hers, the tingling pleasure from the rub of his flesh, the seductive caress of his thumb. Why he, of all men, could evoke this acute sexual excitement in her, she didn’t know, but strangely enough it was a relief to simply surrender to it.

      ‘The elevator,’ she directed. ‘Level two of the basement car park.’

      They walked together, moving like an arrow of purpose that could not be diverted. The crowd of shoppers milled around them, no one blocking their path even minimally. Ivy was barely aware of other people. The connection to the man beside her virtually obliterated everything else.

      Worries wormed their way through