But her question had been a serious one. And she intended to bring it up again, because she was going to push at him until she got an answer.

TREVOR ENJOYED SEEING THIS SIDE OF HAVEN, WHEN she put on her journalist’s hat and dug deep into her question box, drilling at him with probing questions.

Sure, he’d avoided her last question. It wasn’t like it hadn’t been asked of him before, and he’d given his standard pat answer.

But with Haven, he wanted to think about how to respond, because he wanted to be honest with her. Not with her network, but with her. And he wasn’t ready yet to answer.

He didn’t mind her grilling him, though. The fiery passion in her eyes was nice to see. It breathed life into her face, into every fiber of her body.

Her mother had been right. He could already see a difference in her. When she had focus, when she was fired up about something, she was much happier. He needed to keep that level of drive within her, keep her mind occupied so she wouldn’t dwell on things she couldn’t change.

“How’s your salmon?” he asked as they ate.

“It’s fantastic. Thank you for recommending it. I can see why you eat here so often. How are the scallops?”

“Awesome. Would you like a bite?”

She glanced over at his plate. “I would, actually.”

He scooped up a forkful and held it over her plate. She bent and took the fork between her lips. He caught sight of the flick of her tongue underneath his fork. Just a small thing, really, but it made his c**k tighten knowing her mouth and her tongue had been on his fork. Her lips were full and pink and he really wanted to see her tongue wrapped around his dick.

Resisting the urge to groan, he asked, “How is it?”

Instead, she let out a soft moan, her eyes floating partially closed. “It’s delicious.”

The sound of her moans, the way her eyes closed in ecstasy, only made his dick twitch and harden more. “Great. That’s great.”

He grabbed his glass and took a couple of swallows of iced tea, hoping to douse the flames that were burning him from the inside out.

“Would you like a bite of my salmon?” She held a forkful up to him.

He shook his head. “No, thanks. I’ve had it before. I know how good it is.” And if she kept leaning into him like that, letting him breathe in her citrusy scent, he was going to drag her off her chair and bury his tongue in her mouth right there in the middle of the restaurant.

And now he was hard and uncomfortable and thinking about f**king Haven. While she was completely oblivious to his discomfort while she enjoyed her dinner.

Clearly this whole attraction thing was one-sided, and he was an idiot.

HAVEN CAUGHT THE NOT-SO-SUBTLE WAY TREVOR had been looking at her over dinner. A woman would have to be blind and stupid not to notice when a man was attracted to her, and Haven was neither.

In college, she’d have been giddy over the prospect of a guy like Trevor wanting her. Now, it presented a problem. A huge, complicated problem. On the one hand, she’d love to explore a sexual relationship with him. Or, hell, even one night of awesome sex. But that would simply kill her objectivity on this project, and that was what she’d been struggling with.

Then again, she was ridiculously sexually attracted to him right now. And she could still be objective about this assignment, couldn’t she? So even if they did it, they could still work together. Or maybe she was rationalizing the hell out of wanting to sleep with him.

She could just go about this in an adult way and have a discussion with him about the pros and cons of them jumping into bed together. Then again, Trevor was a man with a penis, and she was certain he’d want to go for it, damn the consequences. Penises tended to take charge when it came to sex, and everyone knew a penis had a one-track mind. Of course, her vagina was currently doing all the thinking in this situation, and it wasn’t being very rational at the moment, either.

She was overthinking this. So typical for her. Why couldn’t she just shut down her brain and let herself feel, then go with her feelings?

Because she’d closed off her feelings, for her own self-preservation. Opening up that wall she’d so firmly shut down was unthinkable.

Not yet. She couldn’t.

Sex didn’t have to be emotional, though. It could just be physical. Fun and dirty and a release she so desperately needed.

“You’ve gone quiet over there,” Trevor said after Lauren removed their dinner plates.

She finished her tea and nodded. “I’ve been thinking.”

He smiled. “About more probing questions?”