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.Ravenous, Travis piled his plate high with the food she set on the table in front of him.A large pat of butter melted down the sides of a stack of steaming hot-cakes.Lauren didn’t skimp on the warm syrup pooling around the edifice like a moat, either.He’d devoured half a dozen pieces of bacon before the pancakes even reached the table.If his sighs of satisfaction were any indication, the old adage that the way to a man’s heart was through his stomach was right on target.“Very nice,” Travis said.There was a hint of surprise in the statement as if he were setting a new precedent in sticking around for breakfast after a night of incredibly hot sex.Hoping he might linger longer, Lauren poured him another cup of coffee.She tucked into her memory banks that he liked it strong and black.He smiled over the rim of his cup.Her little kitchen seemed even cozier with him in it.The hum of the refrigerator in the background went unnoticed.Still damp from the shower they had shared, Travis’s hair was a shade darker when wet.Lauren noticed that a farmer’s tan bisected muscles defined by hard work and that his arms bore the scars of his labor.In all her fantasies about this man, no one had included such a mundane yet poignant scene as what they shared over the smell of chicory and bacon.“I don’t suppose you could take the rest of the day off to spend with me,” she asked in a small, hopeful voice.The fork poised halfway to Travis’s sensual mouth stopped.Watching him fumble for words—for any excuse to make a quick getaway—made Lauren painfully aware of her mistake.She shouldn’t have pressed for anything that smacked of a continued relationship—and certainly for nothing that would hint of their romance in public.A wave of indignation swept over her.Travis swallowed hard as if the last bite of his food was stuck in his throat.“I’ve got an awful lot to do today,” he said at last.Lauren shrugged her shoulders with an indifference she did not feel.It hadn’t been her intention to push him away.She hadn’t thought he would be so frightened by the prospect of spending time with her outside the bedroom.She held up a hand to stop him in the middle of listing off the day’s obligations.“You don’t owe me any explanations.”He really didn’t.It wasn’t like they had any kind of understanding beyond their undeniable physical attraction for one another.She knew the score.Why then, Lauren wondered, did she have such an irresistible urge to pour the last of the syrup over his head?Seeming suddenly as awkward as a handful of thumbs, Travis let his fork clatter against his plate.He pushed his empty plate away and put his hands against the edge of the table.“Here, let me help you clear the table before I go,” he offered.“No thanks.”Lauren began gathering up the rest of the dirty dishes.She’d be damned if she let him see how badly she’d been hurt by his reaction to such a harmless request.It wasn’t as if she’d proposed to him or anything nearly so horrifying.“When I don’t have so much going on, I’ll take the day off and we can go do something fun,” Travis offered lamely.Lauren remained aloof.Had the offer not been born out of guilt and a desire to pacify her, she might have been moved to give him more than a tight little smile and a noncommittal, “Maybe.”Travis ground a heel into the braided rug beneath his feet as if he were settling himself into the starting blocks of a long-distance race.“What’s wrong?” he asked.“Nothing.”Lauren took perverse pleasure in the fact that Travis looked so very put out with her single word responses to the questions he posed.“Look,” he said with an air of exasperation.“I never made you any promises.If you’ll recall, I was the one who thought this might be a bad idea in the first place.Just because we spent the night together doesn’t automatically equate to a long-term commitment.”The man’s arrogance was as infuriating as his morning-after breakups were legendary.Refusing to give him the satisfaction of knowing just how much it hurt to be tossed aside in such a cavalier manner, Lauren summoned a soft, calm tone that only those who knew her very well might recognize as a sign of mounting fury.“It certainly doesn’t,” she replied.“And since you’re being so brutally honest, I’d like to take the opportunity to set the record straight myself.”Ignoring the defensive posture her warning evoked from him, Lauren continued evenly.“Last night was wonderful.I’ll cherish the memory forever.But I hope you’re not expecting some kind of formal thank-you from me.Just because you slept with me once doesn’t equate to an open invitation to spend the night whenever you feel like it, either.”She was reminded of a fish studying a bare hook as Travis’s lower jaw swung open.Not inclined to bait that hook for him, she stood her ground with as much dignity as she could muster under the circumstances.“You’ve made it perfectly clear that you aren’t looking for a commitment.I’ve been just as up front about the fact that I am.You don’t have to worry about hurting my feelings.I’m a big girl, and I knew what I was getting into.One night certainly doesn’t a lifetime make, so why don’t we just part as friends and leave it at that?”Travis wouldn’t have been surprised had Lauren stuck out her hand and asked him to shake on it.He couldn’t remember ever being so politely kicked to the gutter before.This conversation gave him a whole new empathy for those poor women who had harangued him on his answering machine after he broke it off with them.For a man who’d been so eager to hit the front door running just a moment ago, he was suddenly reluctant to put one foot in front of the other and make a graceful exit.“Friends it is then,” he mumbled, aware that he was being neither sincere nor enthusiastic as a little voice in his head pressed to know why after such mind-boggling sex they were parting at all.Because you have such a busy day ahead of you, remember, idiot? Because that love ’em and leave ’em attitude of yours doesn’t apply to a woman like this one who deserves more than you’re willing to give.Because you’re afraid of getting hurt and don’t ever want to go through another messy divorce.Travis met Lauren’s gaze over the proud tilt of her chin and accepted the tight smile she gave him before turning her back to him.He walked into the bedroom to finish dressing before leaving.He doubted she even heard the door close behind him over the sound of dishes rattling and water running in the sink.Ambling back to his own house, he wondered why he was so unhappy about getting exactly what he’d asked for.Last night’s no-strings-attached sex had been fantastic, but he wasn’t looking for a long-term relationship.He definitely didn’t want to get married.He liked the freedom the single life gave him.But he didn’t want Lauren seeing anyone else….The thought of her returning to The Alibi without him made him grow hot and prickly all over.In short, he was the proverbial dog in the manger.Finding the analogy unflattering, Travis grabbed a pair of worn leather gloves and set to working Lauren out of his system the only way he could think of that didn’t involve a bottle of whiskey.Experience had taught him that hard physical labor was an amazing panacea.Just put her out of your mind, he repeated to himself over and over again.That particular mantra was easier said than done.Hoisting bales of hay into the back of his pickup a short while later, Travis was assailed by unbidden visions of Lauren half-naked.Of Lauren completely naked.Of Lauren struggling to open a cellophane condom wrapper with her teeth.Of Lauren struggling to take all of him.Lauren innocent.Lauren glorious in her discovery of how to thoroughly please a man—and herself [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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