Sweet Persuasions

Selena shook her head. “I don’t think that’s going to happen, Xavier.”

“Why, Selena?” His voice sounded low and seductive.

“That would mean another date.”

He took a step, bringing them less than a foot apart. Everything that was Selena Yates swept over him, pulling him in and refusing to let him go. He’d tried to remain unaffected but he’d failed miserably. Somehow fate had stepped in when Robert Bell walked into Sweet Persuasions to find him with the owner of the patisserie. If his friend had assumed he and Selena were a couple, then he had no intention of correcting the mistake—especially not when he was given the opportunity to take her to dinner without having to work up the nerve to ask her out on a date. It wasn’t his style to come on heavy with a woman, and it usually took several encounters before he would make his move. But Selena was different—just how different he had yet to discover.

“Would that be so horrible?”

Putting her hands on his rock-solid chest, Selena tried to put some space between them. She felt the warmth of his body through the fabric of his shirt. “No, it wouldn’t, but why don’t we just wait and see if we can tolerate each other enough to go out again.”

Grabbing her wrists, Xavier held her captive. “Don’t you think tolerate is too strong a word?”

Lowering her eyes, Selena peered up at him through her lashes. “I can’t count the number of times I’m forced to tolerate dealing with someone—and that includes some of my customers.”

“Is yours truly included in that group?”

“You will if you don’t let me close up and get ready for my date night.”

“I hear you loud and clear, Ms. Yates.” Xavier released her wrists, lowered his head, brushing his mouth over hers in a kiss that was so light she thought she’d imagined it. “I’ll see you later.”

Selena barely had time to react before she registered the chiming of the bell that signaled Xavier had unlocked the door and left. On unsteady legs, she walked over to the door and locked it behind him.

She didn’t know how it had happened, but within the span of half an hour she’d agreed to go to Ma Bell’s for date night with a stranger—a handsome stranger, nonetheless—who until a few days ago she didn’t even know existed. Pressing her back to the door, Selena closed her eyes. What, she mused, was there about Xavier Eaton that made her do and feel things that were totally out of character for practical, level-headed Selena Liliana Yates?

Grandma Lily had called her a hummingbird, forever in motion and her mind flitting from one thing to the other. When her grandfather, who was a carpenter, built her the grandest dollhouse she had ever seen, she’d announced she was going to decorate the rooms using scraps of leftover fabric from her grandmother’s quilting and needlecraft projects. Hand-sewn curtains, crocheted rugs and wallpaper made from colorful adhesive-backed drawer liners were the envy of the girls who came to see what Selena had been bragging about. It had taken years for her to furnish the dollhouse with carefully chosen wood-looking tables and chairs, and appliances made from scrap metal. By the time she’d celebrated her fifteenth birthday she’d lost interest in decorating when she appeared on stage in a school play. The acting bug had bitten her—hard. The dollhouse, which was put in a room where her parents stored old cradles, cribs and other pieces of furniture made by her grandfather and great-grandfather, had been relegated to her childhood.

Never in her wildest dreams could Selena have predicted that she would walk away from acting. She’d barely tasted success when her world fell apart because a man who’d professed his love to her tried to hurt her. She shook her head as if to shake off the memory of Derrick. Working quickly, she transferred trays from the showcase to the walk-in freezer, turned off the lights, punched in the code to the alarm and locked the door behind her.

Selena unlocked the rear door to the staircase that led up to her apartment. Monica had picked up Trisha from school and driven up to Goose Creek to spend the weekend with her parents. Since her neighbor wasn’t around she avoided having to explain why she was going out on a Friday night. As she opened the door to her apartment, she felt a flutter of excitement in the pit of her stomach much like she’d experienced when she had a crush on a boy who was her brother’s friend. Each time he came to the house she scurried away like a frightened mouse, spending the entire time in her bedroom while she’d fantasized about kissing him. It was only when he began dating a girl Selena disliked intensely, that she decided not only was he ugly but he also had ears that stuck out too far.

But there was nothing wrong with Xavier Eaton—at least not on the surface. She had to be careful—very, very careful to look for the signs that he wasn’t what he seemed to be. After what she’d experienced with Derrick, Selena had sworn it would never happen again.