An Act of Persuasion(35)

“I know what you meant. You meant I have to believe it can exist before I’ll believe I can experience it. Fine. Then show me.”

“What do you mean?”

“We can date. Like any other couple. I want to take you out and get to know you not as a friend or an employee but as something else. I want to take you to dinners and movies and buy you flowers. Hope maybe I can impress you enough so you’ll let me and my massive erection back into your bed.”

She rolled her eyes. “I can’t believe I used the word massive. You’re never going to let me live that down are you?”

“Unlikely.”

“So we date.” She paused as if considering the idea. “With maybe the potential for sex. What if it doesn’t work out?”

He shrugged. “What if it doesn’t? You were ready to have a relationship based only on our shared parenting of the kid. If we date and it doesn’t work out, we’ll still have that.”

Her eyes narrowed a little. “You made me think you weren’t happy with that arrangement.”

“I’m not. I want the baby in my life. Full time. Not part time. But I guess that’s punishment for every man who doesn’t have the good sense to marry the woman first before making a baby with her. I don’t get my way in this.”

He watched her taking in his words, and knew that she was satisfied with them. He wasn’t lying. He knew he had very little control in what the final arrangement between them was going to be.

“Okay. We can date.”

“Excellent. Before I leave give me a taste. Just a taste, so I can remember...”

He didn’t finish his thought. Simply lowered his head and felt for her lips. They were exactly like he remembered. At first touch they were plump and delicious, giving him a little resistance as they pushed against his own lips. That should have been enough, but when he heard the slight gasp in her throat he wanted more. His mouth opened and he pushed his tongue inside feeling the moist heat of her mouth, remembering all too well how her wonderful mouth had surrounded the head of his cock.

Holding her face in his hands, he thrust his tongue steadily against hers, hopefully reminding her of that night, too. How they had moved together so easily, so naturally.

Then he felt pressure against his chest and he knew that he was taking her too far too fast. She wasn’t ready for sex. He could respect that, he would honor that. But he damn well wanted her to know that, in terms of desire for her, he had no equal.

Slowly he lifted his head and watched with satisfaction as she struggled to blink her eyes open.

“Delicious. Just like I remembered.”

“You should go,” she whispered. “I can’t...think when you do that.”

Which was the point but he didn’t want to press things. He had made good progress. She’d let him back inside her apartment. She let him back inside her mouth. It was only a matter of time before he was ultimately back where he really wanted to be.

Between her legs and in her heart.

“Good night. I’ll call you.”

Ben left with a reminder to lock the door behind him and had this crazy urge to jog down the hallway to the elevators. For the first time in these past few crazy days with Anna he had a sense that things weren’t truly over. That he could fix them.

Like any other mission he took on he simply had to focus on his goal, set a plan in motion, then make it work.

In this case he needed to make this relationship work. Okay, so she wanted to be loved back. It seemed like a reasonable request and he hadn’t lied to her when he said he would try. Unfortunately, he knew himself too well. Love was something poetic and pretty. He wasn’t a man inclined to either. But regardless of whatever he came to feel for Anna, she would never think for one second it wasn’t love. He could convince her every day that she was the center of his world, and she would never have to know how he labeled his emotions.

She would be his and with her came his child.

Yes, this courtship was just another mission for him.

And when he was on a mission he did not fail.

* * *

MARK WATCHED Anna walk across the lobby of their office building, heading toward where he was sitting at the coffee shop, but not really seeing him. Her mind was occupied and he didn’t have to stretch to figure out who was filling up her thoughts.

He wished Ben could see her like this. See her and know what it was like to have a woman who was walking alone in a crowded atrium and thinking of nothing but him. Once again Mark found himself jealous of Ben.