“Now who’s the idiot? Don’t they realize you’ll just fuck that up when you…well, when you fuck the girl? Jesus, this is gold.” Diva is still sucking in air like a man without lungs and Saint tries to make sense of it all.
“No. Well, I mean kind of. I’m not going to fuck it up, but I do have plans to make her my real girlfriend so eventually we’ll sleep together.”
Silence greets once again.
“Sleeptogether? When has lover boy eversleptwith a woman? You go to pound town until they pass out andwhen they wake, you shoo them out the door like there’s a fire.”
“I don’t–” I start but make a quick correction. “Okay. I do that. But Valentina is different. She’s not a chick looking to gain status from fucking an athlete. Honestly, she can barely stand to put up with me most days. I guess that’s what makes her so appealing.”
“It’s the chase,” Diva adds and it clicks.
I’ve never chased a woman. They’ve always been the ones to come running after me. Then again, there’s never been a woman that I’ve wanted to chase. None of them ever held my attention the way Val does. She doesn’t just hold my attention, she utterly destroys it. I can see no one but her. The other faces are nothing but a blur. It’s like those movies where women stand in a crowd, all fighting for a man’s attention, but the spotlight shines on only one.
Theone.
We continue to talk about Valentina, and both Diva and Saint avoid all of my questions about them and their current love lives. When I next look at my watch, it’s four-thirty and I spring from the couch.
“Shit. I gotta go. I’m going to be late?”
“Late for what?”
“For dinner with Val. I told her I’d be there at five and I still have to stop by and pick up sushi. I’ll text you later.”
“Wait–” I end the call, not concerned with the fact that I just hung up on them, and rush out the door.
I’ve got some wooing to do.
Valentina pops the lid back onto the empty container, and dabs at the corners of her mouth like the classy woman she is.
“Thank you for dinner. I have to admit, I wasn’t looking forward to seeing you this evening, but it ended up being a pleasant time rather than the usual annoyance you bring.”
I wipe away the crumbs from my shaggy crunch roll and drop them into my now empty container. “Uh, you’re welcome?”
The saucy smirk and soft look in her eyes is becoming something that she shows with a bit more ease than before. The past few days, our conversations have grown more and more natural. Her smartass remarks still fire from her mouth like bullets from a gun, but they’ve turned soft and more like nerf darts. They only sting for a minute but the laughter and memories are ever lasting.
She goes about wiping furiously at her desk, removing any trace that a human ever made contact with it, and quickly stashing the trash away in a plastic bag and setting it by the door. I watch her and chuckle at her inability to be still.
“What?” She asks as she hangs her purse from the crook of her elbow and holds her briefcase in the other.
“You can’t handle anything out of order, can you?Were your hands itching to organize everything the entire time we were eating?”
The incredulous look on her face judges me while her feet move quickly to exit her office. I scurry behind her so as not to be locked in because I think she’d do it and not think twice about it or care.
She stomps to the elevators and stabs the button, then stares up at the lights that hang overhead.
“I like order in all aspects of my life. And you have brought nothing butdisorder and chaos to my perfectly structured world.”
I can’t help my excitement to see her get all in a tizzy. I ruffle her feathers and damn does it turn me on like I never thought it would. That fire in her eyes makes me wonder, does she want to slap my face or kiss me passionately? Honestly, either would be fine with me.
The elevator dings and the doors open, blessedly empty. We step in and press the button to take us the three flights down to the lobby. I advance on her and she stumbles back. When I lean into her and rest my hand on the wall, she tries to melt into the cold surface behind her, eyes watching me with bewilderment.
“It’s not chaos that I bring to your life, it’s called excitement. I bring thrill and you love it. You may not know it yet, but you do.”
She glares at me and exhales. “A mosquito at a vampire convention is less annoying than you.” Her eyebrow arches thinking she really stung me with that one, but again…
Freaking turn on.
I inch closer and closer to her, our noses so close I can feel her warm breath blanket over me. Licking my lips I move in the last centimeter that separates us and press my lips to hers. Her body sags as a small moanescapes. I move my hand to caress her cheek, sliding my fingers through her hair. Her back arches and her breasts press against me. Her purse drops to the floor and her hand roams up my arm.
