He must have been a little too enthusiastic, because her expression turned guarded. “Now hold on. I agree to one date with you.”
“Out of pity.” He nodded. “Continue.”
“You’re kind of pushy. And weird.” She frowned. “You asked me out minutes after I broke up with the guy I was seeing for months.”
“How many months?”
“Um, nine.”
He cringed. “Nine months with Mr. Loafers? Man.”
She tried to smother a smile. “Well, Ben was nice. But I think that was my problem.”
“How so? I thought women dug nice guys.”
She squared her shoulders and looked him directly in the eye. “You want honesty?”
“Please.”
“We both know you’re here to visit your parents. Then you’ll go back to your regularly scheduled life soon enough.” When he remained silent, she continued, “You want a hookup. I decided to take you up on that.”
“Right now?” He glanced around. “I guess we could ask if they have a closet we could use.”
“Ha ha. Look, fella, I’m being honest. I’m not looking for another nice guy. I’ve had a string of nice guys. They suck.”
He kept his expression interested but not reactive, aware of her close attention.
“I’m thinking a fling with a bad boy might be fun.”
“And in this scenario, I’m the bad boy?”
“Well, it sure isn’t me.” She gave him a flirty onceover. “I’m super nice. Remember me being super nice at the party?”
His throat dried, and below the belt, he locked up. Tight. Fortunately, the server arrived with drinks and salads to distract him.
Marlie smirked, obviously noting the flush over his cheeks. Cheeks he’d shaved just for her. He’d imagined sliding them between her thighs when he gave her back the pleasure she’d given him the other night.
Well, hell. She wanted a tough guy? A bad boy? He could fake that. He’d channel any of the dickheads he interacted with on a daily basis. The team had a ton of emotionally immature man-boys the ladies seemed to like.
Damon tried to give her a stern look, but she focused on her salad, not watching him any longer.
Hungry and needing to think about how best to play her game to get that second date they both had to have, he enjoyed his greens before the pizza arrived.
“Oh man. This looks fantastic.” Marlie didn’t wait and dug in, scooping two slices onto her plate.
He loved that about her. She didn’t act suddenly shy or demure. She didn’t wait for him to go first and suddenly like everything he liked. Sadly, he’d been on too many dates with women trying to fit whatever they thought he wanted, not being true to themselves.
“Why are you staring at me?” she asked in between bites, her eyes full of suspicion.
Why that made him want to laugh he couldn’t say. “How’s the pizza? Just black olives and mushrooms seems boring to me.”
She studied his side of the pie, with all the meat and veggies—minus the onions. “I like to keep things simple. You’ve got an entire farm on that thing.”
“Well, yeah. I’m a growing boy.” He just smiled.
She huffed. “Whatever. Here.” She held her slice out to him, and he bit into it.
“Not bad.” He fetched a slice from his side and held it to her. “Your turn.”
