Free Shameless by Rebecca J. Clark

just have to figure out a way to burn off some calories.”
    “I thought you said I was safe with you.”
    “Dancing. We could burn off calories by dancing.”
    “Uh huh,” she muttered.
    They were in the middle of a luscious cherry cheesecake when talk somehow turned to relationships again. “My last marriage ended seven years ago,” John told her. “Believe me, I’m better at being a bachelor.”
    “So, you were married two times by the time you were thirty. How does that happen?” She dipped her fork into a cherry and popped it into her mouth, her red lips closing over it. He almost groaned.
    Judgmental or curious, he wasn’t sure. He didn’t like talking about this aspect of his life, but that old, insecure part of him still wanted her to think well of him. “I got married the first time when I was eighteen. Her name was Kelly. It was a mistake from the get-go. She was my first real girlfriend—”
    “You didn’t date until you were eighteen?” she asked.
    “It wasn’t for lack of trying, believe me. I was  a scrawny, insecure troublemaker. Who would have wanted me?”
    “I can see the troublemaker bit, but scrawny and insecure?”
    “Hard to believe, isn’t it?” He forced a laugh. “Anyway, when I was seventeen, I grew seven inches and put on some weight. Kelly was the first girl to really pay attention to me. We didn’t last a year. She’s married to a doctor now. Sends me Christmas cards. Last I heard, she and her husband were working on their fourth kid.”
    “And the second?”
    He frowned and shifted in his chair. The demise of his last marriage gave him the most regret. “Kate wanted kids and thought she could change my mind.”
    Sam nodded, then suddenly narrowed her eyes. “Wait a second. Kate and Kelly? Do I see a trend here?”
    He grinned. “Goes to prove you have nothing to worry about with me. Your name begins with the wrong letter.”
    Sam raised her champagne glass as if to say touché .
    “Okay, Miss Rossi. Fair’s fair. You know all about my sordid past. Tell me why don’t you want to get married, since we’re on the subject.”
    She shrugged. “Been there done that, as the saying goes.”
    “You were married?” Of course, he already knew that from the P.I.’s report.
    She nodded. “Before I was old enough to know better.”
    “To know better?”
    “Divorce runs in my family,” she explained. “Happy marriages don’t. Besides, my ex-husband was a snake.”
    Something in her eyes told him she wasn’t telling him the whole story, but he didn’t push it. The reasons didn’t concern or interest him. Or at least they shouldn’t concern or interest him.
    After the waiters cleared away their plates, she said, “I need to burn off some calories.”
    His eyes narrowed. “You’re suggesting we dance , I assume?”
    “And that’s all I’m suggesting, Everest.” He was acting completely unlike she’d expected. She’d been prepared to fight him off with a hairbrush.
    John circled the table and pulled out her chair. Reaching for her hand, he drew her into his arms. He was solid muscle. One squeeze of his arms would surely squeeze the breath from her. She couldn’t help shivering at the thought. His potentially dangerous strength was rather exciting.
    God . She was thinking like a romance novel heroine. Yikes . To steer her mind toward saner territory, she decided to do what she did best. Glean information. “So tell me how you went from being scrawny and insecure to this .” She pressed her hand against his hard chest and prayed he wouldn’t tell her he’d been a sickly child.
    He chuckled and she felt the rumble against her palm. “When you spend a lot of time being dragged behind the bleachers and getting the shit beat out of you, you’ll do just about anything to get bigger, so I started lifting weights when I was about fourteen.”
    She peered up at him. “You got beat up? I can’t even imagine.”
    He puffed out his chest and gave her an arrogant