Blake took her chin and turned her head until her eyes locked with his. “No, I didn’t. Not a one.”

She was about to protest once more, but when she really studied his face she found that his expression was earnest and sincere. He wasn’t lying. There was no way he could look at her like that and not be telling the truth.

“Oh,” she said, finally accepting it. “Then why didn’t you want to see any of them again?”

“Maybe your profile theory is spot-on. They looked good on paper, but in person they weren’t what I was looking for.” He brought a hand up to her face and caressed her cheek with his thumb. “Or maybe I wasn’t ever looking for what I really wanted.”

Andy could hear her heartbeat in her ears. The tone of his voice, the softness of his touch, the way he was gazing into her eyes—she had this gut feeling that if she asked him what he was really looking for, there was a good chance he’d say her. She knew it as surely as she had ever known anything. She willed herself to press him, to bring the moment to a head. As long as they were confessing, they could confess this, too.

But before she got the nerve, he threw his own question at her. “What are you looking for, Andy?”

You. Here was her chance. She opened her mouth, but the word didn’t come.

“I mean…” He dropped his hand from her cheek. “Now that you’ve decided Max Ellis wasn’t the place for you, and you’ve always been vocal about how beneath you matchmaking is—I tend to agree, by the way—what would you like to be doing with your life?”

Good thing she’d been silent. How humiliated would she have been if she’d answered that she was looking for him when he was asking about her career goals. Maybe she was misreading his cues. Or maybe he was dancing around the subject as much as she was.

Not knowing which it was, the only thing she could do was ride the conversation as best she could. So she pondered his question sincerely. What did she want to do with her life?

She had no clue.

Even if Blake was part of her future, she sure didn’t want to be a housewife. But that was about all she was sure of. “I really don’t know, Blake. Is that sad? Maybe I’d go back to school if I could afford it. Honestly, I like the rhythm of going into an office every day. I hadn’t realized that before. Working at Donovan InfoTech has been a much better experience than at Ellis’s where everyone hated me all the time.”

Instead of mocking her response, he nodded. “Something potentially in an office then?”

“Yes.” She chuckled at her lame lack of ambition. “Pretty vague, isn’t it?”

“Work for me, Andrea.”

She rolled her eyes. “I do work for you.” The urge to address that very issue tugged at her once again.

“I mean after this. In the future.” He grabbed his hand in hers and squeezed. “Work for me.”

She studied him. He was serious. Which was ridiculous. “What on earth would I do?”

“There are so many things I could use your skills for.” He sounded excited about the prospect. Like a kid in a candy store. Or like Blake in his playroom. “You could work in HR.”

Her spirits sank. Hadn’t he heard her earlier? She was disgusted with her old self. She couldn’t possibly do that again.

She tried to remain polite with her refusal. “Thank you, really. But I don’t want to do what I did for Max—”

Blake cut her off. “Not like that. I can use your skills for good. To bring out the potential in employees rather than as something to hold over their heads. We take pride in hiring the best and brightest, but it’s hard to identify special skills that could benefit other departments or positions. What do you say?”

She chewed her lip. Using her skills for good was something else entirely. It wasn’t like she hadn’t thought about it before. Not in conjunction with Donovan InfoTech, necessarily, but in what she could potentially do for a corporation. How she could guide and direct the promise in skilled employees rather than cut them down and crucify them for their hidden weaknesses.

“Come on,” Blake urged. “Say yes.”

It was awfully tempting. However, she’d also learned working for Max that her impulsive decisions weren’t always the best. “Can I think about it?”

“Yes. You may.” He grinned—that charming, sexy grin that had her curling her toes. “But you know how I get what I want in these situations.”

She thought back to how he’d coerced her into working for him the first time. “That I do.”

And finally, with all the times they’d skirted the subject, she couldn’t let it go any longer. She took a deep breath. “Blake … about that. About the matchmaking…” About us …

He placed a single finger over her lips. “Shh.”

His reaction startled her and she peered up at him with questioning brows.

“I just think…” He trailed off with a sigh. Then he pulled her to him, wrapping her in his arms. “Let’s not do that tonight, Andy. Let’s not profile what this is yet. We might miss out. Tomorrow we can deal with what we need to. Okay?”

“Okay.” It was a weight off her shoulders, really—the admission that there were things to discuss but permission to put them on hold. She could deal with that.

Especially when Blake was kissing her the way he was. It was fairly easy to put anything on hold in favor of another toe-curling orgasm. Or four.

Chapter Eighteen

Blake woke up early to the sound of Puppy scratching on the bedroom door. It took him several seconds to remember why the dog wasn’t sleeping with him, and why instead there was an arm around him and a body pressed up against his hip. Drea stirred in her sleep then and it all came rushing back to him—the amazing evening together, the sex, the postcoital confessions. The pinball.

He had to stifle the moan of pleasure that burst at the memory.

Carefully, he extricated himself from Drea’s grasp and got up. The dog had probably already piddled on the floor somewhere, so he really could have stayed in bed longer. But he needed a chance to think without the sight of the beautiful naked woman beside him. Puppy was a good excuse to slip away with his thoughts.

He slipped on a robe and slippers then headed downstairs to let the dog out and pour some coffee. Ellen had set the timer before she’d left the day before, as she always did, and when he emptied the pot, he refilled it for Drea. His housekeeper had also made an egg casserole that he could just heat up. Usually he would dish a small portion and nuke it, but since he wanted to make sure his guest was fed as well, he put the whole serving dish in the oven.

By six fifteen on a Monday morning, Blake had done more domestic activities in a day than he had in a whole month before. Surprisingly, it hadn’t killed him. In fact he somewhat enjoyed knowing that his actions were meant to take care of someone else. Especially when that someone else was a person he cared for.

After Puppy had completed his business in the backyard and was happily munching on his food, Blake took his coffee and headed for his office. He chose the space not only out of habit, but because it was his sanctuary, and hence the best place to get some serious contemplation in. On an average day, he’d bring the paper to read, but he didn’t even grab it from the front porch. The news in his own life was enough to occupy him for quite a while.

Still, at his desk he found that he had so much to think about, he didn’t know where to begin. His eyes settled on a stack of folders that hadn’t been there the last time he’d sat there. They must have been the files Andrea had brought over. He’d completely forgotten about them.

Absentmindedly, he removed the elastic band that bound them together. He flipped through the files, reading the labels. RESTAURANTS, CURRENT MOVIE SCHEDULES, LOCAL THEATER. At the bottom, he found the file of the woman he’d been dating. JANE OSBORNE. It had been his first date after he and Drea had started their extracurricular activities, and honestly—Oh, who was he kidding?