That little sound came lower this time, softer around the edges, and whether I was reading too much into it or not, it felt like I was still on solid ground.
“You practiced that?” she asked.
I laughed. “No.”
“It sounded prepared.”
“Maybe I just know what I like.”
“That would be refreshing.”
That put a grin on my face immediately.
“You don’t meet many men like that?”
“No,” she said easy. “I meet a lot of men who like the idea of themselves. That’s different.”
I went quiet for a second after that, smiling into my drink like she could see me through the phone.
I was turned on.
Straight up.
Her mouth was doing it for me, yeah, but it was her mind underneath it that had me leaning harder into the call. Quick like that. Honest like that. Sharp without trying to cut. She said things in a way that made me want to hear the next one before the last one had even fully landed.
“Damn,” I said.
“I’m lying?”
“No,” I said, still grinning to myself. “You not lying.”
And the truth was, the more she talked, the more I wanted her. Not just physically, though that was already a problem. I wanted more of her voice, more of that wit, more of that brain working in real time. She was getting me off her mind before I had even touched her, and that was doing something serious to me.
She laughed under her breath, and I could hear her moving around now. A drawer. Maybe a fork against a bowl.
“What about you?” I asked. “What you like besides judging people with access to Kool-Aid?”
That got me a real laugh.
“I like beautiful spaces,” she said. “Perfume that stays mine unless I want to share it by getting close. Good food. Men with home training. Music with actual feeling in it.”
“Men with home training?”
“Yes.”
“That sounds personal.”
“It is.”
I smiled. “What else?”
“Cashmere. Gold jewelry. A man who can hold a conversation and not turn it into a TED Talk about himself. A good Sunday. White toes. A really good French 75.” She paused. “And peace. I like peace.”
That one settled in me—the truth of it sounded earned.
“You always answer questions like that?” I asked.
“Like what?”
