That was seriously funny.
“I was kind of hoping I’d get the sex for free.”
Davina exploded. She pushed him, making him lose balance and land on his backside on the floor. She stalked past him.
“I’ve just had one idiot tell me that I owed him sex, now I have another. Do I look like I work on a street corner?”
Actually, she kind of did, but Jack was smart enough to keep his mouth shut.
“I have a proposal,” he said as he stood up.
She went pale.
“You’re proposing?” Her voice was a high pitched squeak.
“I didn’t say that, Davy,” he said slowly, but now that she mentioned it, it didn’t seem such a bad idea.
Still, he was guessing from the reaction that she wasn’t so open to it. He’d have to get her to admit she loved him first. One step at a time. Her cheeks were tinged pink from her embarrassing gaff.
“Look.” He spread his hands wide. “I want to run a business from here. I was thinking something along the lines of weekend seminars for people who want to learn more about security or self-defence.”
He could see her thinking.
“But how will you do that if I’m living here?”
“I thought we could do it together.” He took a step towards her. He felt like he was talking someone off a ledge, one wrong word and they’d jump. “You have great people skills and I’m told that mine aren’t so hot. And you’re brilliant at baking and cooking and stuff so you could take care of the catering side. What do you think?”
“I don’t know anything about security,” she said.
“I do. You can do the rest.”
“And you’ll pay me? Like a job?” Her wide eyes blinked with confusion. “Is this a job offer?”
“Not really.” He stood in front of her. Without a pair of her mile high shoes he could actually look down on her. It made him smile. “I thought we could be partners, run the thing together.”
“Business partner?”
Her voice was doing that squeaky thing again.
“I thought I could live here too and we could be full partners.” He ran his hands up her arms to her shoulders. “Live-in partners.”
“You want us to live together?”
Jack let out a breath. He’d tried to be subtle. It wasn’t working.
“Look, Davy, I don’t just want to live with you. I want to marry you. I want to make a home here. Run a business together here. I
want it all.”
“Oh,” she said softly.
He waited for the rest. It didn’t come.
“What do you think?” he said, feeling terrified that the answer was no. He actually held his breath.
“But,” she said, mystified, “I don’t love you.”
He relaxed, closing the gap between them so that he could feel the heat emanating from her through the length of him.