“Huh.” She avoided my eyes, leaning over to take a sip of her drink.
Why did I get the feeling she didn’t quite approve of my job choice? I scoffed at my own attitude. She was right. Being a VA wasn’t my thing. But I was working on that. “It’s just while I’m in school.”
She nodded, regrouped. “How much longer do you have in school?”
I popped a French fry into my mouth. “Four years. One more year to finish up my degree and then three years of law school. Fall semester just started.” Not that I’d managed to make it to class yet.
“That’s very dedicated for a guy like you.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” I wasn’t offended. More amused than anything. And curious as to what she would say.
She held her hands up in a sign of truce. “No, no. I didn’t mean it that way. I just meant…” She shrugged, at a loss for words. “I don’t know. You just don’t seem like the studying type. Not that there’s anything wrong with that type! It just doesn’t seem like…you.”
I leaned forward, my curiosity piqued. “And what kind of guy do you think I am, Ailee?”
She shifted in her seat, and somehow, I knew. I knew if we were anywhere but in this restaurant full of people who reeked like cigarettes and booze, I could find out that she was wet for me. My cock thickened and my nostrils flared with the memory of the scent of her skin.
“I don’t know. You come across more like a guy who likes to work with his hands.” Her cheeks flushed the moment the words came out of her mouth. “A blue-collar type…or something.”
I leaned forward and dropped my voice to a husky growl. “I amverygood with my hands, Ailee.”
Her lips parted and her chest rose on a quick inhale.
“But that’s only one of my many talents.” With a wink, I sat back in the booth and grabbed another fry. I needed to lighten the mood, or I’d never be able to get up out of this booth without the whole place knowing how hard up I was.
The waiter came over with our check, breaking the last threads of tension.
“Are you finished?” I gestured to her empty plate.
Ailee nodded, and I paid the check with cash and gave it back to the waiter, thanking him. “Come on, ‘lee. Let’s go blow some money and have some fun.”
For the next two hours, we donated my hard-earned modeling pay to the casino. I taught her how to play Blackjack, which she lost, and I won, and then we sat beside each other at the slot machines. We drank too much and laughed too hard, trading stories from our teens and twenties. I told her how old I was after she coerced it out of me with a smile and a touch, and she was really surprised. I wasn’t as young as she’d thought. I was flattered to find out she thought I was still in my twenties, when I was actually thirty-four. Still a bit of an age difference, but not as bad as she’d first thought. But as I’d told her before, quite a few times, I honestly didn’t give a shit about it.
Trying a different slot machine, she pulled the lever down and we watched the fruit spin around and around. When it stopped, three 7s were lined up across the front of the machine. I jumped up when bells started ringing and lights flashed in our eyes.
“You won!” I yelled when she just sat there frowning at the machine.
“I did?”
People all around us were staring. “You did!” Laughing, I pulled her out of her seat and spun her around, making both of us dizzy.
After collecting her winnings, I held her hand as we headed into the ballroom for the show. It was a natural thing for me, and I noticed she allowed me to take it now with barely any notice.
“I’ve never won anything before,” she admitted.
“And on the penny slots, too. That’s not a common thing.”
“I know exactly what I’m going to spend these two hundred dollars on,” she announced.
“Oh, yeah? What’s that?”
“A bookkeeper. I hate doing the books.”
“I can’t say that I blame you, although that will only give you one for about…what? Two weeks?”
She scrunched up her face with thought, and I think it was the most adorable thing I’d ever seen.
“Yeah, I’ll have to figure that one out later.”
