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laughed, smoothing her fingers against her unlined face. “It’s the meaning of my name.”
    “So, when are we going to stop playing these games? You should just tell me your name now, so we can get that part over with.”
     
    Fortunately for Sophie, the waitress’s arrival with their food saved her from having to answer. She’d gotten a chocolate croissant and a large iced latte. He’d ordered an egg white Florentine omelet and bread that seemed to have enough grains and seeds on it to keep up his daily fiber count with one bite. She stirred three sugar packets into her coffee and took a long sip while coolly appraising him.
    “On a diet?” she asked. He looked like he worked out—a lot. The collared blue polo shirt stretched across his broad shoulders and flared out where his waist narrowed. She didn’t even want to think what the baggy cargo shorts hid below the waist. No doubt it was just as spectacular.
    “I like to eat healthy,” he answered, taking a huge bite of toast.
    She cleared her throat. “Are you a lawyer or an accountant?”
    He answered seemingly without thinking. “I’m a lawyer.”
    Sophie nodded knowingly. “Please don’t take what I’m going to say next personally,” she said, covering his hand with hers on the small enameled café table. She immediately wished she hadn’t touched him. Being near Ryan was like playing with fire, and she’d just gotten singed.
    She liked looking at the weekend’s worth of stubble on his square jaw, hearing his well-modulated voice, touching his hair roughened skin, and kissing those perfect lips. Definitely kissing him. Crap , she thought, and pulled her hand away. She needed to stop this relationship—or seduction or whatever it was—before she got in too deep. Being with him would be like wading into a calm ocean with a deathly riptide. She’d be in too far before she realized she’d compromised her life. She needed to keep something back. She needed to keep everything back. If she told him her name, it would be the crack in the door. And Sophie knew, he’d come right in.
    “You’re a nice person from what I see,” she continued. “Somewhere out there is a Seven Sisters graduate in pearls who is made for you. I know I’m not your type. We’d be like oil and water, and I don’t date lawyers —ever.”
    She punctuated her comment by taking a big mouthful of pastry. The bite was way too big, she realized far too late. Her smooth brush off was ruined when chocolate went everywhere, and she did her best to catch what she could with her fingers. She was unprepared when Ryan reached across the table and scraped an errant dribble from her lower lip. She shivered as she felt his touch everywhere from her beaded nipples to her tightening womb. She wanted to damn her principles to the wind and give in to the feeling he aroused in her, but she knew better.
    He sat back in his chair and smiled at her. The small smile didn’t quite reach his sad eyes.
    “Sunflower… ” He didn’t need to say any more. Their attraction to each other was obvious —to them, and probably to anyone within ten feet of them.
    “I know. That’s why I have to go. I have to get food, a bed, a collar, a real leash, and whatever else I’ll need for Sasha.”
    “You should come back to my place.”
    “What?” She must not have heard right. Was that a come on after her brush off?
    “There’s no need for you to buy all that stuff.” He sighed, resigned. “I bought everything yesterday—food, a crate, a strong leather leash, and chew toys.”
    “Are you going to get another dog?”
    “I wanted Sasha,” he said. “I wanted you.” She could have sworn she heard him utter the last statement under his breath.
    “Are you sure?” The real question was implicit in her tone. She wanted to be certain they were on the same page. She would go back to his place for supplies, nothing more.
    “Yeah. What the heck.”
    She should have guessed he lived off one of the more