LITMIR.BIZ

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no sorrier than she is.” She laughed. “I’ve got to go. I’ll see you later.”

      She watched Nita walk out before she turned her attention back to Chase.

      He was caught up in work again. Eyes glued to the screen, fingers on the keyboard. Forehead scrunched in concentration. She used to think that he was cold. Aloof. Maybe a little bit snobbish. But after talking to him a few times, she realized that he was none of those things.

      What he was was incredibly focused.

      And fine.

      Amber was an artist so she could see beauty where others sometimes missed it, but no one could deny how handsome he was. How symmetrical his features were. How rich and deep the color of his skin was. She thought of chocolate diamonds when she thought of him. She loved her intricate wire pieces, but if she was going to design a piece of jewelry to represent him she would use chocolate diamonds and white diamonds swirled together in a beautiful necklace to be worn close to the heart. Something classic and elegant with a little bit of a twist.

      It was no wonder he was a target for shady females. He looked like a man with a lot to offer.

      She was staring at him this time, she realized as she wiped the same section of the counter for the dozenth time. He hadn’t noticed she was there. Hadn’t felt her eyes on him yet. She had noticed him at the sushi place. She hadn’t meant to stop. Told herself to keep on walking by, but she couldn’t go by without speaking to him, without having those gorgeous dark eyes of his focus on her. He pulled her in with those eyes. With that deep, smooth voice. He made her want to stay and talk and know more about him when she should have gone on and ignored him and stayed away from him.

      He wasn’t her type of guy. He had money. He practically smelled of money. That may be a positive with most women, but it wasn’t for her. People with a lot of it didn’t often realize how hard it was to get. He didn’t bat a lash when he tossed a fifty-dollar bill on the table to cover a tab that couldn’t have been more than ten. It nearly took her breath away, though. She had to work hours to make that much money.

      And then when he asked her to make the bracelets, he offered her more than she could have imagined. And he did it all while telling her to value herself more.

      No man had ever told her that. No one had ever told her that.

      He was all wrong for her. Too rich. Too organized. Too buttoned-up. But she still couldn’t force herself to stay away.

      She turned back to her espresso machine and a few minutes later she once again slid a steaming drink in front of him along with a plate of shortbread cookies.

      “You must have read my mind.” He looked up at her as he lifted the cup.

      “You needed a caffeine fix?”

      “No. I was thinking I needed a beautiful woman to bring me my caffeine fix.”

      She tried to stay cool, but the line made her blush. “Oh. You’re smooth, sir. I thought you could use a break.”

      “Please. Sit down.” He smiled over his mug just before he took a long sip. She watched him drink the special coffee she had made just for him and watched his Adam’s apple move as he swallowed. She wondered what it would be like to pop a button on his shirt and place her lips on his throat. She wondered how his skin would feel beneath her mouth. She wondered how he would smell. A clean scent. Or something a little darker, a little spicier. Either way she was sure it was intoxicating.

      She mentally shook herself. Where did that thought come from?

      She would stay far away from that neck. She didn’t like to mix business with pleasure. She made it a rule. She needed this job. It was helping her pay her way through school. She couldn’t afford a fling with her boss.

      “Myers’ coffee is always good, but you did something special to this,” he said to her.

      “Mexican coffee. My own special recipe with just a hint of vanilla, cinnamon and chocolate. When I serve it at parties, I go all out and make it with tequila, Kahlúa and melted vanilla ice cream. But I toned it down for you tonight. This bakery doesn’t have a liquor license.”

      “Do you throw a lot of parties?”

      “Between working here, getting my master’s and designing jewelry, I don’t have time to throw any parties. The last one I threw was for my ex’s thirty-fifth. I went through a lot for trouble for it, only to break up with him a month later. I’m kind of wishing I had broken it off before I bought him the most expensive thing I’ve ever purchased in my life.”

      “Don’t tell me you bought him a car?”

      “Do I look like the kind of woman that would go around buying men cars?”

      “I don’t know. Women do all sorts of things for the men they love.”

      He was right. She had been so much of her life leading with her heart. She had been prepared to give up a lot of things to please Steven, but in the end giving up herself seemed too big of a price to pay.

      “What did you get him?”

      “An original James Van Der Zee photograph. Do you know who he was?”

      “A photographer. Famous for capturing the Harlem Renaissance through his lens.”

      “Exactly.” She smiled at him, impressed that he knew who she was referring to. “I found a small photograph of his in a shop and thought my ex would love it. He didn’t. He was hoping for a new camera, which would have cost even more than the photograph.”

      “Some men don’t know how good they have it. You must have really loved him if you gave him such a gift.”

      “I thought he was the love of my life at one point. But I think I loved the potential of him.” She’d bet her ex wouldn’t say the same thing about her. He loved what she could do for him. He felt like he was a serious photo journalist, while she was just playing at her jewelry design. Jewelry making he called it. He referred to it as her hobby instead of her dream, treated it as it something that she merely liked instead of had a passion or talent for. She put up with a few years of slights and digs, with him diminishing what she did while lifting up his own work.

      The truth was, they had been in the same places in their careers. He’d had one piece picked up by a national magazine the year before they met, but nothing big after. The only jobs he could get were for small local newspapers and unpaid gigs for bloggers. Amber’s business had been growing at the time; she had designed some pieces for the wealthier set and gotten her work carried in a few small boutiques. And she had supported him, too. Picking up the slack by taking on extra shifts when his jobs had all but dried up at one point, but she stuck by him, a lot longer than she should have, because she had been in love then. She’d thought with her heart instead of her head. But that was all done now.

      Chase seemed similar to her ex. Serious about his work. Focused. Driven. He was being nice to her now, ordering bracelets for the women in his family, but he probably thought her jewelry design was just a hobby, too. And one man in her life like that had been too many. She never wanted to experience that again. That’s why finishing her degree and learning the business end was so important. She was ready to show the world and anyone who doubted her that she was a serious artist and that she had a lot to offer.

      That’s why she was adopting a no-men policy. Chase was incredibly good-looking, heart-poundingly so, but she was going to keep her distance. Some conversation. A shared plate of sweets was just enough.

      Amber couldn’t afford any entanglements in her life right now.

      “What do you mean by that?” His eyes swept across her face, studying him. “Potential?”

      “Everybody has potential,” she said, remembering that she had said that about her ex. “Don’t you think about a woman’s potential before you decide whether you are going to date her or not? Her potential to be a good partner. Her potential to be a wife. Her potential to be a mother. Her potential

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