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“Just listen to me for a minute, okay?” It was her turn to reach across the table and put her hand on his. “You need to seriously think about this before you do anything rash. Because if you want out, it would be better if you walked away now rather than in four months or four years, when you decide you’re bored.”
“Why are you so sure I’m going to walk away?” he asked.
“Why are you so sure you’re not?”
“And we’re back to trading questions.” He couldn’t quite keep the frustration out of his voice.
“We are,” she agreed with a small smile. “But they’re important questions. And you didn’t answer mine.”
“Neither did you.” He caught her gaze, held it, then refused to look away.
Desi blinked first, glancing up at the twinkling lights that lined the nearby windows. “I just think you need to think about things.”
“I have thought about them.”
“For a few hours!”
“Sometimes a few hours are all you need.”
She rolled her eyes. “You’re being completely irrational.”
Her voice rose on the last couple of words, and that’s when it hit him just how upset she was by this whole discussion. Oh, she was fronting, pretending she was amused and exasperated, but there was something else underneath it all. Something dark, and maybe a little afraid.
It was the fear that gave him pause, that had him sitting back in his chair, studying her as he tried to figure out what made her tick. He didn’t have much luck, which was frustrating, but on this one small point, he would concede she was right. They didn’t know each other, and until they did, he couldn’t get a bead on her.
Which was only one more reason for them to move in together, he decided. Nothing broke down barriers like the forced intimacy of cohabitation. Instinct told him not to mention that to Desi, however, because it might send her running for the hills.
“What’s it going to take,” he asked, when the silence between them moved from uncomfortable to unbearable, “for you to agree to move in with me?”
“Nothing,” she answered immediately. “Because it’s not going to happen. Beyond all the reasons why two people who don’t know each other shouldn’t be moving in together, there are also the logistics. You live and work in San Diego. I live and work in LA. There’s no way I’m driving three hours, in traffic, to work and home every day. It isn’t going to happen.”
“If that’s your biggest objection, forget about it. We can totally fix it.”
“How can we fix it? Even all your money isn’t enough to make LA traffic move during rush hour.”
“Maybe not, but there are other ways to get to work besides a car.”
“Like what?”
“Like a helicopter.” He drained his water glass in one long sip. “See, problem solved.”
“Yes, but I don’t have a helicopter.”
“Maybe not, but I’ve got three.”
“Look,” she said, throwing her napkin down on the table and standing up. “We’re done talking about this. I’m going to the bathroom and when I come back we need a new topic of conversation. Because if we don’t, I’m out of here. And I can promise that neither the baby nor I will be pleased about looking for a bus stop in Beverly Hills.”
Eleven
By the time she got back from the bathroom—where she’d had more than a few WTF moments—Nic had paid the bill and was waiting to escort her out to the car. He hadn’t, however, come up with a new topic of conversation. Instead, he had a new twist on the old one.
“So,” he said as he slid behind the wheel of a car that cost significantly more than she made in a year and started the engine, “I think I’ve found a solution.”
“I didn’t know we had a problem,” she answered drily.
He ignored her. “You don’t want to move in with me, so why don’t I move in with you?”
She burst out laughing. She knew it was rude, especially when he looked so pleased with his suggestion, but she couldn’t help it. The idea of a multibillionaire slumming it in her tiny fourth-story walk-up in Los Feliz was hilarious, especially considering the fact that his pantry was bigger than her whole apartment.
