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“Because you don’t do things like that.”
How did he see me? Really see me, when no one else, not even my brother did. He reached across the table allowing his fingers to connect with mine, stopping short of holding hands. None of the anger I had expected appeared.
“No, I don’t.” I flipped my hand over, encouraging him to increase our contact. For a moment, I thought he was going to move his away, but he met my eyes and seemed to change his mind, placing his palm on mine. “I plan my life. Always have. And then, boom, you walk in and all of a sudden, I want to, no, need to take a chance. If it makes you feel better, I asked around to see if I could find you, but I didn’t get far.”
“You did?” He sounded shocked. Did he not know the things he did to me?
“I did. I wanted to thank you. Because of you, I took the right chances and got a good job.” Brilliant, I made it look like a polite gesture when it was so much more than that. I needed to kick my own ass later.
“The one I had already offered you.”
“Which I only figured out today.” Because that was how my life worked. “What would’ve been different if I had stayed?”
“I would’ve spent the morning with you in my arms.”
And then we would have had an awkward goodbye, I added silently. “So basically, nothing but more naked time?” I teased, fearing the moment was getting too far into territory we should stay away from.
“It felt like it could be more to me.” He laced his fingers with mine, giving them a slight squeeze.
“Me, too.”
Chapter Sixteen
Porter
Now that I had Michael here in front of me, I felt this insane desire to snatch him up and never let him go. I had started this lunch just looking for answers. Now I had only one more question—when could I get him in bed again?
Instead, I steered to a safer topic and said, “I’m glad you decided to take me up on my job offer, finally, no matter how you found it.”
His eyes flashed with the indignation I expected. Damn, I loved it when he lit up like that. It had been years since anyone had really challenged me.
“I got this job on my own, thank you very much.”
When he got all uptight like that, I just wanted to push him up against the wall, kiss him senseless, make him beg for more, and then fuck his mouth with my cock, guiding his head with my fists in his hair, destroying this smooth, put-together image and leaving him with swollen lips, glassy eyes, and roughed-up sexy hair.
I shifted in my seat and tried to adjust myself discreetly. I’d been half hard since seeing him in the hallway, and spending more time in his presence wasn’t doing me any favors.
“So tell me how you found out about the job.”
His posture relaxed somewhat, and he gave me a hint of a smile. “I will admit that I do owe you some thanks for putting the idea of looking for internships into my head.”
“I would think you owe me for a lot more than that. There wouldn’t be internships if I hadn’t created the company, after all.”
He ignored my comment, acknowledging it only with a lift of one eyebrow. “So I started applying for internships that week, got the job, and as soon as I finished up the classes I was still working on, I picked up, moved, and started.” There was a slight hesitation as he ended his sentence, but he seemed to shrug it off. “That’s it, really.”
“I’m impressed,” I said.
The haughty look and posture returned. “Did you think I wouldn’t be able to do it on my own?”
“I wasn’t being sarcastic,” I assured him. “I am impressed. That took a lot of hard work in a short period of time. You don’t stop at anything once you set your eyes on it, do you?”
There was a moment of awkward silence, and I wondered what was going through his brain as he looked off into the distance. “Generally, no,” he agreed.
I could tell there was a level of this conversation I wasn’t reading, and it was driving me nuts. I was used to seeing the connections and motivations between people and words while barely trying. Now, I was bending my entire body and will to understand Michael, and I was coming up with a whole lot of nothing.
I had this devilish urge to set him off balance, to crack open the shell he was hiding behind and see what was inside. “I’ve thought about you,” I admitted, and was rewarded with the shocked widening of his eyes.
“You must say that to all the men,” he said finally, tossing away my comment like it was nothing to him.
