Tempt The Playboy (Tempt 2)

I sit down and watch Noah uncork the wine, pouring my glass first, and then his own. Sitting down in front of me, he raises his glass.

“To the first of many home-cooked meals.” He winks at me while I click my glass against his.

I take a sip of the wine, watching him lean over and pick up the hoagie, taking a bite. The bread crunches as he bites down. I reach for my own hoagie, cutting it in half.

“What’s in this?” he asks at his second bite.

He wears a confused look on his face while he opens the hoagie to see what is in fact inside.

“Veggies and seitan,” I say, grabbing a piece and biting down. Not too bad. It tastes a little like char from the burnt seitan, but it has that whole Philly steak vibe.

He grabs his wine, downing it.

“What the hell is seitan?” he asks. “Is there no steak in this Philly steak?”

I laugh at him, grabbing my wine and taking a sip to drown out the taste of burnt. “No, silly, it’s seitan, which is a ‘wheat beef’. It’s a fake beef.”

“Well, what happened to the real beef?”

I laugh at him. “I can’t eat the real beef, so I improvised.”

He takes another bite, peering inside the hoagie. “It’s almost like foam texture, or sponge. It squeaks while I chew.”

I shake my head, taking another bite, and he isn’t wrong. It does squeak. “Maybe because I overcooked it.” I take another bite. “Or burnt it.”

“Babe, I really want to eat this, but…” He looks down, his hands going up. “But. But.”

“But you won’t be full?” I try to make an excuse for him.

“Yes, I won’t be full. We should order pizza.” He pushes off the table, going to get a menu from the drawer while I take a piece of seitan with my fork. Fuck, it’s horrible. It tastes like burnt wood.

“What do you like on your pizza?” he asks, handing me the menu.

“I’m going to take the veggie one with no cheese and extra sauce.” I smile at him. “You can get your own.”

He picks up the phone, dialing the pizza guy. “Hey, I’ll take a small veggie pizza, no cheese and extra sauce, and then I’ll take a large meat lovers pizza extra sausage.”

I laugh at his order.

He hangs up. “Should be here in thirty minutes. Want to go sit outside by the pool?”

I hadn’t even noticed the pool, but now that it is dark outside the light from the pool illuminates the yard. I grab my glass of wine, following him outside. The whole backyard is free of grass. It’s all bricks and cement. The pool sits in the middle of the yard. There is a wall of cement all around it, acting like a fence. But there are lights on the wall. Against the far wall to the back there is a ledge that is built in, filled with pillows and cushions. Two potted plants sit in the corner. Two loungers are on one side near the door and on the other side is a round lounger with a half cover over it.

“Where would you like to sit?” he asks, waiting for me to continue looking around.

“Let’s go sit on the round one.” I wink at him. “This way we can make out if we want.” I smile at him while he grabs my hand, dragging me to it.

Chapter Thirteen

Noah

I walk her to the round lounger, waiting for her to crawl on. She places her wine glass on the side table next to the lounger and then sits down on it. I’m so happy this date didn’t go to shit after I confessed that her cooking was horrible.

I sat down and looked at the hoagie. It looked good, but the minute I had bitten into it, it tasted like burnt feet. The ‘steak’ fucking squeaked with every bite. I had to swallow my whole wine glass to get the taste of it out of my mouth and even that wasn’t enough. I couldn’t stand to see her disappointment, so I took another bite. It was the bite that ended all bites. The taste was even worse with the second bite. It was grainy now, and the dryness of the bread made it almost like sand.

But now here we are sitting in the middle of my round lounger. I pick up my phone, turning on some jazz music. The sound fills the speakers outside.

She smiles at me. “Nice touch there, Casanova.”

I lie down next to her, propping my back against the cushions, watching her kick off her brown sandals.

“So tell me,” she starts. “Who is Noah?”

I laugh at her question, folding my hands on my stomach. The need to reach out and drag her even closer to me itches. “Just a simple guy, living a simple life.” Even I laugh at that. “Okay, fine. My parents are both lawyers, so it was only normal I would follow into their path. It was actually implemented since I was old enough to remember that I was going to be a lawyer. They deal with criminal law. The stories they have told over the years, I knew right away I couldn’t do it. So I went with the complete opposite, corporate law. What about you?” I say, reaching over to tuck a strand of blond hair that has fallen out of her pinned up hair. “Who is Kaleigh?”