Fuck.
For the first time in my life, there is no outcome here that feels like a win. If I take the building, I lose any chance with her. If I don't take the building, the whole project may fall apart. It'sa hell of a position to be. But this feels bigger than a property dispute. Maybe, for once, it's not about winning. It's about something more important: me and her.
I don't get a chance to say anything else before Audrey returns, placing two plates in front of us. I stare at the burger with wide eyes, trying to wrap my mind around the sheer size of the thing.
Lilah must see my expression because an abrupt laugh spills from her lips, more snort of amusement than anything. "You look terrified."
"I'm going to have a goddamn heart attack right here at the table if I try to eat this," I mutter. "I'm forty-two. My arteries can't handle this much burger."
Audrey chuckles, setting baskets of fries beside the burgers. "I guess you didn't read the warning on the menu."
"There was a warning?" I narrow my eyes at Lilah when she laughs again. "You planning to take me out with a burger, little bookworm?"
"Coward," she says, smirking at me as she wraps her hands around hers and takes a savage bite. I don't even know how she manages it. Her jaw unhinges or something because the goddamn burger is bigger than her head.
"Are you challenging me?"
She just shrugs.
Audrey laughs, taking a step back. "I would wish you luck, but you are not prepared for this fight, Lincoln. She has experience. You don't."
"Have an ambulance on standby," I mutter, picking up my own burger.
"Will do," Audrey says, laughing as she walks away.
"If I die, I'm haunting you," I warn Lilah before taking a big bite.
"You're already haunting me, Lincoln, no death necessary."
Fuck, I love knowing that she can't keep me off her mind, either. It's a damn good indication that she feels the same thing I do. She's just afraid to give in and let herself feel it.
"I still think you cheated," Lilah grumbles two hours later, pouting at me from the passenger side of the SUV as we drive back toward the bookstore.
"Not my fault you assumed I've never had diner food before," I say, grinning over at her. "You underestimated me."
"Clearly," she sniffs. "You ate the whole thing. And your fries."
I'm going to pay for it for the next six months. My stomach is so full I can't even breathe right. I canfeelmy arteries clogging as we speak. But I'm not telling her that. She's too damn cute when she's pouting.
"We could have gotten the rest of yours to go," I tease.
She glares at me, clearly not over the fact that she couldn't finish hers. Poor baby does not lose well. I file that information away for later.
"I want to know about your diner history," she says after a moment. "Because the only clothes you own are fancy suits. And you have a stick up your butt the size of a redwood. There's no way you've spent much time in diners."
"I have a stick up my butt?" I cock a brow at her.
"Yes. You don't think women should read or dance or do anything remotely fun."
"I never said that," I object.
"You were grumpy because we were dancing."
"I was not grumpy. I was curious why the fuck you were dancing around, singing about sex toys."
I wanted to be your sex toy.
"You were growly."
