Page 8 of Payback
“Start over.” She repeated the words as though hearing them for the first time. “As friends?”
“Sure.” It was a start. They’d started out as friends and maybe, just maybe, it could be the foundation they built their forever on.
“Maybe I could do that,” she said, sounding thoughtful.
***
Bella knew it was a mistake to invite Loran in for a nightcap, yet here he was, invading every inch of her small house as he made himself at home on the white sectional in her living room.
“Will you design a house for me?”
Bella almost spit her wine at him. “Excuse me?”
“Now that the off-season is here, I need a project. Can’t think of anything better than designing my dream home with the most talented architect I know.”
“I’m pretty sure I’m the only architect you know.” Not that any architect in the city wouldn’t be falling all over themselves to design a house for him. It could put her new business on the map in this city, and she suspected he knew it.
He smirked. “So, what do you say? You in?”
She had a few other projects on the go, but that wouldn’t prevent her from taking on another, especially since it was local and Loran had a flexible schedule for the next several months. “I’m not sure it would be a good idea for us to work together.”
“What if I promise to be on my best behaviour?” he asked, looking at her over the rim of his glass.
She recognized a challenge when she heard one and he knew she wasn’t one to back down. “Is this because you want to be my… friend?” She knew he wanted a hell of a lot more than that, but she couldn’t begin to examine that yet. She was still trying to process everything that had happened between them in the past few hours.
“It’s because I love this city and I’m finally ready to put down roots. Even if I get traded, this is the place I want to come back to at the end of my career.”
“Why?”
“Because you’re here, for starters.”
Her heart raced every time he said something like that and judging by his smug smile he damn well knew it. “Nice try.”
“Why won’t you believe me when I tell you…” He reached for her hand and placed it on his chest. Covering his heart. “That you own me?”
She owned him?It felt like the other way around. She’d forced herself to spend time with other men, even to be intimate with Jeff, but Loran was always right there, coming between them.
“Why do I get the feeling you’ve used that line before?” she asked, extracting her hand from his. She had to keep this light if she had a prayer of keeping him out of her bedroom tonight.
“Never.” He looked so serious, like he was begging her to believe him. “Everywhere I go, you’re there.”
I know the feeling.
“Every woman I’ve slept with since we met—”
“Don’t.” She shook her head firmly. She did not want to hear about his sexual conquests.
“Is you,” he whispered. “I close my eyes and pretend it’s you. That’s what I’m chanting in my head… every goddamn time I let myself go there.Bella.”
The way he said her name made it sound like a curse and a prayer. She could relate. She didn’t want him to have this hold over her, yet he did, and she didn’t know what to do about it.
“Now try telling me it hasn’t been the same for you.”
“I haven’t slept with any other women,” she teased, enjoying the flicker of light in his eyes as he shook his head.
“You know what I meant. Tell me you haven’t thought about me when you were with him.”
“How do you know I slept with Jeff?”
