Betting on You (Danvers #4.5)(10)
Still at a loss, he said, “But, I’m supposed to be meeting someone.”
“I’m the someone you are meeting. Just trust me. I’ll tell you everything when we’re seated. There is no one else coming.” They were starting to attract some attention and by that point, he was intrigued despite himself, so he held his hand out, indicating that she should precede him. Within a few moments they were seated at a window table. He stayed quiet until they had placed their drink order and then settled back to give her a questioning look. He had a feeling this was going to be entertaining.
“I must admit, you have me more than a little curious.”
She gave him a slight smile, looking suddenly nervous. “Er . . . I don’t really know where to begin. I guess I should say that the blonde who bid on you at the auction is actually my mother’s assistant, Cathy. She was instructed to, um . . . buy you at my mother’s directive.”
He interrupted her, clearly surprised. “Your mother bought me? Why in the world would she do that?”
By this point, Mia’s cheeks had flushed to a hue that matched her dress. “For me,” she whispered.
“Pardon?” he asked, not sure that he had heard her correctly.
Clearly exasperated with him, she said louder than she had probably intended, “She bought you for me!”
He knew it was probably his imagination that everyone in the restaurant was suddenly looking at them. He was sure there were probably a few people in the back who hadn’t caught that attention-getting statement. Holding up his hand, he said, “Okay, I got that. Does she . . . do this type of thing for you often? I mean, buy you dates?”
The confident Mia seemed to have returned as she chuckled at his question. “No, believe it or not, you’re a first. Apparently, seeing us together at lunch yesterday gave her the idea. Wouldn’t you think she would have just tried to fix us up or something instead of spending thousands to force you to have dinner with me? Sorry about that, by the way. I was planning to tell you all of this at your office today, but you never came in. I didn’t want to just not show up tonight. Plus my mom assured me that if you cancelled, you would have to pay the money yourself, which isn’t exactly fair.” He felt like his head was spinning at the end of her rapid-fire list of things that had brought them to this point tonight. All he could focus on was how sexy she looked in that dress. He had to refrain from moaning out loud when he noticed the distinct outline of her ni**les against the fitted material. He wondered how they would taste when he licked the tips with his tongue.
“Seth . . . Seth . . . hellooo.”
Finally, her words penetrated the sexual fog and he was sure that his face was now the color of her dress as well. His heavy c**k pressing painfully against the zipper of his pants made it necessary to shift in his chair before answering her. “Sorry, Mia, that’s . . . it’s fine, really. It’s not a big deal. Who knows why parents do the things they do? Let’s just have dinner and enjoy the evening. You look beautiful, by the way.” Way to keep things business, Jackson. You shouldn’t notice how she looks, much less compliment her on it.
“Holy hell, that’s a relief. I was afraid you were going to freak out or something.” When the waiter returned with the bottle of wine that Seth had ordered, she held her glass up.
“Do you want to sample it first?”
Smirking, she shook her head. “No way, I trust your judgment. Go ahead and fill it up. I could use the liquid courage.”
He smiled in agreement. So far this evening was nothing like he had planned . . . it was so much better that it scared the shit out of him.
***
Mia was tipsy. How had that happened? Maybe she had drunk a glass or two of wine before their meal arrived, but surely that wasn’t enough to have her giggling at everything Seth said like a schoolgirl. He didn’t seem to be in much better shape than she was. Oh, shit, were there two bottles of wine on their table or was she seeing double? When she had told him a few minutes before that his ass was so beautiful she wanted to take a bite out of it, she knew she had had one too many. Far from being offended, he had shifted his chair closer to hers and now had a hand on her thigh dangerously close to the hemline of her dress. She should move away or go to the restroom and hide. Was she doing any of those things, though? No, she was returning the gesture and running her hand up his thigh. She wasn’t stopping there, either; she was now stroking the outline of his hard c**k through his trousers, and his wandering hand was getting closer and closer to the apex of her thighs. Before she thought better of it, she said, “You’re a big boy, Seth, a really big boy.”
“And you’re a bad girl, Mia, a very bad girl. Let’s get out of here so I can do something about that for you.”
She made a feeble excuse. “But, my car is here.” He rubbed his hand against the thin silk of her thong and she fought to control the moan that rose to her lips.
“I’ve got a car and a driver. I just texted him and told him to pick us up at the entrance. I’ll have your car brought to my house.” Before she knew it, Seth had settled the bill and was steering her toward the door with a hand in the small of her back. She gave a bright smile to the man holding the rear door of a shiny, black car open as Seth helped her inside. When he pulled her into his lap as the car started moving, she looked toward the front in alarm. “It’s okay; there is a privacy glass so Mike won’t be able to hear or see a thing.”