Bargain in Bronze by Natalie Anderson

presence last night had been hard enough. She’d tried not to look at him too much but it was difficult when he kept chatting and laughing and being the ultimate in charming. She’d hardly slept. Remembering his smile, his gentle teasing.
    Every interaction sharpened her attraction like long strokes of a knife on steel—the pull tightened her nerves and pushed her towards succumbing to the heat. She sighed, trying to push out the tension and gather her self-control. She didn’t want to have to walk away from this opportunity with the kitchen. She wanted to do something with her life—to help someone, lots of people ideally. She wanted to give something to society. Because she wouldn’t fall in love. She wouldn’t have a family. She’d make a difference in another way. Helping Tom would be something. Getting her product back on the shelves would be something more. It was a healthy option. People might benefit and that would be wonderful.
    But Jack made her think about other things—intimacies and personal pleasures that she’d denied herself for a long time. She didn’t want to open up that part of herself to someone so overpowering.
    “If you’re going to insist on staying here while I work, the least you can do is make yourself useful,” she said firmly, deciding to take control of the situation tonight. There’d be no swapping secrets or life stories—or worse, flirting.
    “I have my own work to do, thanks,” he held up his iPad.
    “Do you have to do it here?” Why couldn’t he leave her to get on with it and come back to lock up at a fixed time?
    “Yeah. I do.” Mr. Uncompromising.
    Because he still didn’t trust her?
    “Does my being here bother you?”
    She swallowed. “Of course not. I just thought if you have work to do…”
    “I can do what I need to here.”
    She shouldn’t have started this conversation—it was going nowhere anyway. He just being all immovable man. Damn. Because just looking at him had her coming over hot.
    “You don’t have a business partner?” he asked once she was underway.
    “No,” she said. “My uni friends love my muesli but they think I’m mad for putting so much into it.”
    “Any sort of success requires sacrifice at some level,” he said. “Is that why you’ve no boyfriend?”
    She looked at him, trying to stay cool. “Possibly.”
    “There must be an endless queue though.”
    “There’s no need for the flattery.” She tried to shut the topic down. “I’m making enough muesli to last Tom ten years.”
    “But there must be.” He ignored her and insisted.
    She picked up a cloth and wiped some spilled syrup from the bench. “No, there was only the one.”
    “One?”
    “At university. I finally got out of the all girls’ boarding school and found some freedom.”
    “I thought the all girls boarding schools were where it was all at.”
    “It’s not like those bad movies you know. They’re just a male fantasy.”
    “Tell me more.” He came round to her side of the counter.
    “There’s nothing to tell.” She wiped the top more vigorously. She didn’t need him standing so close—she could smell the soap he’d used. She could sense his heat—and she could remember his strength.
    It made her weak.
    “Of course there is. Why did you break up with him?”
    “It was getting too serious.” Good, remember the mess it had been. Remind yourself you don’t want a fling.
    “He was getting too serious?”
    She stopped wiping. “Yes.”
    “Serious how? He wanted to marry you?”
    She nodded.
    “So he proposed and you broke up with him?”
    Why did he look so surprised? “We wanted different things,” she said firmly. “It was for the best.”
    “So you don’t want serious?”
    “No.”
    “Why not? Most women are searching the world for serious aren’t they?”
    “Not everyone, no.”
    His eyes narrowed. “This isn’t one of your tall tales?”
    How totally insulting. “Why is it that men have sole dibs on just wanting fun?