Chapter 7
Diane wondered if she was going insane. When the date had finished up as a disaster, she had told herself that she wasn’t going to have anything to do with Gregory Benjamin again. Even if he was telling the truth about his ex-girlfriend, he still brought trouble with him.
Diane didn’t want to deal with any trouble.
But even as she told herself to forget about it and put it down to experience, she couldn’t stop herself from thinking about Gregory. About how kind he was, how much of a gentleman he had been towards her.
How he had kissed her and made her want more. That was the most frightening part. Diane hadn’t expected a kiss to set her on fire and make her want to rip Gregory’s clothes off.
That wasn’t how a respectable woman behaved at all. Everything had been picked up, screwed into a ball, and thrown out of the window. It left Diane in an emotional mess.
This was why she was now coming back to Gregory three days after that date, three days after she promised herself that she wouldn’t be around the guy again. Diane wondered if she was going mad.
Gregory peered at her. He looked cautious.
“So…, do you want to come in?”
“I…, okay.” Diane licked her lips, clutching onto the strap of her bag. “I don’t want to intrude for too long….”
“You’re not intruding on anything.” Gregory went to the front door and opened it. “Come on in.”
Diane hesitated for just a second. Then she followed him inside.
The cabin was not what she expected at all. Diane had prepared herself to find the place in disarray, but she was very surprised. The cabin was clean and tidy, and the decor was tasteful.
Not the bachelor pad she had expected at all.
“If you don’t mind, I’m going to change.” Gregory was heading towards a door in the living room, leaving Diane standing in the middle of the room. “Do you mind if I have a shower as well? I don’t want to have this discussion when I’m like this.”
“Oh! No, you go ahead,” Diane said quickly.
Why had she said that? She should be running away instead, leaving this to another time. But Diane found herself drifting towards the floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the lake. It was a beautiful sight. Diane had been born and raised in Cascade, and she had seen this lake so many times. But from this angle, at this time of day…
Gregory had picked a beautiful spot.
“So, what did you want to talk about?”
Diane jumped when Gregory’s voice came from the bedroom. She fumbled over her words.
“Well, I…, erm…, I wanted to say I’m sorry for the way I behaved the other day. With that woman and…., well….”
“You don’t need to apologize. I’m the one who should be doing that, especially after what happened.”
“She really is your ex-girlfriend?”
“She is. And she’s not happy that we’re not a couple after all this time.”
“So, she wants you back, then?”
“Pretty much. Or, to be more precise, she wants my money back.”
Diane frowned. “Is that all people can think about? Money?”
“When you’ve got a profile like mine, that’s all most people can see. I’m just a cash cow, and they want to take advantage of it.”
Diane didn’t like hearing that. To her, money meant nothing if it didn’t make you happy. It wasn’t as fulfilling as people believed. She laid her bag on the couch.
“I don’t see money when I look at you. You do know that, right?”
“I figured that. You’re not the type to be led like that,” Gregory paused, “but you still know how to hurt a man, just like any other woman.”
Diane winced.
“I’m really sorry. It…, I’m not really…, well, I’m not experienced in this type of thing.”
She heard him chuckle.
“I figured that much. I wouldn’t expect anything less from you. You still have a way to make a man feel kicked when he’s down.”
“You’re making this really hard for me, do you know that?”
Gregory said something that sounded muffled. Diane strained her ears.
“What was that?”
“Nothing. Do you mind if I quickly jump in the shower? I won’t be long.”
“I…, sure.”
It was his home, after all. Diane couldn’t exactly say that he couldn’t. She had dropped in uninvited. She could hear the shower going as she hovered by the windows, wrapping her arms around her middle as she looked out across the water.
It looked so still and calm. Barely any ripples. It also looked very cold, which was more than could be said for inside the cabin. It was getting very hot. Diane took off her scarf and put it on the couch.
Hopefully, it wouldn’t get too cold in here. Diane felt like she was covered in goosebumps.
It was really difficult to focus on what she was going to say while she could hear Gregory in the shower. The water was running, and so was her imagination. And it was starting a throbbing between her legs that Diane was feeling uncomfortable.
Was he naked in the shower? Of course, he was, Diane wasn’t that much of an idiot. But knowing that there was a naked man so close by.
Her legs were beginning to feel shaky, so Diane sat on the couch. God, she liked to pride herself on being perfectly composed when needed.
And yet she couldn’t get back onto an even keel because of Gregory Benjamin; he was just too good at leaving her feeling unlike herself. What was she thinking? Surely, she should be getting out of here and deciding against what she had planned on saying. And yet Diane felt like she couldn’t move.
“Penny for your thoughts?”
Diane looked up, and her heart felt like it had stopped. Gregory was in the doorway to his bedroom, wearing nothing but a towel. It was hanging low on his waist, a little too low for her liking; she was surprised that it hadn’t fallen down already.
“You, okay?” Gregory gave her a bemused smile. “You look…a bit confused.”
“What? Oh.”
How was she supposed to focus when he was practically naked with his sculpted body on display? And what a fine body it was. Diane had to stop herself from licking her lips.