by Sara Daniel
Chapter Six
“I have some ideas on how we can enhance my role.” The bombshell actress methodically peeled open her shirt one buttonhole at a time, expanding her cleavage down to her navel.
Her less than subtle offer didn’t tempt Rob. In the two months since his one-night stand with Sabrina, he couldn’t even look at another woman on a personal level. He worked, of course. Like his brother, he had a robust workaholic gene, but where he had once been passionate about the films he brought to life, feeling strongly about anything hurt too much. Going through the motions took all his effort.
No matter how many roles he enhanced or cut altogether, the movie would be a massive flop. He’d created a technical masterpiece packaged in a flat production with no heart. As a jaded cynic before he met Sabrina, he’d been able to fake the emotions needed to reach his audience. Now he was too raw to put any emotion on display. He’d once accused her of ruining his brother’s wedding. He never imagined she’d be responsible for destroying his career.
He left the set and the frustrated actress behind. Since they’d been shooting near the San Diego coast, he detoured to Blake’s office instead of going home.
“You look worse than I did when my fiancée ran off on me the week before my wedding,” Blake said, not looking surprised to see him. “What’s up?”
“Sabrina. I can’t stop thinking about her.” The admission caused another pang, but he felt lighter speaking the truth aloud.
“Then call her. Don’t come whining to me.”
He wished the solution was that simple. “She didn’t give me her number. She didn’t want to see me again.”
Blake rolled his eyes. “Of course she fed you that line. She signed up for a night of exciting sex with someone so far out of her league you wouldn’t have noticed she existed in any other situation. She believed you wouldn’t want to see her again but might be too polite to say so. Like most of us, she didn’t want to get her heart stomped on.”
“How do you know?” Sabrina had told him no. It hadn’t occurred to him she hadn’t been honest with him. She was the most straightforward person he’d ever met.
“I’m her friend, aren’t I?” Blake said. “She’s the one person who can talk me out of the office once a week for dinner. Speaking of which, it’s Wednesday, and I’m late.”
“You’re supposed to meet her now?” Rob demanded. He’d come here needing the commiseration of Blake’s company and a bottle of whiskey. But Sabrina was waiting somewhere, and he could only hope her eyes would fill with pleasure at the sight of him.
“In fifteen minutes, at this little café across town.” Blake glanced at the papers piled on his desk. “But I have too much to do here. I’ll call her and cancel.”
“Don’t cancel,” Rob ordered, desperate not to let the opportunity slip through his fingers.
“You want to take my place?” Blake guessed.
“Text the address to my phone,” he called, sprinting from the office, hope pulsing through him for the first time in weeks.
***
Blake was late, as was his MO. Sabrina didn’t mind. In fact, she preferred it. Every time she sat across from him staring into blue eyes so startlingly like Rob’s, it became harder to face him. She’d thought as time passed she’d become used to the reminders, that she’d be left with pleasant memories—okay, smoking hot memories but good ones, nonetheless, not this painful knife to the heart.
Friends and fellow teachers had offered to set her up on dates, but Sabrina had made excuses. She didn’t want staid conversations and lackluster sex. She wanted the heart-stopping, scream out loud, go at it until you can no longer move variety of sex. And she wanted love, too. Yep, she wanted everything—the happily ever after fairy tale and sexual satisfaction rolled into one.
She sipped from her water glass and opened the file folder of papers to grade while she waited for Blake to arrive. Halfway through the stack, she felt him slip into the booth across from her. “I knew you’d get here eventually,” she murmured without glancing at him.
“Did you?”
Her head snapped up at the familiar voice. Instead of Blake facing her, the guarded blue eyes, the Hollywood handsome face, the husky voice, and the rock solid body belonged to the man who had haunted her dreams for the past two months.
“Rob.” She dropped her red pen and stared in shock.
“I don’t want a one-night stand,” he said, leaning forward and placing both elbows on the table.
She swallowed, trying to form words or thoughts. But she was paralyzed between hope and heartbreak.
The waitress arrived at their table, but Sabrina simply shook her head, unable to make even the simplest decision of what to eat.
Rob consulted with the server and ordered for both of them. After she walked away, he turned the full force of his attention on Sabrina again. “Look, I know you told me to stay away, and I tried, but—”
“I don’t want you to stay away,” she whispered. There, she’d admitted it.
He reached across the table and took her hand in his. “Then why did you tell me to?”
His touch warmed her, allowing her to risk embarrassing herself enough to admit, “I thought I was supposed to say that. I thought a one-night stand was supposed to end after the night was over. I didn’t want to be one of those clingy ladies who humiliate themselves by not knowing when to step back and accept the truth of the situation.”
“What truth?”
“I’m far more attracted to you than you could ever feel for me.”
He scooted around the end of the booth to join her on her bench, wrapping an arm around her shoulders. “That’s the old, insecure Sabrina talking, not the siren I spent the night with.”
“They’re both me,” she said, leaning into his warmth. She’d missed him so much. The hot sex was wonderful, but she could spend every evening cuddled against him with his arm around her shoulder and be in heaven.
“I’m crazy about all the complexities of your personality, among other things.”
The hope she hadn’t dared to allow in stampeded past her defenses. “What other things?”
He smiled. “You’re going to have to go out with me to find out. What can I do to talk you into visiting a movie set this weekend? I need to find the heart of this film so I can fix it.”
“If you take me to your movie set, other people might see me with you,” she pointed out. Even if she wrapped her head around the possibility that he wanted to see her again, she hadn’t expected he’d want anyone other than Blake to be the wiser for it.
“Honey, if I have my way, we’ll be joined at the hip, and everyone will see us together everywhere we go.”
Her cheeks heated at all the ways they had joined at the hip during their night together and how much she wanted to do it again. “You’re talking about dating.”
“Only because I’m afraid you’ll think I’m insane if I pledge my heart and my life after a one-night stand.”
Maybe she should have thought so, but she didn’t. She was ready to pledge hers, too. Of course, they needed a few dates and heartfelt conversations before they did. But, in the meantime, she wouldn’t push him away due to her own fears and insecurities. If he could accept her, she could accept him for who he was and accept herself too.
The waitress returned with their platters of food.
“This counts as a date, right?” she asked Rob.
“You bet. The first of many. Well, the second of many. We can count Madame Eve’s night as our first.” He lowered his lips to hers.
She wrapped her arms around his neck. “This second date has a lot to live up to. We better get our food to go.”
~ABOUT THE AUTHOR~
Sara Daniel writes irresistible romance, from sweet to erotic and everything in between. On the personal side, she’s a frazzled maid, chef, chauffeur, tutor, and personal assistant. She battles a serious NASCAR addiction and was once a landlord of two uninvited squirrels.
You can visi
t Sara at:
http://www.saradaniel.com
More Than a Fantasy by Sara Daniel
Regina’s fantasies about her hot marketing assistant, Gabriel, are interfering with her focus at work. In desperation, she turns to Madame Eve to give her a one-night stand with a man who looks just like him. When the Gabriel arrives in her hotel room, she must choose between walking away and playing out her daydreams with the real thing. Their one night becomes a wrestling match for control as Regina strives to keep the upper hand. But Gabriel is just as determined to show her how to work together for business and for pleasure.
As passion trumps protocol, their one-night stand quickly becomes much more than a fantasy.
One Night with the Bride
When her society matron mother presents Caroline with a one-night stand date a week before her wedding, she’s appalled. Even worse, the encounter will take place at the fantasy ranch resort operated by her high school lover, Javier Alvarado. Although determined to remain faithful to her fiancé, she’s tempted and intrigued to see her first love again. It’s not like she has to sleep with him.
But one look and kiss later, she yearns for the man she walked away from so long ago. Unfortunately, when Javier discovers Caroline is engaged, all he can see is deception and heartbreak all over again.
Can a 1Night Stand from Madame Eve reunite them, or will one night with the bride sever their ties forever?
Captivating the CEO
When live-for-the-moment massage therapist Willow Jeffries bursts into Colin Vanderhayden’s office, she makes it her mission to loosen up the future-focused CEO, knowing each moment of the present is too precious to waste. Despite her immediate attraction, the only future she can offer is one full of heartache.
The last thing Colin needs is a flighty woman messing up his carefully-constructed plans, but her heavenly massages and addictive personality prove hard to resist. But he has no idea how sick she is.
No longer able to ignore her life-threatening medical condition, Willow slips away to spare Colin a miserable future with her. Is Colin willing to sacrifice his well-laid future plans to get Willow back?