I’d found myself wanting it to be real, and it had scared me enough to spend the following days forcing the man from my mind, though unsuccessfully.Even if I were to never see him again, Quaid was still my father’s attorney on record, and so Dad spoke of the man quite often.
Once the elevator doors slid open, Quaid followed me to my office in silence, and I wasn’t sure if he could feel the tension rolling off me in waves, but I sure felt it.I had no idea why he was here, but whatever his reason, it couldn’t be all bad, right?I mean, would he really show up at my place of work to cause a scene?For Christ’s sakes, he was a lawyer, a bona fide professional.
We finally reached my office, and I immediately shut the door once he crossed the threshold.I wasn’t high up enough to have a secretary, but the people here were good about knocking before just entering an office on their own.
I passed Quaid on the way to my desk, and once I was safely positioned behind it, I said, “Okay, you’ve got my attention.”
Instead of taking a seat in one of the extra chairs provided, Quaid chose to stand, eyeing me from across my desk, and he looked just as good as he’d had on the day that I’d first met him.
Surprising the hell out of me, he asked, “Are you busy next Friday night?”
I arched a brow.“Got a taste for being on stage, Mr.Crawford?”
I mean, why else would he be asking?
He shot me a telling look.“No, Ms.DeLéon.I’m asking because I need a date for the Starlight Gala that night, and I thought that you might like to go with me.”
What?
He was asking me out on adate?
Seriously?
With my brows furrowed in some serious confusion, I asked, “Like...you’re asking me out on a date?”
He let out a low chuckle.“Yes, I’m asking you out on a date.”
I shook my head a bit, trying to clear my thoughts.“Why?”I finally asked.“What happened to me being an attention-craving spoiled narcissist?”
“I never called you a narcissist,” he drawled out, though not denying the rest of it.
“That’s reassuring,” I retorted, though I had to laugh at his honesty.Most people cringed or flat out lied when you called them out.
“I misjudged you,” he finally admitted.“I misjudged you, and I apologize for that.”
Eyeing him, I said, “You’re going to have to do better than that, Quaid.If this is about The Fantasy-”
He immediately put his hand up to stop me.“This isn’t about Friday night,” he replied, and his voice was exactly what I pictured while he was in a courtroom.“Remember, that wasyourfantasy, not mine.”
“Then what is this about?”I asked, trying to tap down the hope in my voice.
I didn’t say anything as Quaid made his way around my desk until he was standing right in front of me.He reached out to play with the collar of my blouse as he said, “This is about how you felt in my arms later.This is about how my sheets still smell like you, like us.This is about how I can’t stop thinking of you, Zia.”
Yeah, there was that hope again, and it was soaring high.We weren’t naked or having sex.We weren’t putting on a show, nor were we still basking in the afterglow of some amazing sex.It was a week later, and Quaid was asking me on a date, and not to the local steakhouse.He was asking me to the Starlight Gala, an event that was going to have photographers, press, and all that jazz.
“And what are we going to tell my dad?”I asked, still processing that this was really happening.
“That we ran into each other again, and that we hit it off,” he replied, which was true if you didn’t put a fine point on the details.
“I just...I didn’t expect this, Quaid,” I told him honestly.“I think I might need a minute.”
His warm hand reached up to wrap around the side of my neck.“What’s there to think about, baby?And don’t act like you haven’t been thinking of me all week, either.”
“You make it sound so easy,” I chuckled nervously.
“Oh, there’s nothing easy about this,” he retorted, his hand giving my neck a quick squeeze.“Not only is your father my client, but I’m also fifteen years older than you are, and I work too many hours to make any kind of a decent boyfriend, let alone someone’s husband.”
“Already proposing?”I quipped, though I was glad to hear that he wasn’t as indifferent to all this as he seemed.
