‘And your dad?’
I lift a brow. ‘You’re hoping to rattle some skeletons out of my family closet now?’ It’s an attempt to lift the mood.
‘I’m just curious.’ He doesn’t take the bait, doesn’t smile.
I swallow, looking down at our hands—his dark, mine pale. ‘My father’s a hard man to be close to,’ I say after a few moments. ‘I love him, he’s my dad, but we’re not really the “sit around the table and talk about our day” kind of family. We never have been.’
‘Boarding school will do that to you,’ he quips, but with sympathy.
I nod.
‘But there’s something more,’ he prompts when I don’t speak. And I laugh because his ability to see inside me and read my mind is unexpected.
‘Why do you say that?’
He grins, a sexy shifting of his lips that makes my heart rate double. ‘I can see your cogs turning.’
I shake my head, still laughing softly.
‘Wh
at? You’re holding something back,’ he prompts.
‘So? That’s our deal,’ I remind him. ‘We don’t talk about stuff like this.’
‘I’ve just told you something deeply personal,’ he points out.
‘Yeah, but that was your choice.’ I wink and pull my hand back right as the waitress reappears with a plate of raw meat. She places it between us and presses a button so the grill lights up. Theo stands and moves around the table, coming to sit beside me.
‘Easier,’ he says, by way of explanation.
I don’t complain. I like him being close to me like this. Our thighs brush beneath the table. He uses the tongs to lift a few pieces of meat and places them on the grill. It begins to sizzle and I watch, almost hypnotised by the smell, the smoke, the sound.
‘You know—’ his voice is low, further drugging my senses ‘—the fact we know this only has a few more weeks left makes me kind of want to throw the old rules out the window.’ His eyes hold mine and I feel in that moment the strength of this man, the charisma and the intelligence. I feel every ounce of his professional success.
‘Meaning?’
‘I’m curious about this stuff. It doesn’t change what we are—sex is sex.’
I nod slowly. I mean, he’s right. What am I afraid of? That we’ll blur the lines and fall in love? Neither of us is that stupid—we know what we’re doing.
I meet his lopsided grin with one of my own and tilt my face forward so our foreheads touch. ‘Just remember, when all is said and done, I’m only using you for your insanely hot body.’
He seeks my lips with his. ‘Deal.’
Desire flashes inside of me, hot and uncontainable. I’m hungry, but food feels a lot less important than it did a minute ago.
He pulls away and I can see from his eyes that he feels just as I do, that he wishes we were anywhere but here, in this charming, crowded restaurant in the East Village.
He reaches for the chopsticks, wielding them expertly, lifting a piece of cooked beef from the plate and bringing it towards my lips. I part them expectantly and moan as the flavour hits me.
‘Oh, my God, that is amazing.’
‘What can I say? I’m a talented chef.’
I let out a small laugh. ‘Clearly. And the marinade is pretty good too.’
‘I guess some of the credit belongs to the kitchen then.’