He squints at me. “What are you still doing here then? Why did you agree to go out with me?” He sets his jaw. “Are you still trying to seduce me?”
I swallow hard, thinking about how I should answer this. I mean, yeah, I was hired to seduce him. Lola doesn’t want to pay out the money he can get if he makes it through the next couple months with his virginity intact. But that’s not why I’m here right now, is it? I know it’s not. I’m here right now because I’m totally infatuated with Carter Blaine. Beyond reason. I want to get to know him for real. So I answer him with the only thing that I know is the truth.
“Carter, the truth is, I’m here right now for one reason. For you. I want to get to know you because, well, I really like you.”
Carter
I’m floored. I can feel the blood pounding in my head, my heart racing from what Ashley just said.
I don’t know what to make of it. I’ve never met anyone like her. Ever. Not out of the hundreds of women over the years. She’s completely different. She’s real. She’s honest. I can tell she doesn’t care in the least about who I am or about getting a piece of me. Not about being on television or being infamous for bringing down the notorious Head Hunter.
“Wait,” I say, holding my hand up, my palm flat. “Hang on just a second. You like me?”
Ashley squirms in her seat, dropping her gaze in a way that’s both a little shy, and uncomfortable. It’s so fucking cute that I just want to pull her into my lap and kiss her stupid, restaurant and manners be damned.
Finally, she lifts her eyes back to me and shrugs. “Maybe.”
I grin. “Maybe?”
She smiles back.
“So, you’re telling me that you aren’t here right now because you want to seduce me, take my virginity, or whatever you want to call it?”
“Let’s just see how it goes,” she replies simply.
That could mean so many things. Like, she wants to see how it goes because she does want to sleep with me? Or maybe it means she wants to see if there’s actually something there between us that isn’t about sex, or this TV show, or money, or anything else.
“How it goes?” I need her to clarify this.
She nods. “I just want to get to know you.” She bites her lip in a way that’s half sexy and half shy. “I really like you s
o far, and I want to know more about you.”
So it’s not about sleeping with me. I’m totally thrown for a loop by this. I don’t even know what to think. I’ve never had this happen. Every single woman has been after something. They’ve always had an ulterior motive. Money, mostly. Bragging rights. Or straight up animal lust and the need to see my cock for themselves.
While I’m sure Ashley is totally turned on by me, I can also tell that this isn’t about sex for her. At least, not completely. There’s more. And that’s fucking awesome. It’s almost too perfect. The one woman who I’m actually interested in to see more than once—who I can’t stop thinking about—is interested in me too.
“Ashley,” I say carefully, “you know about the prize money, right?”
She wrinkles her nose in a way that makes her look too fucking adorable.
“The money that you get if you sleep with me,” I clarify. “You know that if you actually do seduce me, there’s money in it for you.”
“Of course I know that,” she replies, and her clear eyes tell me she’s telling the truth when she also says, “I could care less about it.”
Oh my God. The server comes with our orders then, and we eat our fancy French dinners, but I barely even taste the exquisite cuisine. All I can think about is Ashley and the things she just told me. She’s one of a kind, and I’d be crazy not to pursue this and see where it goes.
I know I have a show to finish, and a reputation to uphold—money to win—but the idea of seeing any other woman for the next eight weeks makes me crazy. There’s no way that I want to have eight random women coming onto me and sucking my dick when the only woman I want is sitting across the table from me right now.
We converse some more over our meal, and the more we talk, the more I get to know her, the more convinced I am that I can’t keep doing the show the way we’ve been doing it for eight more weeks.
When my phone buzzes, I look down and see that it’s Chase. Perfect. Exactly who I need right now.
“Excuse me for just a minute,” I say to Ashley, giving her an apologetic smile, “I have to take this.”
Walking into the hallway of the restaurant, I answer the phone. “Chase, we have to talk.”
“Yeah, we do. I can’t believe what’s going down right now. Lola is going to love this.” He sounds so excited, and I don’t know what to make of it.