Not This Time by Erosa Knowles Page A

her nose and kissed her. “Whatever
it takes.” He took her hand and led her to the kitchen. “Hungry?”
The nerves in her stomach clenched at the idea of food. Obviously,
he didn’t have that problem. She watched him pull meat and
vegetables from the refrigerator, and wondered if he expected her
to cook.
    “ I could eat a little
something.” Deliberately she offered a vague answer, feeling her
way in unfamiliar waters. When they met yesterday, visiting his
home had never entered her radar, yet she sat on his kitchen stool
in her dream home in the middle of the country somewhere. Hell, the
way he'd captured her attention last night and this morning, they
could’ve stayed in Philly and she’d have been just as
content.
    That meant she liked him. Liked him more
than anyone else she’d been seeing lately. “Are you dating
anyone?”
    He turned and looked at her. “No one
serious. You?” His eyes captured hers.
    “ Not seriously. Just dinner
dates and stuff like that.”
    He straightened without releasing her eyes.
“Are you sleeping with someone else?”
    “ I didn’t ask you about your
sex life.”
    “ No matter, I still want to
know about yours. Are you having sex with someone else back home or
anywhere?” He planted his large palms on the countertop, waiting
for her reply.
    “ What if I said it was none
of your business?”
    “ You’d be wrong.”
    His fast response threw her. “Why?”
    “ You are my business. Answer
me.” His voice roughened.
    There must be something seriously wrong with
her, but his claiming thrilled her core. As a modern independent
woman, she felt she should make a token remark over his
manners.
    “ No. I’m not sleeping with
anyone else. Right now,” she added as her token stand. It was weak
and they both smiled. Lord, she was in trouble.
    “ Good. Neither am
I.”

Chapter 5
     
    The next week flew by on the wings of hot,
steamy, impossible-to-count-orgasm nights and days of
heart-to-heart conversations. She'd extended her trip for a week,
but time wasn’t something Veronique had in escrow, she needed to
get back to her office, deal with her clients, and take care of
personal matters. Macy, her assistant, had worked a miracle and
shuffled things around so she could spend this time with Frank.
Thinking of him sent a warm tingling down her spine. Like a
teenybopper in the flush of a new crush, she suppressed a giggle of
delight that threatened to erupt. Damn, the man made her happy.
She’d changed. Not only her schedule, but other small things she’d
previously thought a waste of time.
    “ It’s no big deal,” she
murmured, looking out the bay window at the backyard. “I’m not
losing myself. I’m discovering a new part of me. A part that likes
cuddling, gentle touches and soft words. I’m still me,” she argued
against her stubborn conscience.
    Without a doubt, she really
did like who she was with Frank. He'd touched something inside that
made her want to be more feminine, less confrontational and more
laid back. Maybe it was because no one had ever totally focused on
her before. No one had listened as intently or been so interested
in what she’d previously thought were mundane issues in her life.
Frank treated her as if she were the most important person in his
world and treated the words from her lips like manna in the
desert. What woman didn’t want
that ? He blew away her defenses, disarming
her. Her frontline resistance had crashed the first night in his
home. She'd opened up to him, body and mind. Things she’d held
bottled inside for years, burst forth under his gentle
prodding.
    If anyone had told her that
getting to know someone, in more than the biblical sense, was this
intense and equally liberating, Veronique would’ve laughed. But
there was something about a methodical man that clicked, and Frank
was as thorough in his desire to know everything about her as he
was in learning what made her scream every night. He refused to
stop until he