Operation Date Escape

with me again, so we can get to know each other better.”
    Ooh, she had stepped right into that one. Fortunately for her, the waitress arrived with the spicy cheese dip he had ordered for them saving her a response.
    They exchanged small talk about their families, jobs and themselves as they ate the appetizer Cole had ordered for them . There was no denying the sexual attraction sparking between them. Thankfully for her, he had let the subject of Cancun drop. At least, for the time being. And it was a good thing. Cole had no idea how close she’d been to accepting his impromptu vacation invitation.
    A few minutes later, their server returned with their dinners.
    “Mmm...it looks so good,” Cole said with a hungry groan as the woman placed his plate on the table in front of him. But it wasn’t his meal he was looking at. He was looking across the table at her .
    “It sure does,” Kelsie heard herself reply, despite the fact she hadn’t so much as glanced at her plate either.
    He looked away just long enough to thank their server. Then the woman walked away, leaving them alone once again. His attention shifted right back to her. “I wonder if they taste as good as they look.”
    With his gaze fixed to intently on her mouth, her first instinct was to wet her lips with her tongue. But her mouth had suddenly gone dry. “Maybe you should taste them and find out.”
    That seemed to snap Cole out of his lip-induced trance. “W...what?”
    “Your fajitas,” she said. Or my lips. God help her she was seriously attracted to this man. All the effort she put into controlling her desire where men were concerned was quickly going up in smoke.
    He cleared his throat and straightened in his chair. “Uh, yeah, my fajitas.” He reached for a flour tortilla, filling it with steak, grilled onions and peppers, some lettuce, cheese and a dab of sour cream.
    It was clear she wasn’t the only one affected by whatever this thing was between them. “Well? How is it?”
    “Good,” he muttered between bites, then nodded toward her still untouched plate. “You might want to start eating yours before it gets cold.”
    She’d been caught ogling again. Damn. Kelsie tore her gaze away from that strong jaw and firm lips and reached for her fork, cutting into her corn cake.
    “As good as it looks?” he asked as the fork slid from her mouth.
    She looked up at him from across the candlelit table and grinned. “Best Cole cake I ever had.”
    He gave a husky chuckle, shaking his head. “How any man ever let you get away is beyond me.”
    The bite she’d just taken caught in her throat, wedged in there just above the knot of emotion that had suddenly formed. She reached for her glass.
    “Kelsie?”
    She waved his worry off. “I’m okay,” she said, her words strained.
    “I didn’t say that to upset you.”
    “I know.” He wasn’t like Kyle whose standards she never could quite measure up to. “I was just thinking that it was pretty easy for my ex to let me go.”
    “What happened?” He frowned. “You don’t have to answer that if you don’t want to.”
    “No, it’s okay. Kyle simply moved on to what he considered bigger and better.”
    “Well, bigger isn’t always better,” he told her. Reaching across the table to cover her hand with his own, he stroked the back of it lightly with his thumb. “ Kyle was either an idiot, or blind, deaf and dumb, because it doesn’t get any better than what he let slip away.”
    His words touched a part of her that hadn’t been touched in a long time. Her heart. Her experience with Kyle had left her unwilling to risk letting anyone close again. Cole wasn’t the first man to say flattering things to her since her divorce, but his were the only words that ever felt truly genuine.
    She pulled her hand away and grabbed for her purse, standing up from the table. “Excuse me.”
    His tender smile faded away. “Kelsie?” He started to stand.
    “No, don’t get up,” she implored with a soft smile. “I just need to make a trip to the little girl’s room.”
    Apparently satisfied with her answer, he settled back into his chair and watched her go.
    She made her way out of the dining room as fast as her white leather sneakers would carry her, needing to put distance between herself and the only man who ever made her think of hot sex, a house with a yard, and babies all at the same time. Something that had never happened with Kyle. At least, not all at once.
    And the sex with her