“Does he have political ambitions, too?” She took a big bite of her wrap.
Noah chuckled. “Wouldn’t surprise me. It’s damn tempting to try to reshape your environment to suit. He may get there. Although with stores all over the West now, he’d have to run for national office.”
Cait tilted her head. “You might have to run for state office.”
He was already shaking his head. “Don’t think so. The mayor gig was an alternative to opening a fourth restaurant. Next time, I’ll go with expanding.”
He admitted, when she asked, that he hadn’t figured out a prospective site, which was one reason he hadn’t opened any new locations in the past several years. “Maybe up to The Dalles or Hood River, down to Klamath Falls.” He shrugged. “There’d be a lot of driving either way. Not sure that appeals to me.”
“Do you have to expand?”
“I get restless.”
Noah couldn’t remember the last time he’d talked to anyone like this. He had friends, but men didn’t talk about Mom and Dad or what their childhoods had been like. Plans for a business, sure, but not the underlying unease. Cait was a good listener. He’d told her more about himself tonight than she had told him, although that was probably fair given how much he already knew about her childhood and problems.
For dessert, they shared a chocolate ganache tart with orange flavoring and cream. Sharing a dessert with someone else was another thing he didn’t make a habit of doing. He hadn’t much of a sweet tooth, for one thing. There was the unspoken intimacy, too, of their forks sometimes bumping, of knowing as they reached the middle they’d be mingling his and hers.
He hardly tasted the tart. Watching her slip each bite in her mouth and make a low humming sound and seeing her eyelids flutter, that had him so damn aroused, it was all he could think about. After each bite, her tongue would sweep over her lips as if she was savoring the last hint of flavor.
Damn. Noah took a hasty swallow of his coffee and choked on it.
“Are you all right?” Cait asked.
“Didn’t know it was still so hot,” he said when he could.
“Do you want any more?”
“More?” He looked without comprehension at the dessert, then shook his head. “It’s all yours.”
“Hah!” She scooted the plate closer. “You can’t take it back.”
Despite his acute state of arousal, Noah grinned at her greedy pleasure. Partly staged, no doubt, but not altogether. He watched as she finished the last few bites, scraped her fork over the china and studied the plate as if she was seriously thinking about licking it.
“That was so good.” She finally sighed.
He laughed. “We aim to please.”
For a moment her smile was merry and trouble-free, causing a hitch in his breathing. Happy, she was astonishingly beautiful.
She works for me. She’s vulnerable.
Good arguments, but…
She would demand more than Noah wanted to give.
Cait sighed. “I suppose you’d better return me to captivity.”
“Would you like to see my place?” he asked, voice husky. Oh, damn. Had he just said what he thought he had?
She was staring at him.
He could give her a quick tour of remodeling projects, offer her another cup of coffee. Keep it…collegial.
If only his self-restraint wasn’t at such a foolishly low ebb.
Her cheeks had turned pink, her eyes shy. “I’d like that,” she said, and triumph roared through him like a high-summer forest fire.
CHAPTER NINE
SHE SHOULD HAVE said “Oh, thanks, but not tonight.” Or even just “No.”
He’d probably thought she was hinting with that stuff about him returning her to captivity. It sounded like a hint. God, was I?
Cait truly didn’t know.
She had never been as attracted to a man as she was to Noah Chandler, which freaked her out on so many levels, she couldn’t identify them all. And didn’t need to. The timing alone was so abysmally awful, why go further? She was—what?—seven months out of an abusive relationship. She’d vowed celibacy-slash-independence for the foreseeable future. She worked for this man.
Who was not at all her type. Yes, indeed, count the levels, from the longshoreman build to the almost-but-not-quite-homely face. The ruthlessness, the impatience, the automatic assumption of authority.