Curvy(12)

“It’s your favorite,” he says, clearly confused about my laughter.

“It is,” I agree, “but how did you know that? Or do I want to know?”

“A few years back, you did an interview with some curvy girl blog. One of the questions was about your favorite thing to eat.

I just stare at him, unsure how to respond to that. I can’t even remember the article, but it wasn’t unusual for me to do things like that for random blogs and magazines.

“You also don’t care for tiny dogs, want to own your own clothing line someday, and your first kiss was from a boy named Steven, whose last name I can’t seem to locate.” He growls the last part.

“Why do you need Steven’s last name?” I have no idea why I choose to pick up on that after all he’s just said.

“I have my reasons.” He growls that part, too, the jealousy clear in his voice. It makes me laugh.

“It was the sixth grade and it was terrible. Does that make you feel any better?” I tease. I’m smiling so big I’m sure I look like a freaking goofball, but the fact that he’s jealous of Steve—who told everyone I showed him my boobs, ending our one week boyfriend-girlfriend fling—is funny, cute and oddly turns me on.

“Not really.”

I laugh even harder, and he finally cracks a smile.

“Anything else you seem to know about me?”

“I read them all. Anything and everything I could find on you. I needed something to hold me over until I got you here.”

“This is crazy, you know,” I tell him.

He brings a tater tot to my mouth, and I open for him.

“I don’t care if it’s crazy. I needed something. I thought getting some information on you would help cool whatever this is, this need I seem to have for you, but it didn’t work.”

I don’t like the idea of him cooling over me. I actually have this odd desire to throw fuel on this fire.

“Is it cooling now? Now that I’m sitting on your lap?”

“No.” He picks up the hot dog and brings it to my mouth. I take a bite. His eyes are now trained on my mouth since he started feeding me. “It’s getting worse.”

My body warms at his confession, and now I have a need, too.

“It’s not fair. You have me at a disadvantage. I didn’t have a chance to Google you. Everyone else seemed to know who you were today.”

“Ask me anything you want and I’ll tell you,” he says, offering me another bite.

“Give me the basics.”

“I’m thirty-three, both my parents have passed, I’ve got a Master’s in Business from UCLA, I own a hedge fund firm, and like you already know, I’m a workaholic and that’s pretty much all I do.”

“Sounds a little boring.” I take another bite of the hot dog.

“It was.”

“Was?” I query.

“I seem to have picked up a new interest. One that is filling my days and isn’t the least bit boring.” He smirks at me, and I know he’s talking about me.

“Women?” I ask. I shouldn’t. I don’t really want to know, but another part of me does. He looks like a man who has women throwing themselves at him. Hell, all the models at the shoot today wanted to. To top it off, he’s clearly filthy rich.

“What about them?” His brow furrows in confusion.

“Women in your life.”

“Sally was the only woman in my life until a week ago.”

I freeze and pull back. I was sure there was nothing between him and Sally. When she was in here, she seemed more motherly than anything.

“Are you full?” He looks at the half-eaten hot dog, clearly unhappy that I don’t want to finish it.

“You and Sally have a thing.”

“If having a thing means her driving me crazy at work and keeping my life in order, then we very much have a thing.”

“Okay.” I release a breath, relieved it wasn’t what I was thinking. He puts the food back on the plate.

“Cali, I haven’t had a woman in my life in a very long time. College maybe.” He says it like he can’t even remember. “You are the only woman for me. I knew it from the moment your picture landed on my desk. In fact, I’m starting to think part of me knew you were out there and that’s why no one has caught my attention, why I didn’t care to try to find a woman. It was like some part of me just knew and I was waiting for you.”

“I haven’t even been with anyone,” I tell him, feeling his whole body freeze under me. He doesn’t say anything, but I see his breathing start to deepen as he stares at me. His eyes are so intense I start to squirm in his lap.

“Are you done eating?” he finally says, his voice deeper than before.

“Yes, but aren’t you going to eat?”

“Yes,” he growls, lifting me from his lap with one arm. The other sweeps across the table, and everything flies to the floor. Before I can even react, my back hits the table, my skirt bunching at my hips. Flynn reaches for my exposed panties, ripping them from my body, gripping my thighs in his big hands as he pulls me to the edge of the table and holds me open for him.

He stares down at my exposed *.

“I wouldn’t have cared if you’d been with a hundred men. You’re mine now, so it wouldn’t matter to me because I’d be the last to touch you, but knowing now that you’ve been waiting gives me hope that you won’t fight me to keep you. That you know that this is where you belong.”