He frowned. “What if I have plans?”

She could quite easily guess the kind of “plans” he had. “You’ll have to break them, unless you can bring her along and pay close attention to her the entire time.” She smiled at his disconcerted expression. “Would you like to schedule another fifteen-minute training session for tomorrow?”

“When are you free?”

She shook her head. “I only met with you today as a favor to Agnes. Now that I can see you’ll do fine with the proper instruction, you can work with any of my trainers.”

“I don’t want anyone else, Heather.” He made sure she was looking back at him as he said, “I only want you.”

He might as well have pulled her against him and kissed her for the effect his words had on her, and Heather quickly realized that within the few minutes she’d spent with Zach Sullivan, she was already too close to the edge of wanting something she could never make the mistake of letting herself have.

Until she was seventeen, she’d believed in love. She’d thought her parents had the most wonderful marriage, had prayed she’d find a man to love her the way her father so clearly loved her mother. And then she’d found out the truth...that her father had been cheating on her mother for practically their entire marriage. All that time, he’d been lying to her mother. And to her. Because every time he came home from one of his business trips saying how much he loved them, how much he missed them, how they meant everything to him—it had all been a lie.

Heather slipped a finger beneath the sleeve of her long-sleeved shirt and traced over the fine lines of her old scars from cuts she’d put there herself night after night, when she hadn’t known how to deal with her swirling, dark emotions. When all she’d wanted was to feel control over something. Over anything at all.

She hadn’t known at the time just how many teenage girls and boys cut themselves like that. It wasn’t until later, when she went away to college and the nurse at the student medical center had seen the cuts during a gyno exam when Heather was wearing a cloth gown, that she’d been given a pamphlet on cutting. She’d already begun to get past it by then, but knowing she wasn’t the only girl in the world doing it did help some. Still, even though she hadn’t cut herself in nearly ten years, the scars had never quite disappeared, both inside and out.

Fortunately, she wasn’t that lost girl anymore. She was a strong, capable woman who enjoyed channeling her energy into work, friends, and dogs. She was happy. She had everything she wanted.

A man like Zach was exactly what she didn’t need to get entangled with. Not when he was too charismatic for his own good...and hers, too.

Heeding the warning bells going off all throughout her brain and her body, she held her ground and told him, “You can’t have me.”

It wasn’t until she saw determination flare in his eyes that she realized she’d just issued a challenge—a really big one—to the wrong man.

“Another trainer will be waiting here for you at five p.m.” And she’d make certain it was a completely heterosexual male trainer that Zach couldn’t sweet talk into doing whatever he wanted. The most important thing was that she put an end to their connection. “It was nice meeting you.”

She doubted the wisdom of holding out her hand to shake his, but it was the only way to make sure he knew they were done, that whatever sparks had been jumping between them were officially going to be extinguished today at the close of business.

He moved nearer and wrapped his fingers around hers. “I owe you for saving Cuddles today.”

“No,” she said, shaking her head, as his warmth enveloped her head to toe, “you don’t owe me anything.”

“We both know I do. And I always pay my debts.”

Oh God, why couldn’t she breathe?

She wasn’t a virgin, wasn’t some young girl easily dazzled by a man just because he looked in her direction. On the contrary, she was a pragmatic woman who knew only too well just how false a pretty facade could be.

“Take good care of Cuddles.” She slid her hand from his. “That’s all the thanks you owe me.”

Before she could walk away, however, her stomach growled and she snarkily muttered, “Agnes’s call came just as I was about to grab something to eat.”

Again, she didn’t realize her misplaying of the situation until he said, “Let me make it up to you by buying you dinner. Somewhere we can sit outside so the dogs can play.”

Did he think she’d just fallen off the turnip truck yesterday? She knew exactly how he expected a make it up to you dinner to play out. He’d ply her with a few glasses of wine and then the next thing she knew, she’d be flat on her back, begging for him to take her.

It wasn’t that she was a prude. On the contrary, just because Heather had always carefully guarded her heart with men, didn’t mean she’d foolishly given up the pleasure of being a woman. She’d just always made sure that her partners weren’t any more interested in her heart that she was in theirs, and that there was no chance of anything ever going deeper than the physical.

But with Zach...

Daring to give in to the shockingly strong urge to kiss him would be the stupidest thing she ever did. Even from a distance, being near him made her feel completely out of control. If he were to put his mouth, his hands, on her naked skin—

Just the thought of that had her senses reeling.

She took another step back from him. “I’m still playing catch-up from being pulled out of the office for so long this morning, so I’ll have to pass on dinner.”

She told herself she wasn’t being a coward. On the contrary, she was being smart, protecting herself from the exact kind of man that could destroy her.

“Remember what I said about tonight,” she told him before he could press her on dinner again. “Don’t make the mistake of letting Cuddles get away with anything because she’s cute. You’ll only confuse her.”

“What if I’ve got a thing for cute?”

This time, he very clearly wasn’t talking about the dog. Evidently she hadn’t been direct enough with him thus far. It was long past time to put him in his place.

“Then you’d better get over it real fast. Atlas, time to say goodbye to your friend.”

Heather made a low clicking sound, then turned her back on Zach and walked away from temptation.

Chapter Four

Zach wanted Heather with a hunger he’d never felt before. His fascination with girls had started early and he’d been kissing in school hallways way back in middle school, going a heck of a lot further than that by high school. But for all the playing he’d done during his thirty years, he’d never felt such a strong need, especially so quickly.