by Elle James
He took her keys from her fingers, inserted one into the lock, twisted and then pushed open the door.
“I’d invite you in,” she said, “but you need the rest.”
“As do you.” He stepped back. “Close and lock the door. I won’t leave until I know you’re safely inside.”
After another soul-defining kiss Ariana slipped through her door, closed and locked it. Then she leaned against the panel and slowly slid to the ground. What the hell had just happened?
Marrying her high school sweetheart hadn’t prepared her for spending a weekend making love with the hottest cowboy in Texas.
The sound of his truck starting and pulling out of her driveway made her want to run out and beg him not to go.
She clenched her fists and fought that urge, telling herself, she couldn’t show him just how much the time she’d spent with him meant to her. Based on his penthouse, he was very wealthy. He probably had women throwing themselves at him every day of the week.
She wasn’t a gold digger. In fact, his wealth intimidated the hell out of her. She needed time away from him to think about what was best for her and for him.
If she continued to see him, would she be the right person for him? BODS had been broken when the system matched them. What if the right woman was out there, and Ariana stood in the way of Dillon meeting her?
To be fair, what if the right man for her was out there, waiting to be matched to her by Leslie’s system?
Ariana leaned her head back against the panel and groaned. She didn’t have the energy or heart capacity to fall in and out of love. Losing her husband had taken a huge toll on her. She couldn’t lose again. She might be better off ending whatever it was she had between her and Dillon before it got any deeper.
Pushing to her feet, she trudged through her bedroom to the bathroom where she stripped out of her clothes and ducked into the shower, hoping the water would wash away her worries. After several minutes beneath the spray, she had to give up. The shower only reminded her of spending time bathing with Dillon, making love in the hot tub.
After drying off, she slipped into a T-shirt and panties, turned the air conditioner down to a cool sixty-eight and climbed between the sheets. Her cellphone lay charging on the nightstand beside her.
She looked over at it, tempted to text Dillon. He wasn’t coming to her yoga class in the morning and, if he did, he already knew how to get there. She hadn’t forgotten anything at his condo, and they hadn’t made plans to meet again the next day or the day after. Hell, they hadn’t agreed to anything for the entire week.
Was this Dillon’s way of letting her down easy? Drop her off and fade away?
She lay down on the pillow, staring up at the ceiling. This was hard. She’d never dated someone like Dillon. She’d never dated anyone but Sam. She rolled onto her side and punched her pillow.
Go to sleep. Forget about him. You’ll never hear from him again.
Her cellphone chirped and vibrated on her nightstand.
Ariana flipped over, grabbed the device and stared at the screen.
Dillon Jacobs.
Sweet Jesus, it was him. And he wasn’t texting, he was calling.
She hit the talk button and answered. “Did you get lost?” Ariana forced a laugh, her voice sounding breathless, not at all normal.
“Did I catch you at a bad time?”
Oh, hell no. Anytime you catch me is the right time. “I just got out of the shower and was crawling into bed. You make it back to your place?”
“If I said I was still parked in your driveway, would you let me in?”
Ariana sat up straight in bed. “Are you?”
He chuckled, making that low, deep, sexy sound that made her knees go weak. “Sadly, no. I made it back to my condo and realized I left something at your house.”
Ariana frown. “You did? You didn’t even come in.”
“No, I didn’t. But you did. I left you at your house. This condo feels so much bigger and empty without you in it, making pizza and apple pie.”
She laid back on her pillow, a smile curling her lips. “It is a big place.”
“Too big for just me.”
“You did an amazing job on the renovations,” she said. “It’s beautiful.”
“You’re beautiful.”
“You’re not so bad yourself,” she said. “Is that all you called about?”
“Yeah,” he said, “No. When will I see you again?”
Relief rushed through her. Forcing humor into her tone, she said, “You’re the one with a project to catch up on.”
He sighed. “I have a feeling I’ll be working late every night this week, which means I won’t see you. Will you be awake after ten?”
“I usually don’t go to sleep until after eleven.”
“Can I call you then?”
She smiled, cradling the phone in her hand, wishing it was Dillon’s cheek. “Yes. I’d like that.”
“Then it’s a phone date,” he said. “Tomorrow at ten.”
“Tomorrow at ten,” she confirmed. “Goodnight, Dillon.”
“Ariana?” Dillon called out.
“Yes?”
“One other question.” He paused. “And I don’t want you to think less of me for asking.”
“I won’t,” she said. “Go ahead and ask.”
“What do you sleep in?”
Her core heated, and her temperature rose. “Why do you ask?”
“I’m lying here naked, wishing you were lying beside me. It helps to know what you’re wearing.”
A shiver of desire rippled through her. She hit the speaker button on the phone dropped it on the comforter. Then she sat up, ripped her T-shirt over her head, yanked her panties down her legs and flung them across the room. “I’ll tell you what I’m wearing,” she said, dropping her voice to what she hoped was a smooth, sexy tone. “Not a damned thing.”
Chapter 11
Dillon spent the days of that week working to get the project back on track. They were so close to finishing that he refused to be derailed. Where he could, he helped out, calling for backup crews to complete some of the trim work, a plumber to help their fulltime plumber catch up, and another cleaning crew to start removing the excess material they wouldn’t need to finish the work. He was with his site foreman most of the day and well into the evening, with men working both an early shift and a late shift to compress the schedule.
Every night at ten, when he would collapse exhausted in his bed, he wouldn’t go to sleep until he called Ariana.
She’d be there to talk to him, her voice so beautiful and calming. He’d tell her about his day, and she’d fill him in on some antics of a yoga group or one of her meditation sessions. She told him she’d invested in a fishing pole and was practicing her casting in her backyard. So far, she’d snagged a tree, the gutter and her own hair. But she was making progress.
“I’m going to give you this fishing pole to replace the one I’m sure is at the bottom of the pond with your tackle box,” she’d said.
He’d told her that wasn’t necessary, but she’d insisted. He’d also told her that his brothers had retrieved the boat the day after it capsized and it was fine, sitting on the bank of the pond, waiting for her next fishing lesson.
Ariana had laughed, the sound so soft and happy, Dillon smiled. “I will get you back out there, and we will catch a fish.”
“From the shore. I’m convinced I can’t fish and boat at the same time,” she said. “I’m one of those who can’t walk and chew gun at the same time. I’d trip or choke on my gum.”
The week flew by. Dillon worked hard to get things squared away at work so that his crew and he could have the weekend off again. He wanted to take Ariana to the Hellfire firefighter fundraiser on Saturday. He hadn’t said anything yet, in case things didn’t work out and he had to work the weekend. The crew had worked late every night, seeming to focus better when he was on site. When Friday rolled around, Dillon met with his site foreman and told him the
crew wouldn’t have to work the weekend.
A cheer went up when the foreman passed on the news to the crew.
Dillon had pulled out his cellphone with the intention of calling Ariana, when an incoming call made his phone chirp. He glanced at the name on the screen and grinned. “Hey, little sis. What’s up?”
“Dillon. We haven’t seen you at home lately.”
“This project has me working too late to make it out to the ranch.”
“We figured that much,” she said. “I wanted to let you know that Leslie finally got BODS up and running with the backup copy. She ended up having to install a new server and reload all the data that was stored in the cloud.”
“That’s good,” Dillon said, a flicker of unease forming in his belly.
“I thought it would be a good idea for you to give it another try. Maybe even bring your new match to the firefighter fundraiser tomorrow.”
“No,” he said, his tone flat and final.
She laughed. “Aren’t you even curious who BODS will match you with?”
“No,” he repeated. He didn’t want to meet anyone else.
“Leslie and I are meeting with the Good Grief Club today. Ariana’s supposed to be there. Leslie is going to see if Ariana is ready to meet her true match.”
Dillon’s hand tightened on his cellphone. He didn’t know what to say. He sure as hell didn’t want Ariana to give BODS another chance. He liked her. A lot. If she went out with her BODS match, she might find someone more suited for her than him. Which would be good for her, but what about him?
“You know it wouldn’t hurt to give it a second chance,” Emma said. “Leslie feels really bad about the glitch and wants to make it up to you and Ariana.”
“What if we don’t want a second chance?” he asked.
“Are you answering for Ariana? What if that second chance guy truly is her perfect match? You like her, don’t you?”
“Yes.” More than he was ready to admit to his sister.
“If you like her that much, don’t you want her to be happy?”
“Yes, of course I do.” He didn’t like the direction Emma was taking with this conversation. He was thinking the same thing, only he wasn’t ready to admit it and concede.
“If BODS finds her perfect match, she has a chance at true happiness. After losing her husband to cancer, she deserves to be happy again, doesn’t she?”
Damn Emma. Damn her to hell. Dillon ran a hand through his hair, wishing he hadn’t answered his sister’s call. He would’ve already asked Ariana to the firefighter fundraiser, and this wouldn’t even be an issue.
His conversations with Ariana each night had meant the world to him. She…balanced him. Made him feel calm and happy for the first time since he’d started his own construction company. If the real BODS match was what would make her the happiest, he couldn’t be the one to keep that from happening. Oh, but he wanted to. He wanted her for himself.
He sighed into the phone. “If Ariana wants to give BODS a second chance, I won’t stand in her way.”
“And if she goes for the second chance, will you?” Emma pushed.
If Ariana chose to go for the BODS true match and found him to be the one for her, Dillon wouldn’t care if he fell off the face of the earth. “I don’t care.”
“I’ll let you know what happens. You won’t regret it. BODS really does work,” Emma said. “Later.”
Dillon ended the call and stared at his cellphone. He’d been ready to call Ariana and ask her to the fundraiser. His heart had been beating fast in anticipation of hearing her voice when she said yes.
He slipped his phone into his pocket and threw himself into work. He picked up a shovel and removed debris from the site. They had crews for that kind of work, but he needed manual labor that worked him hard and made him forget.
Only, with every shovelful of construction debris he threw into the wheelbarrow, he cursed himself for agreeing to step out of Ariana’s way.
They were so new to their connection, Dillon didn’t feel he had a handle on just what their relationship was. He didn’t feel like he had any right to tell her who she could and couldn’t go out with. He hoped she’d only want to go out with him, but that had to be her call.
For the rest of the day, he stewed on what Ariana’s response might be to Leslie’s offer to produce her true BODS match.
Ariana sat in the conference room in the BODS offices where the Good Grief Club had chosen to meet that month. Leslie and Emma, sat across from her, Ava and Fiona. They’d brought their own drinks and lunches, and Leslie had provided a tray of cookies for dessert.
Ariana couldn’t help but smile as she sat in the BODS office. The last time she’d been there, had been her first meeting with Dillon, the tall, dark stranger who’d walked with her down twenty flights of stairs when the lights and elevator had been on the blitz.
“You’ll be happy to know that Tag and I finally got BODS up and running. We installed a backup from a couple days before the storm, and a new server and modem since both took a hit by the lightning, and now everything appears to be up and running correctly.”
Fiona, Ava and Emma all clapped, shaking Ariana out of her happy reminiscing. “What? Oh, that’s really good news.” She gave Leslie half a smile.
“Speaking of working correctly,” Leslie segued into her next topic, “I’d like to run your match.”
Ariana shook her head. “That won’t be necessary.”
“But I feel so awful,” Leslie said. “I promised you a perfect match. When the system malfunctioned, I worried that you and Dillon would lose confidence in BODS. I was glad I caught you both with the news before you went out.” She frowned. “You did cancel the date, didn’t you?”
Ariana couldn’t lie, so she shrugged instead. “I went fishing.”
“With Dillon,” Emma said with a grin. “It was an unqualified disaster.”
“I’m sorry to hear that,” Leslie said. “But then Dillon wasn’t meant to be your match. I’m sure BODS will find the right one for you.”
“I’m not interested in finding the right match,” Ariana said. “I…I don’t think I’m ready, after all.”
“Of course, you are,” Ava said. “You need to get out there. You’re young and beautiful. And, if you want children, you really can’t wait much longer.”
“I’m happy the way I am,” Ariana said. They didn’t have to know that she and Dillon were talking every night. Leslie might take issue with the two of them still “seeing” each other after she’d told them BODS had malfunctioned.
“Please,” Leslie said. “If you don’t give it a second chance, you might go through your life wondering if your perfect match is still out there.”
“I can live with that.”
Emma reached out and patted her hand. “If it makes it any easier, Dillon said he wouldn’t stand in your way if you decided to give BODS another shot at finding your match.”
Ariana’s heart sank to the pit of her belly. “Dillon said that?”
Ava’s eyebrows shot up. “Am I missing something?” She looked from Ariana to Emma and back. “Did you go out with Dillon even after Leslie said BODS screwed up?”
Ariana’s cheeks heated. “I was already on the way to meet him and late. It didn’t seem right to cancel at the last minute.” She shrugged. “He got the same call and felt the same way, so we agreed to go out on a friendly basis.” She smiled. “He took me fishing.”
“Something he loves to do, that Ariana had never done,” Emma said with a grin. “Tell them what happened.”
Her cheeks on fire now, Ariana ducked her head. “I flipped the boat…with us in it.”
“The point is,” Emma continued, “Dillon was looking for someone who likes the outdoors, who would fish and ride horses with him. Ariana has never been fishing or riding horses.”
“She could learn,” Ava countered.
Emma continued. “Ariana was looking for someone low-key. Dillon is anything but low-key. Their profil
es couldn’t possibly have matched.”
“That was caused by the glitch,” Leslie said, shaking her head. “The thunderstorm jacked up the software and hardware. It took all week to fix. But now it’s ready to go.” She smiled. “I can have your match for you in just a few minutes.”
“Dillon said he wouldn’t stand in your way,” Emma reminded her. “What do you have to lose?”
Her heart. Ariana lifted her chin. “Whatever.”
“So, it’s a go?” Leslie asked, her face brightening with a smile.
“I guess.” Ariana looked down at her cellphone, her link to Dillon while he’d been working long hours all week. They’d spend two hours each night talking about the news, travel and sometimes, nothing at all, just talking. Had that meant nothing to him?
“I’ll be right back,” Leslie said.
Emma hopped up. “I’ll just go with her.” She grinned. “I’m so excited for you.”
“If you’ll excuse me, I need to call my sitter.” Ava pushed back her chair and left the conference room.
Fiona turned to Ariana. “I get the feeling you don’t want to go through with this second chance.”
Ariana sighed, her gaze still on the phone. “I’m not so sure BODS really works.”
“It worked for me, Emma, and for Leslie and Ava. There’s no reason it won’t work for you.” Fiona reached out and took Ariana’s hand. “What’s really eating at you?”
A tear slipped for Ariana’s eyes and dropped onto Fiona’s hand. She wiped away others she couldn’t keep from falling. “We weren’t supposed to be matched.”
“You and Dillon?” Fiona asked.
“Yes.”
“You’re falling for him, aren’t you?” Fiona pulled her rolling chair closer and put her arm around her. “Sweetie, sometimes love hurts. You know that.”
“I didn’t think I could love anyone but Sam,” Ariana sniffed. “We were so much alike in every way. We never really dated anyone else. It was so easy to marry him and hard to lose him.”
“And Dillon isn’t anything like Sam,” Fiona stated.
“Nothing at all like Sam.” Ariana looked up into Fiona’s eyes. “But he’s so animated, full of life and interesting. And we love to cook together. He wants to teach me how to fish and ride. And I want to learn.”