“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.”

Dammit, she didn’t want to be charmed. Didn’t want to feel this bubble of giddy pleasure gurgling inside her. “It looks like a flower box,” she said, sliding off the bright red ribbon. “Did you visit the competition?”

He reached out and ran one fingertip down her cheek. “You don’t have any competition, Toni.”

Everything inside her did something that felt suspiciously like melting. She wanted to call a time-out. Give herself a few minutes to regroup. To steel herself against him. It simply wasn’t right how he turned her to mush like this.

Not trusting her voice, Toni opted to remain silent. She removed the lid, separated the layers of white tissue paper and stared. At twelve long-stemmed roses made from-

“Chocolate,” she murmured, looking at the glistening candy flowers mounted on extra long lollypop sticks.

“Somehow roses remind me of you.”

Warmth rushed into her cheeks. Before she could think up a reply, he continued, “I figured since you deserved roses and like chocolate…” His words trailed off and she looked up to find him staring at her with a serious expression. “I know I agreed to just one dinner, to just one night, but after last night…I want more.” He reached out and took her hand. “I think, at least I hope, you do, too.”

God help her, part of her did want more. The lonely and he’s-so-sexy-and-funny-and-charming-and-sexy part of her wanted another night like last night. Who wouldn’t? But her cautious side, the part that needed to live for herself and concentrate on her fledgling business told her that she was playing with fire. And with a firefighter no less-the one profession she’d vowed to avoid at all costs.

“Toni…” He entwined their fingers. “I’ve gone on lots of dates but never one like last night. There’s something between us, something I’ve never felt before. I felt it the first time I looked at you.”