“Violet.” The way he said my name burned its way into my brain. “I like you.”
“Good.” I swallowed, but my throat had gone dry so I took a swig of my margarita. “It’s just that with most people, I can tell. You’re impossible to read.”
“We wouldn’t be here if I didn’t.”
“Here in the hotel bar? Or here in Chicago?”
He bit the corner of his lip and I was too tired, too tipsy, too captivated to not wonder how it would feel to have Dex’s teeth sink into my lip, my shoulder, my thighs.I like you, I imagined him murmuring into my skin after each bite.
“You don’t think they’re mutually exclusive?” he asked lowly, leaning in over the table. I could feel my breath coming quicker—Ihoped he couldn’t see my breasts heaving like a Regency heroine’s.
“I think you like me more than you did when you agreed to this trip,” I told him.
“I know you better,” he said. “More to like.”
I sat back in my chair, the compliment warming me to my blood. “Oh.”
“Is that surprising?”
“A year ago, no.” I dropped my gaze to the table. “I haven’t felt very likable lately.”
“Really?” He sounded surprised. “You’re so fucking refreshing. You wear you heart on your sleeve in a way that’s both admirable and terrifying.” My pounding pulse blurred my vision with each beat.You’re so fucking refreshing. I’d carry that with me for the rest of my life. “You yell at strangers in their place of work and try to seduce them into giving you personal intel.”
My laugh transitioned into a groan. “God. I can’t believe I did that. We should never talk about it again, starting now.”
“That dress,” he went on.
I crumpled up a napkin and threw it at him, and he laughed. My blood hit a boiling point. “Desperation makes you do crazy things.”
His smile dimmed a few watts and he reached for his drink. “Oh, I’m aware.”
I winced, thinking of the letter that brought us together in the first place. How devastated he must’ve been when he wrote it. The damage it did to never hear back. The fallout. Everything up to now, right this second.
“What happened?” I asked, the words slipping out unwittingly. “With you and Catalina?”
Dex gulped his drink, wincing. Was I asking too much of him? Here we were on a trip to return a letter he’d written to herand I hardly knew anything about their relationship aside from what I’d (possibly illegally) read in said letter. I didn’t necessarily feel entitled to the information, but it did seem odd that Dex remained so protective of it when he was the one insisting it was over.
“Doesn’t matter,” he said, wiping his face clear of emotion. I sighed into another sip of my drink, disappointed in myself for even feeling disappointed. “Why do you think Sequest is sketchy?”
I laughed, prompting the line between his brows to deepen. “Because you drive a Mercedes? And you’re paying for this entire trip? ‘Money isn’t an issue’?”
“That would make me sketchy, not Sequest.”
“Well, you work there.”
“Technically, yes.”
“That’s what I mean.” I pointed at him. “Sketchy.”
He hid his smile behind the last sip of his margarita. When he offered to get us more, I agreed without hesitation, checking my phone to see if Phoebe had woken up, demanding to know why I’d gone out with Dex without her.
She hadn’t.
When Dex returned, I steeled myself for the return of the brick wall and said, “Do I get to ask you something now?”
“You found out a lot about me tonight.”
“Nobody cares that you used to live in Chicago,” I said, which wasn’t true, but it made him laugh, so my heart did a little flip. “Did you actually pose for an art class?”
