Sugar Baby Beautiful

“No. New York,” I replied.

“What’s your favorite color?”

I glanced up. He wasn’t looking at me, reading his menu, relaxed in his chair. “What are you doing?”

He focused on me. “What do you mean?”

“You know what I mean. Why are you asking me my favorite color?”

“Because I don’t know the answer. Why else would I ask?”

That was not what he was doing. The server came over. “What can I get you both?”

Theo, ever the gentleman, waited for me.

“I’ve settled on the chicken stir-fry and ginger ale, please.”

“I’ll have the same.” I’m sure the server said something, but I couldn’t concentrate with how intensely he was staring at me.

“What now?”

“You still haven’t answered the question.”

“It’s teal. Happy?”

“Favorite movie?”

“Theo, are you really playing twenty questions with me now?”

He raised an eyebrow as his face grew serious. “Of course. Now I have more than twenty.”

I reached for the water. “It’s not going to work. Knowing all these random things about me won’t mean you know me.”

“Then why are you so afraid to answer them?”

“Fine. My favorite movie is Midnight in Paris, Mr. Darcy.” He was driving me insane, and not in the way I liked.

“What are you feeling when you switch from Theo to Mr. Darcy? I can never tell if it’s sexual frustration or annoyance, which is impossible because I’m the least annoying guy I know.”

He’d said it so smoothly I couldn’t help but laugh. “Your ego is gigantic. Your neck must hurt from carrying that swelled head all day.”

“Now that you mention it.” He touched his neck, and we both laughed.

I shook my head. “I call you Mr. Darcy when… when the mood feels right, I guess. Sometimes it’s sexual, other times, annoyance. A few times when I think of Pride and Prejudice—”

“Ah.” He groaned and rolled his eyes. “You’re an Austen fan.”

“Don’t groan at Jane Austen.”

“I’m allowed to groan, seeing as how she is one of the reasons for the unrealistic expectations some women have of men. The fact that my last name is Darcy makes it doubly worse for me.”

He was right, but there was no way in hell I was admitting it. I took a sip of my water.

“Next question?” he asked with a devilish smirk on his lips.

“Please.”

“If you could go anywhere in the world, where would it be?”