A perfectly casual invitation that absolutely should not have revved her heartbeat the way it did. He was an old friend, for goodness sake. Nothing more. They’d had coffee together dozens of times. Obviously spending an hour in the afternoon wearing sexy lingerie had had a strange effect on her libido. To refuse would make it seem as if she placed too much importance on an offhand invite. “That sounds nice, Adam.”

“Great. I’ll call you when the proofs are ready.” He smiled and opened the door for her.

“Talk to you soon,” she said, then stepped out onto the sidewalk. She actually welcomed the blast of inferno-like July heat that engulfed her because it gave her something on which to blame her discomfort. Walking quickly to her car, she slid behind the wheel. She’d driven three blocks before her breathing returned to normal-a fact she refused to examine too closely for fear of discovering the reason.

Her life was finally exactly the way she wanted it. Stable. Secure. No more moving around the country, no more living in apartments. Her career was in high gear, and she’d recently achieved a milestone goal and bought her first house. She had a steady boyfriend who had a steady job-yup, everything was perfect and…steady.

Okay, maybe things weren’t perfect with Greg, but she’d kissed enough frogs to know that he had prince potential. He provided the stability she’d always craved, and she was willing to work on the things that needed some polishing-like their sex life. Hey, not every guy could be like Adam Clayton in bed. Actually, she’d finally forced herself to admit that no guy would ever be like Adam Clayton in bed.

The last thing she wanted, or needed, was someone to rock the steady little boat she’d worked so hard for. She wouldn’t allow that to happen. Nine years ago, Adam had capsized her. She wasn’t about to give him the chance to do it again.