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Amy had zoned in on the wrong question. It wasn’t about where he’d rather be, it was more about what he’d rather be. And the answer was easy. He wanted to be together with Amy for the rest of their lives.
“Dan? You’ve got a funny look on your face. You okay?”
Oh, to come right out and tell her how he felt. But she’d bolt if he did. Instead he chose to appeal to her understanding, nurturing side. “I need time with this one. I have to sort it out in my head first.” He drummed his fingers on the table again. “When the time’s right, we’ll talk about it. Today, let’s enjoy lunch.”
Her face softened before she shot him a suspicious look. “In other words, you want to see how much of my food I’ll eat and if there’ll be any left over for you.”
“You don’t think I’m here to enjoy your company?”
“I think you’re here to enjoy my bruschetta. I don’t understand why you don’t order two meals for yourself. You always end up eating half of mine anyway.”
He smiled at her good-natured griping. “Ah, Morgan,” he said. “It’s nice to spend quality time with you.”
“It would be nicer if you told me your secrets.” She bit into her lunch.
A comfortable warmth settled over him. “I promise I’ll tell you my secrets—” When making love with me will be your first priority. When the only thing you can think about is me. When your sweet body is sated by my mouth and my hands and my cock. When resistance to me is a foreign concept.
He looked her dead in the eye. “When the time’s right.”
…
Amy stared thoughtfully at her friend. He was hot. Handsome, charming, and sexier than a pinup model. She’d watched women drool over his honey-blond curls and sky-blue eyes. His devilish grin and impish dimples only added to his rakish appeal. Sometimes when she saw him, her breath would catch or her stomach would flip-flop for no reason.
It hadn’t happened in years, yet for a fleeting moment, she had an unexpected urge to kick her chair aside, stride over to the other end of the table, and perch her butt on his muscular lap. Press against him and feel his erection grow and lengthen with every sweep of her hips.
She was pretty sure she could get him to reveal his secrets then.
Amy felt a sweet pull between her legs and licked her suddenly dry lips, rejecting the thought immediately.
Seducing one’s friend was a bad idea. There was no quicker way to destroy a friendship. It would change the dynamics of their relationship irrevocably, making it impossible to go back to being mates after.
She crossed her knees, rested her cheek on her hand, and worked hard at suppressing the heat that crept across her face.
Her philosophy was simple. She’d learned from experience. Friends were always around. Lovers left—first her father had left her mother, and then Simon, the man Amy’d given her heart to, lived with for a year, and trusted with every fiber of her being, left her. Daniel was a friend. He’d always be around. Unless he became her lover.
Daniel had a definite pattern of behavior around women. He had an uncanny knack of leaving his lovers. He simply didn’t have the capacity to sustain a long-term relationship. In the entire time she’d known him, she’d witnessed him loving and leaving plenty of women. None of them had been around for longer than six months—at most.
She wanted Daniel to stay in her life forever. The only way to ensure he hung around was to keep him as a friend. Period.
She relented. “Okay. I’ll let it rest. You can tell me your secrets in your own good time.” She tactfully changed the subject. “How’s Laura?”
He rolled his eyes. “Her name’s Lauren. I haven’t seen Laura in months.”
“Laura, Lauren. Same difference. In the last few years, you’ve had so many girlfriends, I can’t keep up. I stopped trying ages ago.” She enjoyed ragging him.
“It’s over. I ended it a few nights ago.”
Unsurprised, Amy clucked in sympathy. Another broken heart. “How’d she take it?”
He grimaced. “I tried to be gentle, but there was a lot of crying involved.”
“She never saw it coming?”
“What can I say? She wasn’t the right one for me. Besides, I told her from the start it wouldn’t go anywhere.”
“Ah, Danny.” She smiled at him. “Have you ever told a woman it would go anywhere?”
For the briefest second, his eyes darkened, turning the shade of a stormy-gray sky. But then they cleared again, and he grinned. “Not yet.”
“You really are a hopeless case, aren’t you?” A surge of affection rose in her chest. She adored the man. There was no way on earth she’d ever sleep with him. If she did, she’d be hit with a double whammy. First, she’d lose her lover, and then she’d lose her friend.
The lover part she could deal with—maybe. Losing her best friend was unthinkable.