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“You couldn’t possibly think I’d only own one vehicle.” He shook his head in mock exasperation.
“I’ve never dated a millionaire before.”
“A millionaire?” He grinned and she wasn’t sure if he was implying that he was not a millionaire by any stretch of the imagination or if he was actually more like a billionaire. It was probably rude to ask him his net worth.
Will handed her into the car and gave her a long, intent look.
“What?” she asked self-consciously.
He gave a one-shouldered shrug. “Just thinking that once I get behind the wheel, I can take you anywhere I want. I’ll probably stop at the restaurant, but there are no guarantees.”
“Wow,” she teased, not at all afraid of him. “I need a handbook on how to deal with this kind of flirting. We started at cannibalism and worked our way down to abduction. I’m not sure how I’m doing at this point. Does that mean you like me more or less than you did five minutes ago?” He closed her door without answering and walked around to his side of the car. He got in and buckled then glanced over to make sure she buckled in as well.
“Sorry,” he said, his mouth twisted in chagrin. “I haven’t dated anyone vanilla since high school. I’m probably botching this.” He glanced at her, and she shook her head.
“I’m not vanilla anymore, remember? You converted me. There was no priest involved at the time, but I’m pretty sure someone at your club was dressed like one when I was there. Maybe we can talk to him if we want to make my conversion official.”
He grinned at her. “Good idea. We can make sure we didn’t miss any of the important parts of your conversion—although I suppose it’s more of a work in progress rather than an instant thing.” He started the engine, and its smooth purr had a funny effect on her nether regions.
He pulled out of the driveway and onto the main street and snuck a look at her. “Juliet Callahan, is this car is turning you on?”
She sighed. “Do I really have to answer that?”
“I think you just did.” He chuckled. “Interesting and damned convenient.” His face set in a maddening expression of satisfaction as he turned onto the highway and headed toward one of the more upscale restaurant districts.
“So, did you always want to be in your line of work?” he asked, surprising her. Although she supposed if this was a real date, they needed to talk about something other than sex.
“This has been the plan since I was in high school. I never really thought about my other options.” She laughed lightly. “Our father is one of those gruff carpenter types, so getting involved in something trade-related was almost inevitable for my brothers. Mom is a nurse. You know how it is. Kids often do what they see. Teachers have kids who are teachers, doctors have kids who are doctors. I could have chosen to be a nurse, but after cleaning up after little kids so much the last thing I wanted to do was deal with that in my day job.”
“I can see that. But was this your real first choice?”
“I would have liked to do something artsy, so this is a good compromise. I get to make things beautiful and not have to starve.”
He nodded. “Being practical isn’t always the easiest choice, especially when you’re a teenager. I’m impressed you had your shit together so young.”
“How about you? Have you wanted to own a kink club since you were a kid?” she asked, teasing.
“As a kid I had no interests other than playing video games and bossing Grant around, and even though I still do the latter, it’s hard to make it a paying job.” He chuckled. He had such a gorgeous smile. “As for the kink, it wasn’t until high school that I found out my buddies had never practiced tying knots in rope or fantasized about doing sadistic things. I must have realized I wasn’t quite right, though, because I never told anyone what I was doing or what I was thinking until I found out by accident that Grant is wired the same way. We didn’t come up with the club idea until after our father disowned us.”
The laugh she’d been about to voice turned into a choke. “Your father disowned you? Seriously?”
“Yes,” he said simply and shrugged. “Grant and I were lost souls in our teens. We drank, womanized, experimented, did drugs. Crashed some of my dad’s cars. The sort of thing rich kids do when they’re bored and privileged and angry at the world. There was a lot of pressure on us to be perfect, so we went out of our way to be as imperfect as possible.” His mouth quirked. “They still don’t talk to us—our father and youngest sister.”
“Oh, that’s terrible!” she cut in. “They don’t care that you’ve changed?”
“They’re no great loss. They’re both assholes. And that’s not just sour grapes. They’re honestly not nice people. The final straw that broke things was my father walking in on me tied up and being tortured by an older guy I’d met online.” His brows rose. “It was interesting, but that side of the dynamic wasn’t for me. Oh—and needless to say, my father went ballistic.”
“That must have been awful.”
“It was humiliating more than anything, because he was so disgusted.”
Poor guy. Her parents would have been upset about that scenario if it had been her, but they never would have disowned her.
“I have a hard time imagining you with a man.”
“Well, I wanted to see what it felt like to submit, and it’s easier to find men who want to dominate other men. Women who are willing to do it usually expect money. Besi
des, I’d been with a man before that. They’re not my preference, but I’ve done it more than once.” He paused and glanced her way. “Have I shocked you?”
