One Night in Paradise by Maisey Yates Read Free Book Online

himself the indulgence of looking at her curves. Harmless enough. He was human, a man, and she was a beautiful woman. But it seemed less harmless after a moment like that.
    “This is really nice,” she said when they were outside.
    Her words were true, banal and safe. He’d set the table and turned on the string of lanterns that were hung above the table. A moderate effort, but he had wanted it to be nice. Now it felt strangely intimate.
    He couldn’t remember the last time a dinner date had seemed intimate. He couldn’t even remember the last time that word had seemed applicable to something in his life. Very often, sex didn’t even seem all that intimate to him.
    Of course, it had been so long since he’d had sex maybe that wasn’t true. That was likely half of his problem now.
    Clara wandered to the railing and leaned over the edge, tossing her glossy copper curls over her shoulder and sniffing the air. Or maybe the sex wasn’t the problem. Because being alone with Hannah hadn’t made him feel this way. And therewere days when the scent of Clara’s perfume hitting him when she walked past made his stomach tighten.
    But he ignored that. He was good at ignoring it.
    “What are you doing?”
    “It smells amazing out here. Like when you bake bread and the air is heavy with it. Only it’s flowers instead of flour.” She turned to him and smiled, the familiar glitter back in her eyes.
    The knot inside him eased even more.
    “I would never have thought of it that way.” He pulled her chair out and nodded toward it and she walked over to the table and took her seat.
    He sat across from her, ladling reheated
Tom Yum Ka
into her bowl and then into his. She smiled at him, the slight dimple in her rounded cheeks deepening as she did.
    Things seemed to have stabilized, even if her sweet grin did have an impact on his stomach.
    “So, tell me more about this deal with Mr. Amudee.”
    He put his forearm on the table and leaned forward. “I think we covered most of it. Although, another reason it’s nice to have you here is your palate. I’d like you to taste the different roasts and come up with pairings for them. It would be particularly nice to have in our boutique locations.”
    “Pairings!” Her eyes glittered. “I love it.”
    “Good coffee or tea really is just as complex as good wine. There are just as many flavor variations.”
    “I know, Zack,” she said.
    “Of course you do. You appreciate good coffee. It’s one reason we get along so well.”
    Clara took another bite of her soup and let the ginger sit on her tongue, enjoying the zip of spice that hurt just enough to take her mind off the weird reaction she was having to Zack. Yes, being attracted to him was nothing new.
    But this was different. The attraction she felt at home was like a sleeper agent. It attacked her when she least expected it. In dreams. When she was looking at other men and contemplatingaccepting a date. It wasn’t usually this shaky, limb-weakening thing that made her feel tongue-tied and exposed in his presence. Maybe it was the feeling of utter seclusion. Or maybe it was because she knew just what that big bed was here for, what he’d been planning on doing with it.
    “That and I bake you cupcakes,” she said, swallowing the tart and spicy soup.
    “There is that.” Zack looked toward the railing of the deck, off into trees, the look in his eyes distant, cold suddenly. “Tell me about your bakery.”
    “The one I hope to have?”
    “Yes. And the life you’re going to put with it.”
    Her chest constricted. “It will be small. I’ll have regular menu items and daily specials. I’ll have more time to make fancy little treats with a lot of decorations. I’ll have a hand in everything instead of just conceptualizing and farming the instructions out to hordes of employees.”
    “And that’s important to you?”
    “It’s how we started. Me in the flagship store, you going back and forth between your—What did you