Her breath caught in her throat as she looked up at him. “What are you doing here?”
He chuckled. “I hate cooking for just myself so I eat out most meals.” His hand lifted to take her sunglasses off. “Why are you here?”
She pulled back, startled to see that the sunlight was fading. It was almost dusk. Unfortunately, that meant she had no need for her sunglasses other than to hide. And she desperately needed to hide. From this man.
Why was she here? Naya looked around, trying to come up with a legitimate excuse for her presence here. “I just…I was walking and…”
“Found yourself here,” he finished for her, obviously sensing that she was flustered.
“Yeah, I guess so.”
“Good. You can have dinner with me.”
Naya shook her head, not wanting to spend any time with this man. “No. I really need to….”
“Have dinner with me.” He took her hand and settled it into his elbow, placing his other hand over it so that she couldn’t escape him. “What are you in the mood for?”
She shook her head again. “Mr. Steele,” she started to say.
His laughter interrupted whatever she’d been about to say. “Naya, I kissed you earlier today and, if we hadn’t been interrupted by the other tours, the two of us would have been naked. I think it is more appropriate for you to call me Luke.”
Naya gaped at him. “We would not have been naked!” she gasped out, causing several other people walking along the sidewalk to turn their heads.
Naya pulled herself together, trying to control her temper as well as her outrage over this man’s audacity. “We wouldn’t have been naked!” she hissed again for emphasis. “Nothing would have happened.”
He turned to face her. “You think so?”
“I know so! We are not having sex!”
A slow, sexy smile crept across his handsome features. “Ah. A challenge. I haven’t been challenged in a long time.”
Naya’s body trembled with those words. He looked like a man who would truly enjoy a challenge. “I’m not trying to challenge you, Luke,” she told him as he pulled her into a small restaurant. “And I’m not having dinner with you. I have to get home. I have work to do tonight.”
He’d already led her over to one of the tables by the window and was holding a chair out for her.
Naya wasn’t completely sure what to do. First of all, she was famished, having skipped lunch and it was later than her normal dinnertime. She wasn’t one to skip meals, she loved food too much. But also, he was holding a chair out for her? What was she supposed to do? The men she dated never held her chair for her. And if they did, it was because they were planning to pull the chair out from under her when she sat down, thinking it would be hilarious to see her fall on the floor.
“Take a seat, Naya. I promise no harm will come to you tonight,” he urged with that silky smooth, baritone voice of his that consistently sent shivers along her body.
Gingerly, she sat down in the chair, her muscles tensed and waiting for him to pull a stunt. When he only pushed her chair in for her, she was even more confused.
He sat down across from her and handed her one of the menus. “What are you in the mood for tonight?” he asked, perusing the menu himself.
Naya hadn’t even picked up the menu. She sat across from him, looking at him strangely. “You don’t take no for an answer, do you?”
He looked at her and, taking in the serious expression in her eyes, he set the menu down. “If you were to say no to sex, that would be no, Naya. But dinner? You have to eat. Besides, you look hungry, not to mention, upset about something. Why not just have a relaxing dinner and we can talk?”
She looked down at her hands, which were just lying on the tabletop. “Because I don’t understand you. And I think you’re dangerous. To me.”
“In what way?”
She sighed and leaned back in her chair. “You’re not the kind of man I normally date.”
He chuckled. “I suspect that you don’t date very much at all. But what makes me so different from the other men in your life?”