She shot me a look.“I’m not most women.”
With a grin, I nodded.“Believe me, I got that.”
Her eyes danced over my face.“Do you think this is just a weird form of Stockholm Syndrome?”
I turned my head to the side and huffed out a disbelieving chuckle.When I faced her, I tried to keep my tone level.“No.I don’t.If it were that, you’d be mourning the death of at least one of those assholes.”
“Going through trauma connects people, though,” she muttered.
I hesitated a moment.“Yeah, but the thing is, on the day you showed up, my astute sister pointed out that you tick all of my boxes.So…don’t downplay what’s going on here.”
She gave a reluctant nod.“That’s fair.”
“Right.I don’t want to pressure you into anything, so if you want me to stop, I’ll get up and leave you alone, once I get someone else here to keep you safe.”
Chapter 15
Upstanding Woman
Ivy
Idon’tthinkI’dever had any man be so direct with me.While I loved that he was willing to leave me be, I knew I didn’t want anyone else here but him.
He began to shift his weight, and I reached up and traced a finger along his lower jaw.“No.I want to see what happens between us – even if it scares the hell out of me.”
He tipped his head and his ocean-blue eyes filled with curiosity.“What is there to be scared of?”
I laughed.“Don’t ask stupid questions.”
“Fair.Are you sure I didn’t pressure you?”
I smirked.“No, but telling me that I ticked all your boxes is a very smooth move.”
He chuckled.“I’ll keep that in mind.Even though my dick is hard as a fuckin’ rock right now, I’m gonna give you a choice.Your buddy wants you to talk to Lark.Something tells me you don’t want him to be there.Am I right?”
I widened my eyes.“Get out of my head!”
He grinned a boyish grin.I loved that look on him, it softened his features and drew me to him.“If you want, I’ll call Lark and make sure he has time to talk to you this afternoon.That way, your buddy isn’t there, and if it doesn’t go the way you want, it’s private.”
My teeth sunk into my lower lip as I debated that.
“Ivy,” he half-said, half-groaned.
I let my lip go and grimaced.“Sorry!That sounds good actually, but can we do that after we finish what we started?”
He shook his head.“No.Thing is, I know his schedule.You want this, it’ll be better to go in the afternoon before any of the happy hour-slash-early-bird dinner people show up.”
“Fine,” I said, not hiding my petulant tone.
He smiled and sat up.“Don’t worry.When we’re done, no matter how it goes, I’ll take you out for a nice dinner andthenwe’ll really finish what we started.”
I sat up.“Awesome.That sounds like a plan.Are we going on your bike?”
He stood, paused, and looked down at me.“It’s almost twenty miles from here, are you sure you want that?You’ll have to do something with that beautiful hair of yours if you do.”
My hair wasn’t exactly my armor, but like most women, I felt better when I knew I looked my best.
With a short nod, I said, “Okay, we can take my car.”
