Page 14 of One Texas Night...
“But we are, and we’ll have fun, and I’ll kiss you good-night, and you’ll want me to.”
“Maybe you need a little more self-confidence,” she said, and he smiled at her.
“We’ll see if I’m on target.”
“You’re not the only one with self-confidence,” she said, turning to face him as they stopped beside his car. She tapped his chest with her finger. “You won’t forget our kiss, either,” she said.
“That statement just changed how late we’ll be out. We’ll be home earlier than I first planned,” he said in a husky voice as he opened the car door for her.
“Maybe,” she said. “You might enjoy yourself dancing so much you won’t even remember the conversation we just had.” She slid into the car and looked up at him.
“Not in the next hundred years would I forget it.” He fought an urge to kiss her now. She was tossing challenges his way as much as she had that night when she had been in college. He closed her door and walked around to get into the car.
She changed the conversation to talking about items she had looked at today and which rooms they would go through tomorrow. She was quick and efficient at her job, and she would be finished faster than he had expected, a prospect that mildly disappointed him. He hated to see her go, because he suspected there would be no going out with her once she returned to her own world.
She had already made it clear that she didn’t want an affair. He was a longtime family friend of both her father and brother, so he had to back off and leave her alone. Tonight was one of those exceptions, but she was probably not as wild and reckless as she had been six years ago.
He tried to focus on what she was telling him about a lamp in the mansion, but all he could think about was their conversation and how much he wanted to kiss her.
Did she really care whether or not they kissed? Would she go beyond kisses?
He drove to a restaurant set back in a wooded expanse with ponds, fountains and lights in the tall pines. Myriad tiny crystal lights also covered the sprawling restaurant and surrounding redbud trees, giving it a festive air, while music was piped outside along the entryway. Jared handed his keys to a valet and took Allison’s arm as they entered the restaurant, his fingers closing lightly, feeling her warmth and silky skin. The contact heightened his desire. Appetite for dinner fled. All he really wanted was to pull her into his embrace.
They were seated in a secluded alcove where the soft piano music was muted. Candlelight from the center of the table played over her, reflected in the depths of her indigo eyes. How long until she would be in his arms? Could they both resist seduction?
“Let’s have a glass of wine before dinner. All right?”
“Certainly.”
After a discussion over the wine list, Jared ordered a bottle of chardonnay. As they sipped their wine, Allison knew it would be difficult keeping her mind on business when she was out with Jared, but she called upon her complete self-control. At every turn she tried to keep the conversation on the items in his mansion and the possible home in which they’d fit.
At one point Jared set down his goblet of pale wine. “You have all this in your head, don’t you? You remember everything.”
“Maybe not everything, but a lot of it. I also have it saved on my iPad, so I don’t have to solely rely on memory. I remember it because I love antiques, beautiful furniture and pieces that are also interesting. I hope to find people who really want the items you sell.”
“I guess I understand that because I remember everything I’ve brought up in the salvage business. It’s exciting to find a seventeenth-or eighteenth-century ship and bring back artifacts. They hold fascination for me.”
“It’s the same thing, Jared,” she said. “You have to wonder about the people who owned them and what kind of lives they led.”
He smiled at her. “You meant it when you said you love your job. That’s good, because your customers will feel that enthusiasm. It makes me feel you’ll do a great job for me, which, of course, I already know you will from working with your dad. But if this were my first time, I would feel in good hands.”
“Jared, you’re in really good hands.”
She couldn’t resist flirting with him for a moment.
Something flickered in the depths of his green eyes. He leaned over the table, closer to her, and his voice lowered. “Now, that’s the Allison I know and want to love,” he drawled.
“I think I started something I shouldn’t have. I’m the one who wanted to keep things impersonal, but there is just something tempting about being with you—”
“That does it, Allison. Let’s either dance or go home.”
“Definitely dance,” she said, smiling. “And I promise I will go right back to being ever-so-properly professional.”
“Properly professional after the workday is over—there’s a challenge if I ever heard one. Come on. We have a lot of dancing to catch up on.”
“Regret we didn’t dance later into the night before?”
“Not one regret of any sort about that night,” he said in a warm tone that felt like a caress playing over her skin. He stood and held out his hand.
