“I went to nursing school with Karen and we stayed in touch. She’s tried to get me to relocate several times over the years, but there were reasons why I stayed in Winston-Salem.”

Reasons? Levi was sure he’d like to know what those reasons were.

Madison toyed with her straw again, placing her fingertips over one end and raising the other to her perfectly shaped lips in a purely seductive move that she almost seemed unaware of. Almost. Levi bit back a groan.

When she lifted her gaze, pleasure registered at what he obviously failed to hide. He wanted her.

“When Karen’s roommate moved out a few months ago,” she continued, watching him with those mesmerizing green eyes, “I took her up on the offer.”

“What made you change your mind?”

Her eyes darkened, lowered. Staring at her drink for several long seconds, she finally shrugged. “She needed a roommate and I needed a change of everything.”

Which probably meant she had been involved with someone and the relationship had gone sour. His abdominal muscles contracted defensively, rejecting the thought of Madison with another man, the thought of flashing her pretty smile, her wide, seductive eyes in another’s direction. What was up with that? He wasn’t the jealous type and this certainly wasn’t a date. Just two hungry colleagues sharing a meal and each other’s company.

Still, he’d known from the beginning there was something different about her. She was different. Made him feel different. Made him not quite certain about things he’d taken for granted.

Probably just because she was the first woman to interest him after his revelation about his father, about the man he refused to be like. Probably.

He asked more about where she’d come from. He jumped from one topic to another, watching her facial expressions run the gamut of closed to open and inviting as she relaxed.

She had a quick wit, which unfortunately she used to deprecate herself a bit too often, almost as if she had no clue what a knockout she was. But since she was an admitted player, she had to know, had probably been using that aura of innocence to lure men into her web for years.

She was a knockout and had tangled his thoughts up in her web, that was for sure.

He remembered the exact moment he’d met her. He’d felt a physical punch deep in his gut even then. One that had caused the same reflexive tightening he’d experienced moments ago at the thought of her involved with another man.

He’d looked at her and been hooked, had gone to find her after he’d finished rounds on his patients.

That was when he’d overheard her telling Karen how she was going to use and abuse him and spit him out when she was done.

Not what a man looking for a committed relationship wanted to hear. Which should have been enough to kill his attraction to her, but hadn’t.

So he’d avoided her.

Today, he hadn’t been able to avoid her. Not when she’d been choking. Now that he’d had her in his arms, he worried that avoiding her wasn’t going to be a viable option ever again.

Which meant what? That he was willing to be used and abused and spat out when she finished with him?

Hell, no.

But he did want her. More than he recalled wanting any woman. Maybe he should just drive her back to his place, spend the night exorcising her from his mind, and then be done with her.

If he believed one night would exorcise Madison, he’d do just that. But he didn’t.

He had taken one look at her and wanted to share things with her he’d never shared with any woman. Had to be because of what had happened with his father. Had to be that he’d been in the process of rewiring how he operated when they met.

Levi leaned back in his chair, eyed the woman sitting across from him and contemplated his options.

He wanted her. She wanted him. Only he was looking for a relationship and she was looking for a conquest.

What if he kept their relationship non-physical?

Kept her wanting him physically while making her fall for him, the man, not the means to sexual release?

What if he made Madison see how good a real relationship could be between them?

SMILING at the man sitting across from her, Madison decided being a player had its perks.

On a scale of one to ten, dinner with Levi rated at least an eleven. Higher.

Although he’d started out glancing at a televised baseball game that had only lasted about a minute before he’d only had eyes for her.

Sigh. Who knew a playboy would be such a great listener? Simon never had been. Come to think of it, the only time Simon had really paid much attention to what she’d say had been when he’d been trying to get her into bed. Since she was the one trying to get Levi into bed, having him focus completely on what she said was an entirely new experience.

Who knew he’d have her spilling her guts about Karen and her rooming together while in nursing school? She’d even recounted tales of Nursing Student Mishaps 101.

When she glanced at her watch, they’d been at the restaurant almost three hours. Three hours! The time had flown by and she’d completely forgotten she was supposed to be seducing him, supposed to be flirting and alluring. Instead, she’d just been…herself.

And he’d listened.

Okay, so occasionally the conversation had been flirtatious, but lightly so, fun, not in a way that made her feel out of her element.

“Guess we should head out.” Levi paid their bill, refusing to let her pay despite her protests that she owed him for saving her life. “Since you saved me from dining alone, we’ll call it even.”

She snorted. “As if you ever dine alone.”

“Everyone dines alone occasionally. Even me. Although, admittedly, not often since I’m such great company.” He waggled his brows, then grinned. “Regardless, I’m paying so just say thank you, Madison.”

“Thank you, Madison,” she repeated with feigned obedience, loving the way his gaze lit on her, on the way his lips curved upwards, on the way her insides felt so alive. Who’d known she could feel this way? And why the heck hadn’t she ever felt this way in the past? Her love life would have been a lot more exciting if either of her two serious relationships had been able to elicit half as many tingles and sparks.

Maybe it was the whole playgirl attitude that had freed her inner spirit.

Maybe it was because she wasn’t going into this thinking wedding bells and white picket fences.

Maybe it was because she only wanted one thing from Levi.

The way he was looking at her at this moment, well, she might just get it before the night ended.

That made her both happy and extremely nervous. Was she really ready to fully embrace her new persona?

He laughed, shaking his head. “You always this full of sass?”

“Not usually.” She hadn’t felt comfortable enough to relax enough to be herself. Not even Simon. Which was a sobering thought, but not one she’d permit to encroach on her evening with Levi. She deserved one night of fun. One night because anything more than a single night and her heart might get attached.

“Must be something about you.” Which was the truth of the matter. There was something about Levi that got to her and reminded her of happier times. Times before life had got so complicated. Times when she’d smiled and laughed freely and often. Times before she’d let Simon use her heart for target practice.

“Must be.”

Madison bit the inside of her cheek when Levi opened the passenger door of his SUV, waited for her to get inside, then closed the door. Simon had never opened doors for her.

“What’s your street address?”

Absently, Madison told him, still contemplating Levi’s many charms. The man was a charmer, pure and simple. She’d do good to remember that. He went through women the way a smoker went through cigarettes. A pack at a time.