Total pages in book: 89
Estimated words: 83699 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 418(@200wpm)___ 335(@250wpm)___ 279(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 83699 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 418(@200wpm)___ 335(@250wpm)___ 279(@300wpm)
He’d followed her career through tidbits Dane Harrington had shared. Proud of his two sisters and two brothers, Dane often spoke of them. Ransom had also read articles in business magazines about her company’s meteoric rise in the senior living and health management field.
He’d met her when she was still working at a nursing home, but he’d known even then that Ava Harrington was a determined woman. She had brought her dreams to life.
And she was still his dream woman.
There’d been times he might have thought about standing on her doorstep and asking, What went wrong? Why did it all just end in the blink of an eye? But he never had.
He flashed back to the first time he’d seen her. As he sat by his grandmother’s chair, talking with her, laughing, Ava had walked into the room. She was twenty-one, and he was ten years older, but the age difference hadn’t mattered.
His heart and every other part of him had said, It’s you.
Feeling the same thing now as she marched into his office, he wondered how he could have buried all of this for so many years. She stole his breath, she stole his voice, she even stole his ability to think. He could only look.
She was sexy as hell in a tailored business suit that hugged her backside when she turned to close the door. Her heels were so sharp she could stab him right in the heart. Her legs were long and shapely, the suit jacket molded to her beautiful breasts, her hair pulled back in a knot that made him want to pull out every pin, one by one, and let it fall like silk over his fingers.
In that moment, he wanted her so damn bad, he ached deep inside.
She was a beautiful, intelligent, determined woman. Even more than she’d been at the tender age of twenty-one.
Back then, he couldn’t get enough of her fast enough, even as he’d poured all his energy into his career. He’d made decisions at thirty-one that seemed right for him at the time, even if they were wrong for their relationship. His career was paramount, and he’d done what he had to do. That’s what he’d been telling himself all this time. He hadn’t wanted to squash her dreams, but he’d absolutely had to go for his.
But he’d never forgotten Ava. When she left him, it hurt like hell, even as over the years he’d acted the ultimate chef playboy, indulging in a few affairs, some with the groupies who came with fame. But none of that truly meant anything.
Not after Ava.
Work and his career had been his solace, and he’d put everything into it. He’d still had so much to prove back then. But he’d done it. He’d reached the pinnacle.
But he’d reached it alone.
Poleaxed by all the memories and feelings, by her, standing in his office, up close and personal, so beautiful, so desirable, so perfect, he had to ask himself: Did I make a mistake?
* * *
They didn’t need to exchange pleasantries. She and Ransom weren’t buddies. They weren’t even enemies—though at one time she’d thought she hated him. She didn’t now. She hadn’t for a long time. She was just angry.
And she was even angrier at the way the sight of him affected her.
His tailored white dress shirt fit his chest snugly and showed off his perfect muscles, his toned physique. She’d thought his picture on the bus might have been airbrushed, but no. He was really that handsome, with a few more lines maybe, but they only enhanced his features. His dark hair was frosted with the slightest, sexiest bit of silver, and his eyes were such a dark mocha they were almost black.
As he sat back casually in his chair and steepled his fingers, her heart wanted to pound right out of her chest. Her body had an instant reaction to him, the way it always had in that first moment when he returned from a business trip or she came in late from a night class. They could barely get out of their clothes before they were in bed.
But that was long, long ago. She wouldn’t allow herself to feel that way now.
“I’m assuming—” Even his deep, sexy voice made her want to melt right there in front of him. “—that you need something pretty damn bad, because clearly I’m the last person you’d come to.”
His voice was calm, without inflection. He didn’t even sound antagonistic.
She answered the only way she could. “Right on both counts.”
But there was something else going on behind his hooded gaze and in the way she’d caught him looking at her after she’d closed the door.
Her outfit had the exact effect she’d wanted. As she’d turned, she could almost sense his tongue falling out of his mouth. The suit, the high heels, her hair, her makeup—she’d wanted to make him drool; she’d wanted him to see all that he’d given up.