His eyes turned to liquid honey whiskey.
“You can taste me,” he rasped.
“Now?”
He smiled at my hopeful tone. “I gotta get to the Ridge. I’m already late.”
I sighed in remorse. “Right.”
“Tonight,” he whispered huskily. “You can taste me tonight.”
Excitement bloomed in my belly.
He let me go. “Now, roll away from me and get dressed or I’m liable to call out sick.”
“How’s the donut?” Brooks asked as he started the truck engine.
I was munching on a bite and held it out to him.
He looked at it and shook his head.
I swallowed. “You can’t be human. How can you resist something like this? Oh right. You hate chocolate.”
“I lied about hating chocolate,” he admitted.
“You what?” I looked at him, my brow furrowing. “Why would you lie about something like that?”
“I promised myself I wouldn’t eat chocolate anymore,” he said. “And I don’t break promises I make to myself. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be a man of my word.”
“I don’t understand, though. Why are you denying yourself something you enjoy?”
“Because I have an addictive and sometimes obsessive personality.” He glanced at me. “So, I don’t drink and I don’t eat chocolate.”
“What else don’t you do?” I asked in shock.
“I don’t sleep in. I always get up with my alarm. When I say I’m going to do something, I do it.”
“And you don’t deviate?”
“I don’t deviate.”
We fell silent for a moment and then I said, “So you don’t allow yourself anything that brings you pleasure?”
He didn’t reply right away, so I looked at him and waited.
“How can you ask me that? After what just happened between us? I derived just as much pleasure from watching you come as you did from coming.”
His words made me squirm in my seat. I cleared my throat. “I find that hard to believe. I enjoyed myself quite a bit.”
Brooks flashed a grin. “Yeah. I know.”
I refused to let him turn the conversation.
“Just seems sad, Brooks,” I said softly.
“What does?”
“Living such a rigid life. I’m not telling you to drink or eat chocolate. I never want you to think that I—that I don’t respect your boundaries. But I can’t help but wonder . . .”
