“How?”I exclaimed.“How do you always know what I’m thinking?”
He chuckled.“You looked at the booth, then the hallway to the bathroom, then your eyebrows shot up and you smiled.So, unless you came here with someone else, sat at this booth, and avoided him in the bathroom, it’s a safe guess.”
“You made me nervous.”I drew an imaginary circle around my face.“The way you looked at me,” even the memory of it made me swallow hard, “I knew I was out of my league.”
“It’s only because you want it that it affects you.”
“Want what?”
“To let go.Give up control.Give yourself over into someone else’s hands.”
I screwed up my face.
“Give yourself over into my hands.”
My disdain evaporated.
“See?”He took a sip of his beer.“With the right partner, you want to be set free.”
“Set free from what though?I want to understand.”
“You will.”
“Tonight?”
He pointedly set his beer down on the table.“Do you want it to be tonight?”
I raised my eyebrows.“Do you?”
He stared back at me for a moment, the brackets around his beautiful mouth deepening.“I see I’ve made another tactical error.You don’t need space, you need convincing.”
“You were giving me space?Why?”I stared at him incredulously as he picked up his beer.“I thought maybe you changed your mind about me.But that didn’t make sense because we’ve been spending all our free time together.So, I figured you had a low sex drive.”
He slammed his bottle down on the table, coughing and sputtering behind his hand.His laughter reached his eyes, the corners crinkling.
“Harley, you’re killing me.This is the second time you’ve made me choke.”He lowered his voice and leaned closer, his lips still curved in a smile.“I do not have a low sex drive.I did not want to spook you by moving too fast.I think the opposite is true.And perhaps you’ve been feeling neglected?”
I shook my head.“Not neglected, no.Just maybe that you weren’t as interested in me in that way as I am in you.”
My face flamed at the thought that he didn’t find me as attractive as I found him.I looked down at the table.Of course, it made sense.Where he was lean and muscular, I was softly rounded.More rounded than I should have been.
I closed my eyes.What was I doing with him?Physically, we were not a match.Would I spend our entire relationship wondering what he saw in me?Knowing everyone else wondered the same thing?
I didn’t intend to spill my guts, but he had this simple, direct, and non-judgmental manner of questioning me that made it all too easy to spill.
“You’re spiraling hard,” he murmured.
I looked back up at him, a polite smile on my face.
“Honesty, Harley,” he murmured softly.
I inhaled and dropped my smile.“What are you doing with me?”
“Anything and everything you’ll let me.”
I laughed painfully.“I’m not joking.”
“Neither am I.”
