He shrugged indifferently. ‘Maybe.’
They’d walked halfway along the next block when Jake suddenly stopped and turned to look at her. ‘Have you had dinner?’ he asked.
‘No, I was just about to get some when I saw you.’
‘Have dinner with me.’
She arched a brow at him. ‘Are you asking or telling me?’
‘Are you refusing or accepting?’
‘I’m thinking about it.’
‘What’s to think about?’ he asked. ‘You’re hungry and you need food.’
‘It’s not that simple…’
‘Are you worried about the boyfriend back home in Britain?’
Kitty avoided his penetrating gaze. ‘It has nothing to do with Charles,’ she said. ‘I don’t want people to talk.’
‘They’re already talking,’ he said. ‘Besides, what’s one casual dinner going to do?’ He stopped outside a bar and grill restaurant. ‘Is this OK? A friend of mine owns it. He’ll squeeze us in without a booking.’
Kitty met his impossibly blue gaze with her guarded one. ‘So it’s not a date or anything?’ she asked.
‘No,’ he said, giving her a glinting smile. ‘I’d have to pay my sister a thousand bucks if so.’
Kitty tried not to blush but with little success. ‘So an official date with you usually leads to sex, does it?’
He held the door of the restaurant open for her. ‘It depends.’
‘On what?’
‘Chemistry. Animal attraction. Lust.’
Kitty pursed her lips disapprovingly even though her skin tingled and prickled as his gaze held hers. ‘What about getting to know someone as a person first?’ she asked. ‘Finding common ground, similar values and interests, mutual admiration and respect?’
His gaze moved from her eyes to her mouth. Something shifted in the pit of her belly as his eyes meshed with hers once more. Their dark glittering intensity triggered a primal response she had no control over. Fluttery fairy-soft footsteps of excitement danced along the floor of her stomach at the thought of him pressing that sinfully sensual mouth against hers, having his arms go around her and crush her to his hard tall frame, feeling his arousal potent and persistent against the yielding softness of her body. She drew in a little shuddering breath, wondering if he could sense how deeply affected she was by him.
But of course, she thought.
He was a practised flirt. A charmer—a playboy who loved nothing better than indulging the flesh without the restraints of a formal relationship—a born seducer who loved and left his partners without a second thought.
Falling in love with him would be the biggest mistake of her life. She knew it and yet there was something about him that drew her inexorably to him. She felt the magnetic force of him even now. The way his gaze tethered her to him, those ocean-blue depths communicating without words the desire that crackled like an electrical current between them.
‘I find out just about all I need to know about the other person with the first kiss,’ he said.
‘Oh, really?’
‘You’d be surprised how much information that reveals.’
Kitty gave him an arch look. ‘You mean other than the flavour of their toothpaste?’
He smiled that glinting smile. ‘Having dinner with them is another revelation,’ he said. ‘Picky eaters tend to have body issues. A healthy appetite is a good sign, but someone who is keen to try different cuisines or exotic flavours gets my attention every time.’
Kitty felt heat rise up from the soles of her feet to her face. What would he think of her cardboard meals of late? ‘You seem to have it down to a science,’ she said.
‘Hey, Jake!’ A stocky blond-haired man came over with a twinkling smile on his face. ‘A cosy, romantic table for two?’
Kitty gave Jake a look. ‘How many times have you been here?’
‘Lost count,’ Jake said, and grinned at his mate. ‘How’re you doing, Brad? Hot in the kitchen?’
‘That’s why I’m out here,’ Brad said, and smiling at Kitty added, ‘So this is…?’
‘Dr Kitty Cargill,’ Jake said.
Brad’s eyebrows lifted. ‘Bringing work home with you, Jake?’
‘It’s not what you think,’ Jake said.
‘Sure,’ Brad said with a grin. ‘Follow me. I have just the table for you.’
Once Brad had left them settled with drinks, Kitty met Jake’s gaze across the small intimate table that was positioned in the quietest part of the restaurant. ‘Let me guess,’ she said. ‘At about ten p.m. or so a woman will come past the table selling roses.’
He gave her a slanting smile. ‘Do you want one?’
‘Certainly not!’
He reached over to top up her water glass from the frosted bottle on the table. ‘So, tell me about Charles.’
Kitty watched as the bubbles from the mineral water rose in a series of vertical lines like tiny necklaces to the surface of her glass. ‘There’s not much to tell,’ she said. ‘We grew up together. I can’t think of a time in my life when Charles hasn’t been a part of it. We did everything together. I thought we’d continue to do everything together.’ She released a little sigh and met Jake’s gaze. ‘I was so busy planning our future that I didn’t notice what was going on in the present.’
‘Do you still love him?’
Kitty looked at the bubbles again, her finger tracing the dew on the outside of the glass. ‘I think there’s a part of me that will always love Charles,’ she said. ‘I loved his family too. I liked that they were so…so normal. I felt at home with them. I blended in as if I had always been there.’
She looked up to find his dark blue gaze centred on hers. He had a way of looking at her that made her whole body break out in a shiver. She became aware of every cell of her skin, from the top of her tingling scalp, right to the very soles of her feet.
She gave herself a mental shake and reached for her wine glass. ‘What did your brother want when he came to the unit today?’ she asked.
A mask slipped over his features. ‘I thought we were talking about you,’ he said.
‘We were,’ she said. ‘But now it’s your turn to talk about you.’
‘What if I don’t want to talk about me?’
‘Then talk about your brother.’