What it was like to hear her as she let go of everything and was fully in the moment.
Fucking hell. How were we supposed to work together now? I knew I’d fucked up the moment I’d told her how bad I wanted her, but I never thought she’d actually push my buttons and do something about me turning her down.
This was why I’d turned her down.
Because I knew once wouldn’t be enough.
I knew I’d want her again.
Gripping hold of her ass while I fucked her had been like a drug. I wanted the hit again. I wanted to feel the way I had when she’d gripped me as if her life depended on it.
I’d never be able to look at her the same way ever again. She was no longer the sarcastic, over-confident woman who’d walked into the garage and challenged me to prove me wrong.
She was something more—something wilder. Something more intriguing.
The door to reception opened, and the sound of Jamie humming filled the air. I didn’t recognize the tune, and I didn’t know what to say to her.
We’d barely spoken since she’d run off to the bathroom and did some so-called cleaning up. Cleaning up that had taken her twenty minutes.
I came hard, but not that fucking hard.
I glanced at her over my shoulder. She bounced happily through the workshop, still humming, and tugged on her ponytail as she went.
Her hips swayed side to side, and she skipped through the door to the staff room.
I dropped my head and sighed again. I had no idea what to do.
“Okay.” She stopped, hugging her purse to her body. She’d put the sweatshirt on, covering the hem of her skirt. “I’ll see you tomorrow?”
Tomorrow.
Right.
“Yeah. Sure.” I smiled.
She smiled.
She walked off.
Something grabbed hold of me.
“Jamie!” I stepped over a couple things on the floor and caught her just outside the doors.
“Did I forget something?” She turned around, those bright blue eyes catching mine.
“No. I just…” Fuck me, why couldn’t I get my words out. “Never mind. I forgot.”
She paused, her lips twitching for a second. “Uh…Okay. See you tomorrow.”
“See you tomorrow.” I started back inside, but stopped. “Dinner!”
Shit.
“What?”
Shit.
I turned with an awkward grimace. “Dinner. That’s what I forgot. Dinner.”
She dumped her purse in her car and looked at me over the top of the door. “What about dinner?”
Of course she wouldn’t make this easy for me.
“I’m hungry,” I said stupidly.
Jesus, apparently sex rendered me unable to string a sentence together. Was I twenty-seven or seventeen?
“Okay?” Jamie’s lips pulled up at the corners, and her eyes sparkled a little too brightly.
She was doing this deliberately, and I was still too dumb to talk properly.
“Are you hungry?” Fuck, that was lame.
“Yes,” she replied slowly. “Where are you going with this?”
“Nowhere fast, apparently.”
She folded her arms and leaned against her car. “Dexter Ryne, are you asking me out?”
“No.” I shook my head emphatically. “I’m asking if you’re hungry.”
“Of all the things I know about you, this awkwardness is a new one.” Her eyes glittered even more. She was laughing at me silently.
Jesus, damn it.
“Do you want to get dinner with me tonight?” I spat it out before I changed my mind. Hell, I’d gone through enough awkward non-sentences to get to this point.
“Amazing.” She was grinning. “You can tell me you want to fuck me without blinking an eyelid, yet asking me out for dinner takes you ten minutes to get to.”
I stared at her. “I can take it back, you know.”
She tilted her head to the side. “All right.”
“All right?”
“I’ll have dinner with you.” Her smile turned a little shy. “As long as it’s pizza and you bring it to my place, because I’m too tired to get dressed up.”
I laughed. “You got a deal.”
***
“You’re having dinner with her?” Roxy blinked at me. “That’s the least Dex thing to ever happen.” She paused, then gasped and pointed at me. “You had sex with her!”
I threw my arms out. “Why the hell does me having dinner with her have to mean I had sex with her?”
“Well, did you?”
“That’s not the point. Why are you even in my bedroom?” I grabbed a pair of jeans out of my dresser and threw them on my bed.
Why the hell was I still living with my family?
“What are you, twelve?” Roxy sat on the edge of my bed.
“Don’t you have a child to look after?”
She waved her hand. “She’s helping Greta make Bolognese. She’s all good. I want to know about you and Jamie.”
“I’m your brother. This is sick.”
“You like her.” She grinned, putting her elbows on her knees and propping her head up on her hands. “You like her, and that’s why you don’t want to talk about it.”
I sighed and took off my shirt. “No, I just don’t want to talk about it with you.”
“You totally had sex with her.”