ke try to taste those same lips that Henry had claimed just hours before?
The thought made him want to smash his fist into the good doctor’s face.
Lord. Henry ran a hand through his hair as he remembered that kiss. It had taken every ounce of restraint to pull away from those soft lips, leave that welcoming embrace, and get the hell out of there before he did something they’d both regret. Something he was equal parts relieved and frustrated with once the door shut at his own place and he could still taste the remnants of that kiss, smell Benny’s warm vanilla scent, feel the softness of her skin and the smooth silkiness of her dark hair.
He was treading in dangerous waters, he realized, getting so close to the woman. Feeling idiotic things he shouldn’t even be considering with anyone, let alone a woman in love with someone else.
“Henry, you’ve really got to come over and join us.” He glanced to his side, where Valerie was holding her Cosmopolitan in her well-manicured hand and eyeing him with unbridled interest.
Valerie was new to the firm’s research division and had recently worked on the Kettlebaum account with him. She was funny and lovely and definitely interested. The only reason he hadn’t hooked up with her before was because she’d been dating someone. But she had hinted earlier that they’d broken up a couple weeks ago. Meaning she was available and ready to have Henry help heal whatever wounds her bruised heart and ego might be suffering. She was the exact kind of distraction he needed to help push Benny Sorensen out of his mind for at least one night. Only…
Once he had Valerie hanging on to every word he uttered, he’d needed space. Which was why he was up at the bar, drinking. Alone. Something that was doing little to improve his mood.
He turned to look at the woman again. Tall and blond and looking in need of a good solid meal, she watched him eagerly from hooded blue eyes. Blue eyes that weren’t nearly as bright or sharp as another pair that he kept thinking about.
But she was here. And not mooning after some saintly doofus doctor.
Still… “I’ll be along in a minute. Just want to catch the final score,” he said and nodded up to the baseball game.
“Who’s up?” Valerie asked and sidled onto the bar stool next to him.
“You follow baseball?”
“My dad was a huge Dodgers fan, so I know a little bit about it. Who’s your team?”
He smiled wryly. “Giants.”
“Probably best not to have you and my dad in the same room during the playoffs.”
A woman who knew baseball. Normally that might have heightened his interest in the blonde.
She sipped her pink drink and eyed him over the rim. “If you’re not interested in joining everyone, perhaps you’d be interested in watching the rest of the game somewhere more…private? I seem to recall seeing a sixty-inch television at that apartment of yours.”
The invitation was clear, and he had to give her props for her forwardness. This woman obviously knew what she wanted and wasn’t afraid to just put it out there.
But right now, the prospect of spending another night having meaningless sex with someone he barely knew, let alone knew if he liked, held no appeal.
He remembered what he’d told Benny last night. About men finding sex with any woman great and a beautiful woman fantastic. Words he thought he believed at the time. But now, with the opportunity presenting itself to have what should be fantastic sex with a beautiful woman, he wasn’t so sure anymore.
What sounded infinitely more appealing was making love to a woman who challenged and intrigued him, who made him want to peel away the stuff at the surface and discover what made her tick. What made her smile, laugh, and maybe sigh in breathless pleasure.
Someone like…Benny.
Ludicrous.
What I should do is take Valerie home right now and let her take my mind off everything, especially Benny.
He took another drink of his beer and considered her offer for another moment. But it was no use. He’d only be comparing the two women the entire time. “Sorry, Valerie. Maybe another time.”
She pouted for a minute, her bottom lip out, but when he didn’t follow up, she changed tactics and smiled. “If you change your mind, you know where I’ll be.”
She turned and walked slowly away, moving her hips like she knew he was watching her. Which he was.
What was wrong with him? He’d never passed up sex with a beautiful woman before.
The problem was that maybe Benny had opened the door to the possibility of relationships that had real meaning, with her talk of happily-ever-after and family and all that.
Maybe it wasn’t Benny that he was necessarily drawn to. It was what women like her represented. But the thing was, he’d decided long ago that women like her didn’t really exist. That relationships like she wanted and what he’d seen surrounding him at her family dinner didn’t exist.