A thoughtful expression on her face, Amanda picked up the basket of pastries and chose a croissant. “Well, there is a way to pull yourself out. You could spend another night or two with Kel. Maybe the whole week.” She bit the end off the croissant and chewed it slowly.
“How would that help?”
“Sooner or later, he’ll fall off that sex god pedestal you’ve put him on and do something typically male.”
“Like what?”
Amanda snatched up Darcy’s glass of cranberry juice. “Do I need to be specific? Sweetie, in the end, they’re all the same. They all walk around with your underwear on their head and think it’s hilariously funny, they all leave their toenail clippings on the bathroom sink and expect you to pick them up, and they all ask you to have a threesome with the bimbo down the hall, hoping you’ll be temporarily insane and agree. It’s hard-wired into their hormones. If you’re just patient, you’ll see.”
Darcy shook her head, wryly. “I thought when I found a man I wanted as much as I want Kel, I’d be in love. I’d have a grand romance and be swept off my feet by some sexually adventurous Prince Charming.”
“We all want that, Darcy. But Prince Charming is usually dreadfully dull in bed. His naughty brother, the Duke of Debauchery, is the guy that’s meant to make your toes curl. Some men are marriage material and others are just for fun. I think Kel Martin falls into the same category as carnival rides and bungee jumping. Fun, a little scary, but not meant for daily consumption.”
“And that’s exactly the way they think about us!” Darcy cried. “There are the girls you marry and the girls you just mess around with.”
“At least you know where you stand with the Duke, right? It’s just about the sex.” Amanda sighed, gulped down Darcy’s cranberry juice, then quickly stood up. “I’ll just be going now. His highness is on his way over here.”
Darcy twisted in her chair only to see Kel approaching. He was dressed casually in a soft blue Oxford shirt, khaki trousers and well-worn loafers. His hair was still damp from his morning shower and he hadn’t bothered to shave, the stubble of his beard making him look slightly dangerous.
As Amanda hurried past him, she turned and looked at Darcy, fanning her face with her hand and mouthing the word “hot.”
When Kel reached Darcy’s table, he sat down in Amanda’s chair, flipped over a coffee cup and filled it from the carafe. “Morning,” he said cheerfully.
“Good morning,” Darcy replied.
He stared at her as he sipped his coffee, studying her intently, the silence between them growing uncomfortable. Was he deliberately trying to make her uneasy or was he searching for something to say? She prayed he wouldn’t want to discuss the previous night’s activities. “You look beautiful this morning, Darcy,” he finally said.
“Stop it,” she said. He couldn’t possibly be telling the truth. When she’d returned to her room, she’d tossed and turned for most of the night, then rushed through a shower before meeting with the staff at eight. Dark circles smudged the skin beneath her eyes and her hair had been haphazardly pulled back into a ponytail. Amanda was right, she looked like she’d been dragged behind a bus. “There’s no need to turn on the charm this early in the morning.”
“When I woke up, you weren’t there,” he said.
Darcy frowned. “You saw me leave.”
“I didn’t really like that part of the evening,” he said.
“I thought that was our deal,” she said.
He frowned. “We had a deal?”
“Like last time. It was just about sex, nothing else.”
Kel stared at her for another long moment, then shook his head. “What the hell are you talking about?”
A sudden sick feeling settled into Darcy’s stomach. Oh, God, had she been wrong? She’d just assumed he remembered their night together in San Francisco. Assumed they’d both silently acknowledged that this had all happened once before and it was about to happen again. That was what had given them permission to indulge. But maybe she’d been mistaken.
Darcy squirmed in her chair. “You know what I’m talking about.”
He covered her hand with his. “Are you angry with me? I sure hope not, because I was thinking we might want to spend a little more time together.”
Darcy gasped. This was exactly like a man! No matter how incredible the sex had been, it hadn’t been enough for him. She yanked her hand away, rubbing the spot where he’d touched her.
“Do you golf?” he asked. “We could play today or we could take a drive. I hear there are some nice wineries west of here in Sonoma.”
Darcy jumped to her feet and threw her napkin on the table. She’d had just about enough of this game he was playing. “You’re telling me you don’t remember that night in San Francisco? The bar of the Penrose, the bottle of champagne, the elevator ride? You were new in town, I just needed a drink to unwind and we ended up naked in your room.”
A slow grin replaced his serious expression and Kel chuckled, then took another sip of his coffee. “I do remember that night, quite vividly.”
“Then why did you pretend that you didn’t?” Darcy demanded.
“Until you mentioned it, I wasn’t sure you remembered that night, so don’t act all insulted.”
Darcy didn’t know what to say. Her indignation slowly dissolved, replaced by the uneasy feeling that what they’d begun last night was not over-not by a long shot. She sat down in her chair. “And you recognized me yesterday at the candy shop?”
Kel nodded. “The minute I looked into your eyes. Why do you think I’m here, Darcy? I’m not really a spa kind of guy, although I’ve been thinking I could really use a nice seaweed wrap. And that salt scrub sounds like a good deal. ‘It makes the skin glow with a youthful texture.’”
“It’s called exfoliation,” Darcy said. “And if you’re not a spa kind of guy, then what are you? A sex kind of guy? What happened last night is not going to happen again.”
He reached for her hand and distractedly twisted his fingers through hers. “Why not? I certainly enjoyed myself and so did you, unless you were…” He chuckled softly. “Were you faking it, Darcy?”
“No,” she said, trying to ignore the way his thumb caressed the inside of her wrist.
“Then you enjoyed yourself as much as I did?”
She straightened, pulling her hand away and clutching it in her lap. “That depends upon how much you enjoyed yourself,” she said.
“A lot,” he said. “More than I thought possible in such a short amount of time. Why should we deny ourselves that kind of pleasure?”
“What are you suggesting? That we just carry on with each other until…you decide to leave?” The prospect should have sounded unthinkable, but in truth, Darcy found the idea strangely intriguing. A week of fabulous sex with a devastatingly handsome man, those incredible hands on her body, that mouth driving her wild in bed, and those beautiful blue eyes watching her as he buried himself deep inside her. What more could a girl ask for?
A shiver coursed through her body. Had she possessed just a bit more courage, she’d drag Kel to her office right now and seduce him all over again. But she’d do well to carefully consider all the consequences of his proposed interlude. “So we’d be together for as long as you’re here and then we’d go back to our lives, no strings attached.” Darcy twirled her spoon in her coffee as she contemplated the offer.
“Sounds good,” he said. “With the understanding that we will take our time from now on.”
“I’ll think about it,” she finally murmured.
“Ah, don’t do that,” Kel said, leaning back in his chair and shaking his head. “This should be a simple decision, Darcy. Either you want me or you don’t. Don’t think, just do.”
“Who died and made you Yoda?” Darcy asked. “There are a lot of things to consider here.”