Read Same/Difference (The Depth of Emotion #4) for Free Online Page B

was nowhere to be found.
    Dammit!
    Not missing a beat, he nodded to the woman and gave her a megawatt smile.
    “It looks like my plans have changed.” He smiled appreciatively. “I’ll take a Bloody Mary.”
    “Yes, sir. Be right back.” She sauntered away. He was sure that the exaggerated swing in her backside was for his benefit.
    As he waited for his drink, he began to feel the physical effects of his too full schedule over the past few days. He had gone to several meetings and had little sleep. It was catching up with him. His plan was to wait until Paige came into the lobby and act like running into her was a coincidence. Instead, he was nursing a headache from lack of sleep. He ordered the Bloody Mary because the combination of hotel pumped oxygen and smoke were burning his eyes and throat. Once he finished his drink he was going back to his own hotel. He had the information he needed. Paige would be surprised to see him. Hopefully in a good way.
    He decided that he wasn’t going to tell her about his little rendezvous with the security office, mainly because he didn’t want to piss her off. Although he’d only known her for a short time, seeing her revived the feelings he had from their few days together. Something about her was different, and it attracted him. Maybe if they’d had a one-night stand he would have gotten her out of his system, but he couldn’t do that because they had too many friends in common and something like that had the potential to bite him on the ass. That was his initial thought. When the weekend was over, he was thankful he didn’t use her for a quick screw because she really seemed like someone he wanted to get to know.He even liked her name. Paige. It was short and sweet and it suited her. He was used to names like Shayla and Krystal with a “K”. He’d even banged a Bambi, Trixie, and twins whose last name was Starr . Paige definitely wasn’t like them. He’d bet his last dollar that she wasn’t a wham, bam, thank you ma’am kind of girl. She had a different air about her. Not stuck up just more…selective. When he asked her if he could show her around Deep Creek, she gave him a look that tugged at his heart. He was a perfect gentleman around her so she would get the impression that he was a nice guy. He wasn’t. While she appreciated the winter scenes around the lake he was inspecting how tightly her jeans hugged her ass. His goal was to get in good with her by feeling her out. He could learn a lot about a person by peeling back a layer or two. Instead he was distracted by the way she made him feel. He felt like a lovesick teenager. All the details he dismissed on other women, he noted. He was fascinated by how the sun filtered through the trees and caught the shine of her brown hair. It found himself comparing it to warm chestnuts when they were pulled fresh from the fire. The braid she wore hugged her neck in shades of red and brown. On someone else the style might look juvenile, but on her he thought it looked damned sexy. They had a good time that day. The more they walked, the less he thought of her as his usual type. He only planned to have her out that day for half an hour, but it turned into a few hours. As they walked, they talked. She was a good conversationalist, interesting, and smart. Unlike most women he knew she was thoughtful and constantly changed the topic to focus more on him than herself. Reluctantly, he took her back to their friends’ house and, when she left, he felt a bit empty. No woman had ever done that. It kind of unnerved him.
    “Your drink, sir.” The waitress handed him a glass that was more ice than alcohol but he didn’t care. He slipped a hundred dollar bill to her. When she noticed, her face beamed appreciatively. “Can I get anything else for you?”
    “No, darlin.” He drank the Bloody Mary down in one gulp and slammed the glass down on the tray. “I’m done for the day.”
    Since the opportunity to intercept Paige was