Page 79 of Heating Up (Nugget)
How had her life gone from perfect to crap in the blink of an eye? At moments like this, she tried to focus on the future. She wasn’t quite sure what that would look like, but it involved a small railroad town, verdant fields that stretched beyond the Feather River, and mountains and trees for as far as the eye could see. Peace and quiet and asshole free.
Their appetizers came, and this time their waiter didn’t loiter. Even at five foot tall, Marci could be a fire-spitting dragon.
“I’ll give them the name,” Gia said, “but not the resignation announcement. They want to fire me, they can make their own damn announcement. Just let them know that if they libel me in any way . . . my attorney is on speed dial.”
“Let me see what I can do,” Marci said.
Gia wouldn’t let the network push her around, but she wanted out of her contract and out of New York as fast as a bullet train.
* * *
“You asleep?” Aidan nuzzled Dana’s neck.
“I was,” she said in a drowsy voice.
“Sorry; go back to sleep.”
She rolled over on her side, blinking at him a few times with those mesmerizing golden eyes he liked so much. “What time is it?”
“Five.” He kissed her nose.
“Five? I feel like I just shut my eyes. I never sleep during the day like this.”
“We had a long night.” His lips tipped up in a salacious smile. “How was work?”
“I got the listing for the cabin. And Carol may have sold a home in Sierra Heights.”
“The cabin you like so much?” He brushed a strand of hair away from her face. He liked touching her.
“The very one. I never in a million years thought I’d get it.”
“You’re on a roll, baby.” His hands snaked up her T-shirt; she didn’t have on a bra, giving him unfettered access to her breasts. “Want to fool around?”
Her eyes heated and she started to say something, stopped herself, and finally blurted, “I don’t know what we’re doing, Aidan.”
“Working up to foreplay.”
“You know what I mean.”
Yeah, he knew what she meant. “I don’t know what we’re doing either. But I do know that I like you . . . that I think about you all the time. Do we have to analyze it?”
“Am I just convenient because we live together and there aren’t a lot of single women in Nugget?”
“What?” he growled, because the question was patently absurd. “Dana, I was attracted to you from the first night I saw you . . . when you stood on the curb in a see-through nightgown with your smiley-face panties showing.”
“You were?”
“It wasn’t exactly a good time, considering your house was burning down, but under normal circumstances I would’ve asked you for your number.”
“You would not have.”
“Yeah, I would’ve. I liked the color of your eyes.” Among other things. “You had this grace-under-fire thing going that I admired.”
“No, that was shock you saw.” She propped up on one elbow. “Is that why you offered to share the house? Because you were attracted to me?”
“The truth? I didn’t want a roommate, but I felt bad for you. I also told myself that if we lived together, I couldn’t put the moves on you . . . and I wanted to.”
“What changed . . . about putting the moves on me?”
