Naughty or Nice

“Maybe to you.” I shrug as I rub the pad of my thumb over her palm. “But in my experience, when something like this feels this good, you have to hold on to it.”

“So, you’re a player?” Her body straightens and I shake my head as I smile.

“Oh no, far from it. I’m too busy being a workaholic to date. What I mean is that I’ve built my company into one of the greatest in the country and I can tell you within seconds of seeing a deal if it’s going to succeed. I trust my gut and it’s never led me wrong.”

“Is that what getting me to go on a date with you was about? Seeing if this was a good deal?”

“Claudia,” I say, sitting forward. The feel of her name on my tongue gets me hard and I’m thankful for long linen tablecloths. “If you keep shitting on my desire for you, I’m going to take you back to my place and turn you over my knee.”

Her face flushes and she bites her lip. I wonder if that wouldn’t be an agreeable solution for the both of us. I tuck that information into the back of my mind for later.

“I want you because the second I saw you my soul crawled out of its dark hiding place and for the first time in my goddamn life it attached to something. You. You’ve awoken this…this thing in me and I don’t know what it is or how to control it. That’s why I went nuts calling you every ten seconds. And that’s why even though I know this deal with Aaron Slate isn’t a good one, I’ll do anything to have you.”

The waiter thinks now’s a great time to pop up and ask what we’d like to order. I breathe through my nose for a second to calm myself and Claudia looks at me like I’ve just explained the theory of relatively.

I rattle off what I think Claudia would like to eat and then order two extra entrees in case I’m wrong. I’ll just have whatever she doesn’t like the look of. Once I’m finished, I hand the menu to the waiter and look back at Claudia and she’s staring at me with her lips parted slightly.

“What?”

“Whatever you ordered sounded really sexy.” She laughs, and it warms every part of me. Mostly the region below my belt, but that’s been hot for her for days.

“Is that all you have to say after I’ve basically told you that you’re my soulmate?”

She takes a sip of water before she shrugs again. “I’m not sure I believe in that.”

“You’re lying.”

I was honest when I said I trust my gut. This guy Slate is shady as hell, and the more I looked into his proposal and his other business dealings, the more I didn’t like the look of it. But if I need to sacrifice my reputation and all that I’ve built for a chance with Claudia, then it’s worth it. I see the way she looks at me and the way she reacts to my touch. It isn’t just on my side of the table that things are happening.

“You don’t know me well enough to know if I’m lying.” The waiter brings a basket of bread over, and when she reaches for it, I tug it out of her grasp.

“I know all I need to.” I look at the assorted basket of bread and then back to her. I reach into it and pull out the single croissant hidden on the bottom and slather it in butter. I put it on her small plate and nudge it towards her. “The rest I’ll learn in time.”

She licks her lips and I do a poor job of hiding my smug smile, but within seconds she’s enjoying it and the sounds are making me weak. It can’t be legal to be this hard in public.

“You picked out the pastry I’d like the best. That doesn’t really constitute soulmate-ship.”

“Then tell me what does.”

She looks at me thoughtfully for a moment then lets out a huff. “I guess it’s just a feeling.”

“Agreed,” I say, running my eyes up and down her body.

Chapter 6

Claudia

He asks me questions non-stop through dinner and I do my best to answer him while still protecting my secrets. Like how I’m scared of what my brother is capable of and how I have to please him or this could end badly for me. But Brian is so clever that by the end of dinner I’m telling him all about my grandmother and how much I miss her. I can’t believe what I’m saying but it feels good to talk to someone about her. Mark is blood, but even he didn’t show near the sympathy that Brian does when I speak of her. I didn’t realize that I needed that until I got it all out.