Made for You by Lauren Layne Page A

soon as he tried to meet her gaze.
    Too soon , he thought, sucking back a sigh.
    “Come on,” he said, patting at her butt. “Let’s go get you that baked brie.”
    The wine bar was just around the corner from the mattress store, exactly as Will had planned.
    “What is it with women and wine bars?” he asked, as Brynn led them to a spot at the bar. He would have preferred sitting at a table so he could see her—read her—but he knew that was too date-like for her.
    “They’re our response to sports bars,” she said, gracefully sliding onto the high stool and arranging her skirt around her knees like the perfect lady she so wanted to be. “Except there’s no peanuts on the ground, no obnoxious TVs, and very few leering men.”
    “Except for me.”
    She smiled at him, and then looked surprised for smiling. “Yeah. Except for you.”
    Two cheese appetizers, a crème brûlée, and a bottle of wine later, Will was guiding a very tipsy Brynn toward his car. He’d deliberately let her drink more than her share of the bottle, not only because he was driving, but because she’d clearly needed it to forget that she was with the enemy. Maybe even enjoying herself with the enemy.
    For the first time in their history, they’d shared a meal, just the two of them, and there hadn’t been a single argument or jab. She’d even laughed.
    God he loved her laugh.
    “I’m drunk ,” Brynn said with emphasis, swinging her purse into the backseat of his car and dropping messily into the passenger seat.
    She didn’t object when he scooped her legs up, tucking them into the car. Didn’t object when his fingers lingered on her smooth calves.
    “You’re not drunk. Just…happy,” he said, closing the door carefully behind her.
    The ride home was mostly silent, other than the radio, which she changed every two seconds.
    It started to rain as he exited the freeway, and though it was raining more often than not in Seattle, he wondered if she remembered the only other time they’d been alone in his car together.
    It had been raining then too, but she hadn’t been tipsy. Just good and pissed about something he’d said and his own temper had spiked until he’d almost told her everything. And then he’d lost his mind and kissed her. Their first kiss.
    He wondered if she ever thought about it.
    Will pulled into her driveway, and she gave him a puzzled look. “You could have parked in your own garage. I could have walked.”
    “It’s raining,” he said, not looking at her. And if I let you anywhere near my house right now, I won’t let you go.
    “Don’t tell me there’s a gentleman hiding in there,” she said with a giggle, stabbing at the buckle on her seat belt and getting it on the third try.
    “If there is, I’ll never tell,” he said, reaching into the backseat for her purse.
    “Well, thanks,” she said, clutching her purse to her chest. “I um…I had a good time.”
    “You sound surprised.”
    She snorted. “Well, yeah. It’s probably the first time I didn’t want to kill you.”
    “Unlike the last time we were in a car in the rain.” Whoops. He hadn’t meant to go there.
    Her eyes clouded over. So she did remember.
    “You were mad at me,” she added softly.
    Dammit. Her voice sounded tiny and hurt.
    “Honey, we’re always mad at each other,” he said, trying to lighten the mood.
    But she wasn’t having it. “No, I mean you were really mad at me. You told me I was vapid and selfish because I was trying to boss Sophie around, and Sophie’s all you ever cared about.”
    He refused to let his expression change. “I don’t remember that.”
    “Well…I do. And then because yelling at me wasn’t bad enough, you had to punish me by kissing me .”
    He swallowed, desperate for the flippant sarcasm that normally came so easily to him. But it was nowhere to be found. Her eyes were open and wounded and a little raw. As though that evening had hurt her. As though his opinion had mattered.
    “I