He smiled.
“I’m serious,” I said. “I mean, I’m sure sex with you is phenomenal, but—”
He lifted me up mid-sentence and placed me onto the passenger seat. Then he buckled the belt for me.
When he returned to his side and cranked the engine, I realized we weren’t in his squad car. We were in a decked-out Audi R8 with custom white and red trimmed seats.
“They must pay cops a lot of money in Cedar Falls,” I said softly.
“It’s triple what I made in any of the metro cities,” he said, smiling. “Which is quite ironic since I do three times less work. I also own twenty percent of the stock in my brother’s tourism company, so that helps.” He leaned toward the backseat, picking up a bouquet of white and red tulips, my favorite. “I bought these five minutes before you called me to cancel.”
“Thank you.” I blushed as I pressed my fingers against the petals. I said nothing as he drove through the snow-covered lanes, keeping my gaze forward, even though I could sense him looking over at me whenever we approached a stoplight.
The sexual tension between us was thicker than ever, and I wasn’t sure how to address it.
It wasn’t until we were a few minutes away from my house that I thought of something to say.
“Do I still owe you four dates?”
“You’re now up to five.” He looked over at me. “At the rate, you’re going, you’ll be up to twenty by the end of the week.”
“Well, since the party I’m catering tomorrow doesn’t require me to stay the entire time, I think I can go out with you around seven. Since I’m being forced to date you, that is.”
He laughed. “Let’s aim for eight, just in case.”
“Fine. Since I have to see you multiple times, can you admit that you made up most of the answers on your personality test? Might as well tell the truth at this point.”
“You don’t think we have anything in common?”
“Besides living in Cedar Falls and loving sarcasm, no,” I said. “I don’t typically go for guys like you.”
“That’s probably why you’re still single.”
I rolled my eyes as he turned onto my street. “For one of my answers, I wrote that I loved to read books.”
“As do I.”
“I read mostly romance books.”
“And?” He smirked. “I’ve read plenty of those. Eight in the past week.”
“Did you read them for help in the sex department?”
“I’ve never needed help with that,” he said. “For the record, I like all books, and a real reader can appreciate any genre.”
“I wrote that my ideal Saturday was staying in bed while watching Netflix and drinking tea.”
“My ideal Saturday is not being bothered, so that’s the same thing. Anything else?”
“I’ll print out my answers and bring up more tomorrow.”
“I’d rather you didn’t.” He parked in my driveway and looked at me. “I’m extremely attracted to you and vice versa. You want someone to make you come while devouring your pussy finally, and I’m going to enjoy every second of that. Just like I’ll enjoy making you scream out my name while I’m fucking you against something other than a bed.” He pressed a finger against my lips. “Before you claim that these things don’t count, tell me the name of any other guy who was willing to chase you down for a second chance.”
“You mean, blackmail me for a second chance,” I whispered.
“Same thing.” He raised his eyebrow. “Name one guy.”
I couldn’t.
“I thought so,” he said, stepping outside. He opened my door and pressed his hand against the small of my back as he walked me to the steps that led to my front door.
He stepped back onto the porch landing, making it clear that he wasn’t expecting an invitation.
I fumbled for the key, pushing it into the lock.
“There’s a reason I can’t invite you in,” I said softly, wanting to do the exact opposite. “As a fellow romance reader, you should know that the couple has to go on at least one date before sex.”
“I do know that.” He looked amused. “But just so we’re clear, finger-fucking the heroine on her job and letting her know she won’t be able to walk after I finish owning her pussy with my mouth is fine. Correct?”
My cheeks reddened, and I struggled to get a single word out. I could only nod.
“Well, seeing as though you’ve only read about these things in the fictional world instead of experiencing them in the real one, I don’t think we should rush, but I also don’t think we should use the romance books as a guideline.”
He didn’t give me a chance to respond to that. He stepped closer and covered my mouth with his, kissing me as I’d never been kissed before. He didn’t pull away until I was damn near breathless until I was seconds away from begging him to come inside anyway.