Temptation - Brenda Jackson [35]
She paused a moment, glanced away from him to look out the window as she relived the pain. And then back at him and said, “It’s not that I wanted any of his worldly possessions, mind you. It was the principle of the thing. Just acknowledging me in some way as his daughter would have been nice.”
Sheila glanced over at Sunnie, who was staring over at her, as if she understood the nature of what she’d said, of what she was sharing with Zeke. She then wondered why she had shared such a thing with him. Maybe telling him would help him to realize that she could get attached to him, and why she couldn’t let that happen.
“So, no, I don’t regret last night. It was too beautiful, too earth-shattering and mind-blowing to regret. But I have to be realistic and accept that I don’t do involvement very well. I get attached easily. You might want a casual affair, but a part of me would long for something more.”
“Something I can’t give you,” he said gently. The sound of his husky voice floated across the room to her.
“Precisely,” she said, nodding her head while thinking that he did understand.
“I could say I won’t touch you again, even if we spend time together.”
She would have taken his words to heart if at that moment a smile hadn’t curved his lips. “Yes, you could say that,” she agreed.
“But I’d be lying. Mainly because you are temptation.”
“Temptation?” she asked, and couldn’t help chuckling at that.
“Yes.”
She shook her head. She had been called many things but never temptation. “You can see me in the garden with an apple?”
His eyes seemed to darken. “Yes, and very much naked.”
Sensing the change in the tone of his voice—it had gone from a deep husky to a seductive timbre—she decided maybe they needed to change the subject. “How is the case coming?”
Zeke recognized her ploy to change the subject. She had reservations about sleeping with him again and he could understand that. But what she needed to understand was that there were some things a man and a woman could not ignore. Blatant sexual chemistry was one of them—it pretty much headed the list. And that was what existed between them, connecting more than just the dots.
Making love to her and waking up with her last night had affected him in a way he didn’t quite comprehend, and because he didn’t understand it, he wasn’t ready, or willing, to walk away.
And when she’d tried explaining to him why she preferred not getting involved in a relationship for fear of getting attached, it was like hearing his own personal reservations. He had this apprehension of letting any woman get too close for fear she would do to him the very thing his mother had done. Walk away and leave him high and dry…and take his heart with her. He’d been there and done that and would never go that way again.
She was protecting her heart the way he was protecting his, so they were on the same page there. Maybe he should tell her that. Then maybe he shouldn’t. Opening himself up to anyone wasn’t one of his strong points. He was a private person. Few people got to know the real Ezekiel Travers. Brad and his other college friend and Royal resident, Christopher Richards, knew the real Zeke. And he felt comfortable being himself around Darius Franklin. Over the past year, while working through the terms of their partnership, he had gotten to know Darius, a man he highly respected. And he thought Summer was the perfect wife for Darius.
One night over dinner Darius and Summer had shared their story. How things had ended for them due to a friend’s betrayal. They had gotten reunited seven years later and intended never to let anything or anyone come between them again. He was convinced that kind of love could only be found by a few