Her heart performed a swooping dive at both the tender gesture and the quiet words that sounded way too serious. And serious was to be avoided at all costs. Her mind knew it, but for reasons she neither liked nor understood, her heart didn’t seem to be falling in line. Which meant it was time to stop thinking.

Framing his face between her hands, she shot him a wicked half smile. “I think you demonstrated how much. But…what would you say if I told you I need some more data. Just to be sure.”

He nuzzled the sensitive spot where her neck and shoulder joined. “I’d say let’s take this to the shower and I’d be happy to provide further information.” He lifted his head and looked into her eyes. “What would you say about that?”

“I’d say that’s the perfect answer.”

7

TONI WAS putting together a birthday bouquet of red and white roses, freesia and white hydrangea when Jayne arrived at Blooming Pails the next morning. Her pregnant friend studied her for several seconds, then said, “Three.”

“Three?”

Jayne nodded. “I’m guessing that neon glow emanating from you is the result of three orgasms.”

Toni shook her head. “Wrong.”

Jayne’s face fell. “You didn’t have sex with him? Good God, you are made of titanium.”

“Oh, we had sex. You’re just wrong about three.” Toni peeked at her over a white rose. “Try six.”

Jayne’s eyes goggled. “Six? You had six orgasms last night?”

“It actually might have been seven. I think I had an out-of-body experience at one point and may have missed one.”

Jayne plopped onto the nearest stool. “I want details.”

A wave of heat engulfed Toni. She couldn’t possibly tell Jayne the finer points of what she and Brad had shared. And not just sexual intimacies. No, they’d also shared laughter and conversation during their reheated meal where they’d discovered many common interests. They both enjoyed action flicks. Sports. Classic cars. Butter-pecan ice cream. Had similar political views. She’d never met a man with whom she felt so at ease and who was so easy to be with.

And as for the sex, it had been…incredible. After those first two frantic encounters, time had seemed to stand still as they’d spent hours in leisurely sensual exploration. Touching, talking, laughing, learning. If she lived to be one hundred, she’d never forget the way Brad had plucked the petals from the rose she’d given him and strategically placed them on her naked body. Had then settled himself between her splayed thighs and with their hands entwined above her head and his gaze steady on hers, had made soft, slow love to her with the scent of roses rising between them.

Blinking away the image, Toni forced a laugh. “You want more details than six, possibly seven orgasms and one out-of-body experience? Suffice it to say, it was a pleasurable night.”

“Obviously.” Jayne chuckled. “Can you even walk?”

“I’m a bit tender,” Toni admitted, looking down to hide the flush heating her face. “But in a good way.”

“Did you get any sleep?”

“Not much, yet I’m feeling surprisingly exhilarated.”

“Hardly surprising. The postcoital glow you’re tossing off could light up a cave. So when are you seeing him again?”

Toni’s fingers briefly faltered, then she shrugged. “What makes you think I am? The operative words in one-night stand are one and night.”

Jayne’s mouth dropped open. “Are you crazy? How could you even consider not seeing again a man who gave you six orgasms and an out-of-body experience? You need to lock yourself in a room with him and toss away the key.”

“You seem to be forgetting that I’m not looking for a time-consuming, work-disrupting boyfriend. Most especially not a firefighter one.”

“So just make him your love slave.”

“I don’t want a love slave.”

Jayne reached out and touched her hand to Toni’s forehead. “How is it you don’t have a raging fever that’s causing this delirium of yours? I think he’d make a great boyfriend. You could change his nickname from Elf to Mr. Orgasm.”

Hmmm…Mr. Orgasm had a certain ring to it. Then reality returned with a thump. “So let him be your boyfriend.”

“My husband would strongly object. And what I’ll need in a few months is a babysitter, not a boyfriend.”

“What I need right now is help picking out two dozen white roses for an anniversary bouquet. Not a boyfriend.”

Jayne pursed her lips. “How did you leave things with him?”

“I thanked him for a lovely evening. Told him I’d enjoyed our ‘one little dinner.’” She made air quotes around the description of their evening. More like their one big sex romp.

Jayne’s brows shot up. “He didn’t ask to see you again?”

“He asked, I refused. He left, I came to work, and that’s all there is to it.”

“He accepted your refusal? He didn’t argue?”

“No.” And Toni refused to acknowledge the unreasonable prick of hurt that had caused. She was glad he hadn’t protested. His acceptance had simply surprised her. She’d been sorely tempted to say yes to his invitation, which was reason enough to refuse. She couldn’t afford a man cluttering up her life right now. Didn’t want another relationship. Didn’t want anyone or anything that would divert her attention from making her business a success and impinge on her independence.

“Obviously he doesn’t want a relationship any more than I do,” Toni said lightly. “We had our night and now it’s back to work. Back to reality.” Back to long, lonely nights, her inner voice whispered. She ignored the pesky voice and wrapped her finished bouquet in green tissue paper. Fine. So the nights would be long and lonely, but she wouldn’t have to answer to or please anyone other than herself. Her time was her own-to devote to herself and her business.

“So you wouldn’t care if tonight he treated some other woman to six, maybe seven orgasms and an out-of-body experience?”

A blast of white-hot jealousy pierced Toni right through the heart. And scared the crap out of her. Damn. This wasn’t good. She tossed back her hair and forced a smile. “Why would I?”

“For someone who wouldn’t care, it looks like steam is about to shoot from your ears. I recently read an article that stated one of the differences between lust and love is with lust you don’t feel possessive, but when love is involved, you’re very possessive.”

Toni looked toward the ceiling. “There is no love involved. I barely know him.”

“It’s not as if you just met him yesterday. He’s been coming in here for the past three months. And those six, maybe seven orgasms tell me you know him pretty damn well.”

“I don’t know him well enough to confuse lust with anything that resembles love.”

Jayne shook her head and made a tsking sound. “Honey, I knew Tim was the guy for me three minutes into our first conversation. We were engaged two months later and married three months after that. That was five years ago and I’m so deliriously happy I can barely stand it.” She reached out and took Toni’s hand. “I know you’re not looking for a boyfriend, but the truth is there’s no good timing when it comes to these things. I certainly wasn’t looking when Tim came along. Do you want my opinion?”

“Is there any point in me saying no?”

“Nope,” Jayne said with a grin. “Listen-the right guy won’t take away your independence. He’ll enhance it. Maybe Brad isn’t the right guy, but I think that any guy who turns you on so much that you lose count of your orgasms and who makes you turn green at the thought of him touching another woman warrants another date.”

“I didn’t turn green,” Toni lied. “And it wasn’t a date.”

“Honey, you were greener than our fake Christmas tree. And it was a date-obviously a damn good one, too.”

“It doesn’t matter anyway,” Toni said, ignoring the sinking sensation in her stomach. “He seemed perfectly happy to accept my decision not to see him again.” Right. And the feeling cramping her insides right now as she spoke those words was relief. Yeah. Relief. Whew. What a relief.

“Maybe he just didn’t want to argue about it then.” Jayne’s gaze fixed on something beyond Toni’s shoulder. “Seems we’re about to find out.”

Toni turned and her heart jumped at the sight of Brad walking across the street toward the shop. He carried a long rectangular white box, just like the ones she used to pack long-stemmed flowers.

“This should be interesting,” Jayne said, and there was no missing the smirk in her voice. “I’ll be in the back, starting on the anniversary bouquet.”

“Don’t you dare leave me-”

“Alone with that gorgeous, sexy, six-or was it seven?-orgasm man?” Jayne broke in. “Yeah, I’m a monster. You can thank me later. Just remember-there’s nothing wrong with having a one-night stand twice.”

No sooner had Jayne disappeared into the back of the shop than the door opened and Brad walked in. Their gazes met and although Toni tried her damnedest to appear nonchalant, she wasn’t certain she succeeded. Looking into his eyes, a myriad of images from last night played through her mind. Their soapy hands caressing each other in the shower. Warm water cascading over them as she braced herself against the cool tiles and pushed back, arching her spine to take him deeper. His body on hers. Hers on his. Him thrusting deep inside her. Her crying out his name-

“Hi,” he said.

She blinked away the sensual memories and pulled in a much-needed breath. “Hi.”

He crossed the tiled floor and set the long white box on the counter separating them. “What’s this?” she asked nodding toward the box.

“For you. I wanted to give you flowers, but…” he looked around the shop then back at her “…it seems you already have plenty of those. So I improvised.”