Thankfully. His office isn’t totally dark after all, but the small desk lamp is positioned in a way that doesn’t throw light out to the corridor. I find him sitting behind his desk and leaning back in his chair as he frowns over whatever’s on his laptop screen.
He looks up as I lounge against the doorframe. “Still feel like sushi? I’m buying.”
The adorable grin he gives me makes my heart skip and my cock stir. I force myself not to reach down and adjust things. At least I’m wearing my overcoat, and it sort of helps hide my growing condition.
He stands and closes his laptop. “Doesn’t mean I’ll put out on the first date.” The playful lilt in his tone makes me want to walk over to him, fist his hair, and put him on his knees in front of me.
Damn, this guy just does something to me.
And no, it has nothing at all to do with his gorgeous blue eyes, or the way he makes my heart race in a way it hasn’t in years.
Doesn’t remind me at all of a certain someone else in a way no one else has.
I can lie to myself all I want, right?
I decide to take a calculated risk before this goes too far and I get crushed. “Doesn’t mean I won’t put you over my knees by our second date.”
He pauses, his head slowly swiveling until his gaze meets mine again. I recognize the blatant hunger there, the needy desire.
The hope.
“That a threat, or a promise?”
I shrug, hoping it looks far more nonchalant than I feel. “Can’t it be both?”
“I freakinghopeso,” he mutters, now hurrying as he dumps his things into his laptop bag and switches off his desk lamp. He grabs his overcoat and I don’t move out of his way when he approaches.
He has to look up at me. “Damn, you’re a tall one, aren’t you?”
“Six-five.” He’s got to be around five-ten, which isn’t a problem for me.
In fact, it’s better, in some ways, that he’s not as tall as my ghost.
“Let me see your hands again.”
That’s an odd segue, but I hold my right up.
His eyes widen a little, then narrow.
“Play your cards right, you’ll have me over your knees before you know it.”
I stand my ground. “Is that right?”
He steps closer, close enough I can smell he’s thankfully not wearing some obnoxious body spray, and I want to kiss him.
His voice drops. “I’m no pushover,Sir, but if you earn my trust? I’ll follow you through Hell and back, and then some.”
I suck in another breath because I know damn well what he’s saying. This boy is about to get bent over his own desk. When I reach down to adjust myself, I don’t bother hiding what I’m doing.
“Well then,boy, I suggest we go have ourselves some sushi and conversation.” I hold out my hand, motioning at his laptop bag, and he hands it over.
I shoulder it. “For the record, when we’re together, I get doors for you, and you wait for me to do it.”
His gaze searches my face for a moment. When he next speaks, his voice sounds so soft I can barely hear him. “I’m not poly, or open, or anything like that. I’m monogamous. If that’s a problem, please say so now, and we can still have dinner. I cannot do this if you want to play the field, and I will be a total fucking cunt if you cheat on me.” He softens that by adding a smile and, in a playful tone, says, “Except for your one and only hall-pass fuck, of course. I mean, I don’t want to be totally unreasonable. And that works both ways.”
But he’s not fooling me. I catch the way his lips tremble a little as he says that, the slight waver in his tone.
Sensing he’s carrying his own secret pain, I’m hoping I’ve just met a kindred soul who will understand my haunted spirit.
