Free Some Like It Hot by Brenda Jackson Page B

frustrated, and she had only herself to blame.
    It was a day short of being a week since Linc had agreed to her stipulation that they be just friends, and ever since then she’d been a basket case. Not that he ever got out of line, mind you. He was playing the role of friend to the hilt. Just like she had asked him to do, he was treating her like a friend and not a former lover. But she found that although he may not be treating her like a former lover, she felt like one just the same.
    And that was the crux of her problem.
    As much as she tried, she just couldn’t see him in a whole new light. She kept seeing him in the old one, where his sensuous beam had once rendered her blind. Each and every time she saw him brought forth emotions from within her that she couldn’t explain no matter how many times her mind evoked objective reasoning.
    With a frustrated sigh she stopped typing to think about all that had happened during the past week. After dinner Saturday night he had taken her to a movie. It was a romantic comedy that she totally enjoyed. Then he had taken her home, and after walking her to the door and giving her a chaste kiss to her lips he had left. She had lain awake in bed that night hungering for his touch, reliving their last heated kiss, and wondering if she had ruined her chances of ever getting another one.
    Linc had evidently reached the conclusion that although she wanted a platonic relationship, he would not be out of sight nor out of mind. He had shown up unexpectedly on Sunday after she had come from early-morning church service, inviting her to brunch at Leo’s. After leaving the club they had gone for a walk in the park; then he had returned her home, saying he would call the next day.
    On Monday he had called her at work inviting her to dinner at his place. After showing her around his neatly furnished apartment he had fed her a delicious meal that he had cooked himself. After dinner they had sat around talking about how their day had gone and about current events.
    On Tuesday they had met for lunch at a sandwich shop not far from her office, and then on Wednesday he had taken her to Open Mike Night at Leo’s.
    Thursday he had come to her house straight from work bringing Chinese food. After they had eaten, he had sat at her breakfast bar silently reviewing a case he was working on, while she sat at her kitchen table editing her article on Leo’s. Although she hated admitting it, she had liked the idea of him being there and hadn’t felt threatened by his presence. She couldn’t remember the last time since college that any one man had dominated so much of her time. Usually when it came to dates, she rarely went for seconds. Going out once with a person was enough. But she had seen Linc each and every night without any thought of feeling crowded or having her style cramped. She didn’t want to dwell on the fact that two people who were trying to have nothing more than a platonic relationship wouldn’t be spending as much time together as they were.
    The week she had just finished spending with him was totally different from the week they had spent together in Daytona. Then they had been lovers who hadn’t been able to keep their hands off each other. Now it appeared that she was the only one suffering from the strong physical attraction she still felt for him, although she was pretending not to be.
    And she didn’t like playing the role of a pretender.
    She didn’t like pretending that she didn’t notice the way he filled out a pair of jeans like nobody’s business, or that when dressed in a suit he looked like the prime candidate for a magazine cover. She didn’t like pretending that his smile didn’t make her thighs clench, her heart rate increase, or her breath catch. Nor did she like pretending that that morning they had gone running together the scent of his hot sweat and the pure masculinity that clung to him didn’t completely arouse her. And she sure as heck didn’t like