His Desire by Mary Eason

didn’t say anything. She was pretty sure that time was not going to be the answer in this case. She never wanted to have this conversation with Aaron.
    “Look,” he said with a sigh. “I’ll be back home in two weeks. We can talk about it then.”
    Kylie remembered that today was Aaron’s first day on the new job. She felt guilty about not remembering that sooner. She’d been so busy trying to avoid having this conversation with him that she hadn’t thought about what he had to face today on very little sleep.
    “You’re right. We can talk about this some other time. I’m sorry. I completely forgot that today was your first day at the new job. How did that go?”
    Aaron groaned and she felt even guiltier.
    “That bad?”
    “Oh yeah. The place is a mess. Its not going to be easy getting it back to profitability.”
    For the next half hour, Kylie listened while Aaron told her all about Shelby Advertising’s problems.
    “So, how do you like living in Oklahoma?” she asked, hoping to change Aaron’s bad mood.
    Aaron had been giving her such a hard time about coming to her senses finally and moving to Texas that when she’d first heard about the move to Oklahoma and had gotten over the empty feeling at losing him, the irony of the situation was not lost on her.
    “You’re enjoying this, aren’t you? Well, don’t get too comfortable with it. It’s temporary.”
    “What do you mean? I thought you were taking over the controls there permanently?” From the little that Aaron had said about the move, Kylie knew that he wasn’t pleased about it, but for Aaron, the job was the most important thing. Getting ahead meant everything.
    “I mean, I don’t plan on taking up citizenship here. One year, Kylie. That’s all you get to tease me about this so I suggest you enjoy it.”
    “Have you tried the restaurants I told you about?” On his first trip to Oklahoma City, she’d given Aaron a list of places to eat. Among them were some very famous Oklahoma Sooner hangouts.
    “Oh yeah, and thanks for that, by the way. Thanks to you, I just about got beat up. You didn’t tell me that ‘Longhorn’ is a dirty word here?”
    “Sorry, but you are in their territory now, Aaron. You should know better.
    They can pick a Longhorn fan a mile away.”
    Aaron told her about his first hand encounters with his university rivals.
    While she listened, she closed her eyes and occasionally mumbled a response. She hadn’t exactly slept all that much after all.
    “Kylie? Hey there, sleepyhead. Hang up the phone.” For a second she’d forgotten that she’d left Aaron telling her about his run in at the restaurant.
    Kylie lay on her side, the phone propped up against the pillow next to her ear. Somehow, she’d fallen asleep.
    “What?”
    “You’re snoring.”
    “I don’t snore,” she told him with a yawn.
    “Uh-huh. Did Jeff tell you that? Because I remember it differently.” She was wide-awake at that comment. She made a strangled sound while trying to think of a good come back when Aaron stopped her.
    “Never mind. Hang up the phone, baby. Get some sleep.”
    Kylie did as he suggested because she couldn’t get her voice to cooperate enough to tell him again that she wasn’t one of his women. But the truth was she liked the way it sounded. And that realization kept her awake for the rest of the night.

Chapter Five
    Two weeks. He’d just survived two of the longest weeks in his life and through it all, the only thing that had kept him in Oklahoma City was the fact that he didn’t know how to move on from where he’d left things with Kylie. He didn’t want to be her friend. He didn’t care how much she wanted that; Aaron knew that he couldn’t go back to that because he wanted more from her than just her friendship.
    But Kylie wasn’t acting true-to-form with him anymore. Every single time he talked to her, she sounded as nervous as a cat and he didn’t know what to make of it. That wasn’t Kylie. So what did