Page 21 of Hawk and the Cougar

She smiled. “Sounds like we’re both sorry.”

His mood didn’t lighten. “Maybe, but your husband had a daughter to consider. I can deal with the fallout of my mistake. Kids change everything.”

Her heart warmed. He would make a good father. When that time came, he would understand. “A mother doesn’t sleep with her daughter’s professor,” she said in a quiet voice.

A smile touched his mouth. “Dinner. That’s all I’m asking.”

“No, it’s not.”

“I didn’t say I wouldn’t take more,” he said with startling honesty. “Hell, look at you. What man would turn you down? But what I’m saying is, I’ll settle for dinner—tonight.”

“It won’t end there, and you know it,” she said.

He studied her. “Sounds to me like it’s you who doesn’t think it can’t end there.”

Liz racked her brain for a response, but he saved her from the embarrassment of an answer he was sure to see straight through.

“Come on.” He started them toward the rise. “It’s getting dark. Let’s get back to town. I know this great place.” She started to argue, but he said, “Don’t worry. It’s an overly crowded cantina on the west side. There isn’t a private corner in the place where I could get my hands between your legs.”

Butterflies leapt into a riotous dance inside her stomach at the memory of his hands between her legs, his mouth.… How would she get through dinner without begging him to do that to her again?