Purchased For Pleasure

He wrenched his gaze away from her butt and his mind out of fantasy land and focussed his attention on her hair, admiring the sleek, new style. Shorter hair suited her. The burgundy highlights in the chocolate-brown depths drew attention to the shiny mass that now brushed across her shoulders and he itched to run his fingers through it.

Unfortunately, it seemed moving his view higher hadn’t dampened his growing desire. If anything, the thought of her luscious locks trickling like soft silk through his fingers inflamed him further.

Looked as if he still had it bad. No great surprise there.

How many nights had he lain awake dreaming about her, wishing he could reach out and touch her? In fact, the fantasies about Kate had been one of the few things that had kept him sane during the agonising year-long knee-rehabilitation programme two years after their split, when dreary days had merged into pain-filled nights as he had tried to come to terms with the fact his knee was bust, no amount of exercise could ever repair the damage and he’d be off Team Eight, removed from active duty permanently.

Life had sucked big-time back then.

Now, it looked as if his fantasy had come to life again. So what was he going to do about it?

From the first minute he’d caught sight of her sitting at a table surrounded by beautiful women yet standing out anyway he’d been stunned. She’d been staring at him, her luscious mouth a perfect little pout, and he’d had difficulty breathing. In fact, his first glimpse of Kate after six long years had been worse than a case of the bends, and no amount of hyperbaric chamber treatment would fix what he had for her.

Lust, pure and simple, had slammed through his body, making him want to leap over tables, grab her and lock his mouth to hers, tasting her, possessing her, reminding her of how damn good they’d been together in the bedroom.

He stumbled and she cast a pitying glance over her shoulder while he sent her a cocky grin.

Staring at his sassy ex strutting in front of him had him remembering exactly how great they’d been together. Perhaps spending seven days trying to resurrect old times before facing the life-changing appointment next week wouldn’t be such a bad thing?

Yeah, that sounded like a plan.

And like any good SEAL, he always stuck to the plan.

CHAPTER TWO

KATE didn’t speak till they reached the confines of a dressing room backstage. With Ty’s stare boring holes into her back, it took her a while to figure out what to say.

Her plan to have a quick chat and catch up had sounded good at the time. However, now that she actually had him all to herself her plan had hit a snag. A big one.

She hadn’t banked on the familiar zing between them, that special something that had prompted her to propose to him in the first place. Back then he’d thought it had been a bit of a laugh and she hadn’t disillusioned him.

She’d played it down, they’d joked about being engaged, he’d attributed it to her crazy sense of humour, but deep down she’d known it hadn’t been real. They were two crazy kids in love, him fresh out of SEAL training, her fresh off the plane from Sydney. Vegas had been a hoot, hooking up with the fun-loving SEAL even more so, and it had seemed natural to move in with him back in LA.

But life wasn’t just about fun and they’d both had places to go, careers to pursue and they’d done the right thing in splitting up.

Hadn’t they?

Kate closed the door behind them, determined to make their catch-up short and sweet. Either that or succumb to a sudden hankering for a fix of seal and it sure didn’t involve going to the zoo to get it.

‘Look, I know this must seem crazy to you, me bidding and all. But I just wanted to catch up. Basically, I’ve no intention of holding you to this odd-jobs stuff. I’ll happily donate the money to the orphanage and we can call it quits, okay?’

He remained silent, a speculative gleam in his blue eyes with the barest glimmer of a smile playing about his sexy mouth.

Disconcerted by his silence and the look in his eyes, she rushed on. ‘It’s been a while, hasn’t it? Guess I just got curious, wondering what you’ve been up to. Six years is a long time.’

Could she sound any more pathetic?

Standing this close to Ty, having that intense blue stare focussed solely on her, was short-circuiting her brain. Not to mention the nerve-endings firing through her body.

‘It is a long time.’

His cool tone was at odds with the banked heat simmering in his eyes and she shivered despite the warmth of the room.

‘So a quick catch-up before cutting you loose isn’t so bad, right?’

She forced a fake laugh, expecting him to join in and agree.

‘No.’

Typical Ty: short, sharp, to the point and the opposite of what she expected him to say or do.

‘What?’

‘I said no.’

‘No, you don’t want to catch up or no, you don’t want to be cut loose?’

Oh-oh, why did her voice have to do that, go all soft and low and husky? As if she were baiting him? Tempting him?

It was his fault. Less than a few minutes in his company after six years and she’d fallen into flirt mode automatically.

He shook his head, a slight frown appearing between his brows, accentuating the age lines that fanned from the corners of his eyes. Though little could detract from his good looks Ty looked older, weary, as if he’d fought a thousand battles.

‘I don’t want a quick catch-up.’

‘Oh.’

She couldn’t stand this. He was confusing the heck out of her just as he’d always done by keeping his emotions under tight control while burning her up with those ‘come get me’ eyes.

‘I want a long one. I want to hear everything you’ve been doing. Everything.’

His eyes darkened to the colour of her favourite stone, a deep blue sapphire, and the comparison disconcerted her. She didn’t want to compare him to anything as precious as her grandma’s heirloom ring.

‘It’s been way too long, Katie.’

His smooth, steady tone did little to placate her as she tried to ignore the way her heart thumped when he said her name in that familiar way.

‘Uh-huh,’ she said, wishing she could think of something witty to say rather than standing here captured in the intensity of his stare, wondering if he knew the effect he was having on her after all this time.

‘So what do you want to do?’

Fling myself at you?

Tear your clothes off?

Have my way with you?

She had to think of something sensible to say, something to break the tension.