Maybe she didn’t want to wait either. Maybe she was as much at the mercy of this as he was. In fact, now he’d dealt with the havoc Caroline had wreaked on her finances, maybe he could invite her round right now. Or head over to hers. He wasn’t fussy. Just weirdly desperate to see her again. ‘Who else?’ he said, reining in his raging libido and telling himself to cool it.
‘Of course.’ He could hear the smile in her voice and his stomach flipped.
‘What can I do for you?’ he said, and rather hoped she was going to tell him exactly what he could do for, and to, her.
He heard her take a deep breath. Imagined her running a hand through her hair. Imagined running his hands through it again and felt his pulse spike.
‘I’m calling to cancel our date.’
And then it slowed right down. All the heat and desire dwindled away and Will went strangely cold. What? Why would she want to cancel their date? ‘I see,’ he said, thinking that actually he didn’t see at all. She’d seemed pretty keen earlier, moments after she’d come apart in his arms. ‘Any particular reason?’ he added, aiming for a nonchalance he certainly didn’t feel.
‘I’m busy on Saturday.’
Hmm. Will threw himself into the chair behind the desk and picked up the crystal paperweight blinking at him in the firelight. That was annoying, but fair enough. Perhaps, like him, she hadn’t been thinking all that clearly at the time. And they hadn’t exactly whipped out their diaries to coordinate. ‘Then another day,’ he said.
‘I don’t think so.’
‘Why not?’
‘I just don’t think it’s going to work out.’
Unable to glare at her, Will glared at the paperweight. How the hell did she know that? She hadn’t given it a chance. And what was there to work out anyway? The only thing they had to worry about was sexual compatibility, and there was absolutely no problem on that front.
At the memory of just how sexually compatible they were, a bolt of lust tore through him as sharp and jagged as lightning, and he dropped the paperweight. On his toe.
Wincing at the pain, Will scowled, bent down to pick it up and put it back on the desk.
‘Are you all right?’
The concern tingeing her voice irritated him even more. ‘Fine. Just great.’ He ground his teeth. ‘What makes you think it wouldn’t work out?’
A pause. ‘I just know.’
He went still as a thought flashed across his mind. ‘Are you involved with someone else?’
‘Of course not. Do you really think I’d do what I did if I was?’
‘I don’t know, do I? I don’t know you. You aren’t allowing me the chance.’
‘Well, I wouldn’t.’
She sounded outraged and Will made himself calm down. Not everyone had infidelity forever at the forefront of their mind. ‘No
. Sorry.’
‘Would you?’ she snapped.
A chill rippled through him. ‘No.’
‘Well, then.’
‘So?’ What was her problem? God, he wished he could see her face.
‘It’s really nothing,’ she said irritatingly coolly. ‘Like I said, I just don’t think it would work out, that’s all.’
Will frowned as his stomach churned. With pique, of course, because he couldn’t remember the last time a woman had cancelled a date with him. Women generally didn’t. So why was Bella giving up on them before they’d even started? And why did he even care?
Will narrowed his eyes and switched his brain into gear. This was nuts. Why was he worrying about this? So what if the fact that she’d reduced the episode in his car to a one-night stand left a bad taste in his mouth? If it didn’t bother her why did it have to bother him?