Turning and walking away from her took almost superhuman strength, but he did it anyway. He wasn’t giving her a chance to think, a chance to change her mind. He paused to pick up the clip from her hair before he moved away from her and stuck it in his coat pocket.
He ambled slowly toward his car, satisfied when he saw her vehicle plow through the snowy parking lot and exit the Center.
What in the hell just happened?
Evan picked up his pace after he saw the taillights of Randi’s car disappear into the night, still more than a little shocked at his own behavior. He didn’t give in to urges or impulses, but tonight . . . he had.
He didn’t regret it. Sexual tension like he’d never experienced before had been smoldering between him and Randi Tyler since the moment they’d met. Now that he knew that she was just as attracted to him as he was to her, he understood the real truth.
She was wrong. They didn’t hate each other. What they were both feeling was desire in its most carnal form. He’d tried to ignore it because any loss of control scared the shit out of him. Maybe it unsettled her, too.
What would be the harm in spending some time together? Maybe they could fuck each other until the attraction was out of both of their systems. It was bound to happen if they acted on their fantasies. Evan had never been with a woman more than once before he got bored and was ready to go back to work. He didn’t do relationships. He sought out women who wanted the same thing he did . . . sex for one night to scratch an itch. Most of them were successful women who were busy with their own careers or businesses. Those arrangements had always suited him just fine.
Evan released a masculine sigh as he finally reached his vehicle, admitting to himself that exorcising the lust he had for Randi could take more than just one night.
In fact, it could take a very, very long time.
Strangely, he was good with that.
CHAPTER 4
The Amesport Midwinter Ball was cancelled and rescheduled for the following weekend because the area had been struck by a major blizzard.
Randi sighed and looked out the window of the small home that she’d inherited, glad that she now had five more days to try to find a way out of attending the ball with Evan.
Why in the hell did I let him kiss me? Worse yet, why did I enjoy it so damn much?
She’d been asking herself that very question for the last two days—since he’d rocked her world with the demanding, possessive, scorching-hot embrace that hadn’t left her mind since it happened.
Dammit! I don’t want to be attracted to Evan Sinclair.
Tired and let down because Liam hadn’t shown up at their meeting place, the last thing she’d needed last Friday was to literally run into Evan Sinclair as she was leaving Brew Magic.
Why him? Anybody but him.
She’d only found out after arriving home that evening that Liam had the flu. He hadn’t had her cell-phone number to contact her, and he hadn’t been able to reach Tessa. He’d sounded horrible in the message he’d left on her home phone, and she didn’t doubt for a moment that he really was sick. She’d quickly sent a text to Evan—because calling him seemed too personal—that she’d arrived home safely, and then a message via email to S. so he didn’t worry.
For the last two days, she’d been pretty much snowbound. The flakes were coming down faster than they could be cleared from the roads. She lived ten miles from town on a tranquil five acres of land that nobody really cared about. Dennis and Joan hadn’t been anywhere close to being able to afford waterfront property, but Randi hadn’t minded not living right on the beach. It was too crowded in town, too busy with tourists in the summer. She loved having her own space to breathe.
Letting the curtain she was holding fall back into place, Randi turned back toward the small living room. So much of her parents still remained in the house, but Randi liked it that way. She’d kept as many items as she could that had belonged to them, wanting to somehow keep them with her even now.
Her heart clenched as her gaze fell on a picture of all three of them, a family, huddled together on the beach soon after they’d brought her to Amesport. Dennis and Joan had been the parents she’d never had, even though they were more appropriate in age to be her grandparents. It hadn’t mattered to Randi. They’d filled up an emotional void she had carried all her life. Now, it was like the gaping dark hole was back, and nothing could ever fill it in again.
She tore her eyes from the photo, knowing that eventually the pain would ease. There would probably come a time when she felt nothing but joy looking at pictures of her saviors, but that day wasn’t today.
“I need to shower.” Her golden retriever, Lily, lifted her head off the floor to look at Randi with soulful, curious eyes. “I stink,” Randi told her dog, watching as Lily cocked her head as though she understood.
Randi had spent the morning working out and meditating, so her yoga pants and T-shirt were damply clinging to her body even though a snowstorm raged outdoors.
Lily trotted along behind her as Randi shed her clothes, throwing them all into the hamper as she arrived in the bathroom.
“We need food for both of us,” Randi announced as she turned on the shower and looked down at Lily’s prostrate body on the rug beside her.
She hadn’t stocked up enough on food, and she was hungry. Lily was down to the last of her dog food. Randi would need to clear out her driveway with the old ATV and plow in the garage, and then hope her small four-wheel drive could get through the snow on the road. Another storm had developed behind the one they were experiencing now, so the weather was only going to get worse. Even though the snow was still falling, it might be the only break she’d get for the next few days. If the weather predictions were correct, the next storm would be just as bad as the first.