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"What do you mean? Why couldn't I handle it? Is it kinky? I can handle kinky."
"Nuh, uh. Not telling you."
"Dammit, woman. You can't do that. It's totally unfair."
She only smiled in response.
Our food arrived and I waited impatiently for her to try the meatballs, my mind thankfully diverted from thoughts of her writing erotica to her response to the meatballs. She poked one of them with her fork and opened her mouth, wrapping her lips around it. Of course, my mind went there right away and I watched as she bit down and chewed.
"Oh, God," she said, closing her eyes in ecstasy. Which, of course, made my mind go there again.
"You like?"
"Oh, these are the best," she said and ate the rest of the meatball, then twirled some spaghetti with tomato marinara sauce. She sat and ate meatball after meatball, pausing only to dip her breadstick into the sauce. "I swear, this is the best I've ever eaten. Not that I've eaten much authentic Italian, but it's definitely the best."
"Told you," I said and drank some wine, smiling. "You can trust me."
She narrowed her eyes. "Will you be mad when I tell you I'm not coming home with you tonight, despite how good the meatballs are?"
I leaned closer and looked in her eyes, trying to put on as sincere an expression as I could.
"Not mad. Sad. I was hoping you'd come back home with me tonight and finish what we started."
She leaned forward. "If you weren't my boss, I would." She smiled and poked her last meatball then took a bite. "I make it a rule not to boink the boss. I thought I'd be nice and tell you in person. Considering both of us have been burned by office romances gone bad, I'd think you'd agree."
I leaned back, resigned to the fact that she was not going to come home with me. She was not going to see where this thing between us was going to go -- on principle. Part of me was upset of course. I wanted her. The prelude to sex we had both played the previous night had been good. Really good.
I wanted her.
The other part of me admired her for sticking to her principles. In contrast, I'd be willing to throw mine out the window for a chance to fuck her brains out.
"Your fortitude is admirable," I said. "On the other hand, I'd throw caution to the wind and gladly take you home with me. Boss or no boss."
She mopped up some of her sauce with a piece of breadstick. "As my grandfather would say, any port in a storm."
I laughed. "Your grandfather was a mariner?"
"Navy. Worked at the Navy Shipyard in Portsmouth, Maine until 1982 when he retired."
"How'd you end up in Concord, New Hampshire?"
"After my father graduated, he moved to Manchester and worked as a lawyer for a few years, he became involved in politics and moved to Concord. That's where I was born."
"My father was in the Navy as an aviator before he started MBS. I was as well. All of us boys served in some capacity."
"That's admirable," she said and her eyes, which were sharp, softened just a bit. "Not many really rich people send their sons and daughters to join the military."
I shrugged. "My father had ethics. He saw wealth as a byproduct of doing what he really loved, rather than an end in itself."
She exhaled and placed her fork on the table. "This was really good," she said and took a sip of her wine. "All of it. The restaurant. The meatballs. The wine."
"The company?" I asked, raising my eyebrows.
"The company, too. I wanted to thank you for helping me out when you didn't have to. Sharon came through with the first and last month's rent cashier check so you're officially off the hook but I wanted to thank you for the offer. I really needed the cell you lent me. It's been a godsend. I'm going tomorrow to pick up my new iPhone from this tech store. I paid for it online and it should be ready in the morning so I'll return this to you once I get it. I'm also getting a new tablet that can double as a laptop for writing."
"Your homage to Sex and the City?" I said, realizing she was giving me the, 'I like you but I'm not going out with you again' letdown.
"Something like that," she said with a soft smile. "I can't see you again, though. It's not good to date someone in your office. Especially not the boss. The whole power imbalance thing isn't really healthy."
