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skirt.
    “I need to go,” she said and started for the door.
    In a few quick strides, he reached her and grabbed her arm, bringing her to an abrupt stop. “Paige, I’d like to talk to you.”
    She turned around and looked up at him, and he caught a flash of vulnerability before she lifted her chin in that determined way he remembered so well. “I didn’t show up at The Players Club for casual conversation,” she said with a tight smile as she pulled her arm out of his grasp. “You gave me exactly what I came here for, so there’s no reason for me to stay.”
    You gave me exactly what I came here for. Oh, yeah, the fact that she’d just brazenly insinuated that she’d used him for sex stung like a son of a bitch. Like he was a gigolo for hire. He relaxed his clenched jaw and tried a different approach.
    “At some point, we need to talk about the past,” he said and watched that guard of hers rise even higher.
    “There’s nothing to discuss, because there isn’t anything you can possibly say to justify what you did with my stepsister, or make it go away.” She lifted her shoulder in a dismissive shrug. “It happened, and I’ve moved on.”
    He almost called her out on the blatant lie. A woman didn’t respond the way she had to him, so openly and honestly, then turn cold when reality returned if she’d moved on . But it was obvious that after what they’d just shared, Paige was feeling exposed and emotionally defenseless. That, he understood, because his own emotions were all over the place, as well.
    A sad, regretful light passed through her eyes. “Good-bye, Sawyer.”
    He declined to respond with the same farewell, because her kind of good-bye meant forever, and he refused to believe, or accept, that this was the end. “Good night, Paige.”

Chapter Five

    “I brought you a double shot vanilla latte,” Kendall, one of Paige’s good friends, said as she strolled into the back work area of Couture Corsets. “I figured you could use the extra caffeine after your late evening last night.”
    Paige set aside the sketch of the final design she was working on for the upcoming bridal expo—a gorgeous plus-size creation encrusted in crystals, pearls, and vintage beads that would be the pièce de résistance of her collection—and gratefully accepted her friend’s offering with a smile. “Yeah, I don’t know what I was thinking going to The Players Club on a Friday night, knowing I needed to be at the shop this morning.” And it didn’t help matters that she’d spent most of the night tossing and turning restlessly because Sawyer had consumed her thoughts and dreams.
    “You were thinking about getting laid,” Kendall said with a sassy grin as she set down her purse and a file folder, then leaned a hip against the worktable and sipped her own caffeinated beverage. “Not that I blame you. I haven’t had sex in so long I’ve almost forgotten what it’s like.”
    Paige heard voices drifting from the main floor and glanced out the crystal curtain separating the two areas. She caught sight of Summer, her assistant and front-end girl, as she helped another woman find a corset in her size. Knowing Summer had the floor covered, she shifted her gaze back to Kendall, who was watching her expectantly.
    “Thank you for the coffee, but I’m assuming you’re really here to get all the juicy details about last night?” Paige guessed.
    “Of course I am,” her friend replied unabashedly. “You don’t expect me to wait until next month’s Cocktails and Cocks club meeting to find out what happened, do you?”
    “I guess not,” Paige said with humor.
    Just a few nights ago, the Cocktails and Cocks group had gotten together at Raina’s to give Paige the last bit of encouragement she’d needed to follow through on the invitation to The Players Club her friend had given her. They’d all indulged in shots, toasted to Paige’s night of debauchery, and spent the evening talking and laughing about all the