Those lips moved. I’d never fixated on a mouth like this. Maybe during those uncomfortable dates when men went in for a kiss and I thought I’d rather make out with a jellyfish, the kind that stung, rather than kiss a dud again. “What a small world. Kate, right?”

My eyes went wide. He knew my name? “Yes?”

I had to quit sounding like I was asking him a question.

His smile grew wider, his gaze more intense. “It was cool the way you were always there for Jason.” He leaned closer and my breath stalled. I was inches from Aiden King. Inches. His heat curled around me as gentle as a caress. “I admit to being a little worried that you were watching for my weaknesses and would tell him all my secrets.”

Jason’s wrestling was a comfortable topic, one I missed talking about. “You mean like how you preferred double-leg takedowns over single leg? And that if you didn’t think you could pin your opponent, you’d rack up as many points as possible instead?”

He shoved a hand in his pocket, making his suit crinkle just right. If a photographer were around, they’d circle him and snap pictures that magazines would buy for thousands of dollars. “I knew it.”

Breathing around him was exquisite torture. I hadn’t expected talking to him to be so easy. “Busted.”

“How is Jason?”

“Working for you, actually.” I lifted a shoulder. “In a roundabout way. He’s at the refinery.”

“Does he like it there?”

I detected nothing but genuine concern, deeper than small talk. How was this guy so perfect? “Yes. And he has two young boys—who are already wrestling.”

“And you? How’ve you been?”

Well, this moment was the highlight of my decade, so how did I answer? “Oh, you know. Busy with work. You?”

“Same.” I was prepping myself for the inevitable I’d better get back or some other polite brush-off when he tipped his head down. The world consisted of only me and him. “Would you like to go out sometime?”

My lips parted. Had I heard him right? I looked around. My coworkers were talking among themselves in small groups and a few were gathered around Gentry. Aiden hadn’t been asking someone else out. He’d asked me. “Yes?”

The corner of his mouth lifted. Was that a beat of triumph in the depths of his brown eyes? “Good. Can I have your number?”

I rattled it off before I could wake up from the best dream of my life. He didn’t write it down.

Would he remember it? Or was he a player? Was knowing he could have me tripping at his feet enough?

I didn’t care. I would float on this high for weeks.

“I’ll call you, Kate.” The promise in his voice set my knees quivering. This guy was potent.

“Sure.” I sounded pathetically breathless.