Naughty or Nice(8)

Her eyebrows furrow as she mouths several words like she’s trying to pronounce them. Maybe I should have told her the entire menu was going to be in French, but she opened it up and refused to ask for help. There’s something so complex about her that I want to figure out. She’s unlike anyone I’ve ever met and this sexual attraction I have to her is unreal.

With a quick huff she closes the menu and slaps it on the table.

“Would you like me to translate it for you?” I offer, and she purses her lips.

“Of course you speak French.”

“I didn’t think it would upset you.” I can’t keep the laugh out of my voice as she rolls her eyes and takes a drink of water.

“It doesn’t upset me that you speak French. It upsets me that I didn’t know we were coming to a fancy place and I’m wearing a Christmas sweater and snow boots.” She looks around and I see a tinge of pink on her cheeks.

“I was trying to impress you,” I admit and lean forward to take her hand. To my surprise she doesn’t pull away from me, but she doesn’t look at me either.

“I don’t understand why you’d try to do that.”

“If several days of stalker-like behavior bordering on breaking the law for harassment weren’t any indication, let me just say that I really, really want to get to know you.”

“Borderline?” She looks at me and raises an eyebrow in challenge.

“So, tell me what’s with the hot and cold?” I ask, changing the subject on how eager I was to get her to go out with me. “You were silent as a church mouse on the way here and now you’re scowling at one of the nicest restaurants in town like it stole Christmas from all of Whoville.”

A smile pulls at her lips until she can’t fight it any longer. Her fingers lace with mine and it’s then I see her relax. My body does the same and I feel that charge between us from before. It’s always there, lying low and ready to snap, and right now it’s buzzing like lightning after it strikes.

“It’s just all really sudden. I met you for five seconds on a dark night and suddenly you can’t wait to get to know me? It sounds a little ridiculous to me.” The way she tilts her head to the side makes me want to kiss her neck again.

“Maybe to you.” I shrug as I rub the pad of my thumb over her palm. “But in my experience, when something like this feels this good, you have to hold on to it.”

“So, you’re a player?” Her body straightens and I shake my head as I smile.

“Oh no, far from it. I’m too busy being a workaholic to date. What I mean is that I’ve built my company into one of the greatest in the country and I can tell you within seconds of seeing a deal if it’s going to succeed. I trust my gut and it’s never led me wrong.”

“Is that what getting me to go on a date with you was about? Seeing if this was a good deal?”

“Claudia,” I say, sitting forward. The feel of her name on my tongue gets me hard and I’m thankful for long linen tablecloths. “If you keep shitting on my desire for you, I’m going to take you back to my place and turn you over my knee.”

Her face flushes and she bites her lip. I wonder if that wouldn’t be an agreeable solution for the both of us. I tuck that information into the back of my mind for later.

“I want you because the second I saw you my soul crawled out of its dark hiding place and for the first time in my goddamn life it attached to something. You. You’ve awoken this…this thing in me and I don’t know what it is or how to control it. That’s why I went nuts calling you every ten seconds. And that’s why even though I know this deal with Aaron Slate isn’t a good one, I’ll do anything to have you.”

The waiter thinks now’s a great time to pop up and ask what we’d like to order. I breathe through my nose for a second to calm myself and Claudia looks at me like I’ve just explained the theory of relatively.

I rattle off what I think Claudia would like to eat and then order two extra entrees in case I’m wrong. I’ll just have whatever she doesn’t like the look of. Once I’m finished, I hand the menu to the waiter and look back at Claudia and she’s staring at me with her lips parted slightly.

“What?”

“Whatever you ordered sounded really sexy.” She laughs, and it warms every part of me. Mostly the region below my belt, but that’s been hot for her for days.

“Is that all you have to say after I’ve basically told you that you’re my soulmate?”

She takes a sip of water before she shrugs again. “I’m not sure I believe in that.”

“You’re lying.”

I was honest when I said I trust my gut. This guy Slate is shady as hell, and the more I looked into his proposal and his other business dealings, the more I didn’t like the look of it. But if I need to sacrifice my reputation and all that I’ve built for a chance with Claudia, then it’s worth it. I see the way she looks at me and the way she reacts to my touch. It isn’t just on my side of the table that things are happening.

“You don’t know me well enough to know if I’m lying.” The waiter brings a basket of bread over, and when she reaches for it, I tug it out of her grasp.

“I know all I need to.” I look at the assorted basket of bread and then back to her. I reach into it and pull out the single croissant hidden on the bottom and slather it in butter. I put it on her small plate and nudge it towards her. “The rest I’ll learn in time.”