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There wasn’t any point in denying it. I hadn’t exactly hidden the fact that I was looking for the other guys, and it didn’t take much to figure out the motive behind it. “Something like that,” I said sheepishly. “Although, if this chocolate is bad, I reserve the right to change my mind about trusting you for future chocolate decisions.”
He smiled. “Duly noted.”
“That doesn’t upset you? That I’m not comfortable being alone with you yet?”
“Why should it upset me?”
I shrugged. The idea of having to share our time with anyone else would have driven Guy bonkers. He had always expected me to go along with whatever he decided, no questions asked. According to him, he was older and wiser—not to mention, a man, although he never used that one to my face—and therefore knew better what I needed. Somehow that had also filtered down to him supposedly knowing what I wanted. I didn’t have the opportunity to make many decisions, in all my years as his partner. Even fewer once we’d been a couple off the ice.
Now that I thought about it, maybe I shouldn’t have let Levi dictate what chocolates he was buying for me. It’s possible I should have told him what I wanted.
I didn’t get the sense that he was trying to rule my life, but did I need to assert myself early on, so he wouldn’t think I was going to let him steamroll over me all the time? I wasn’t sure. One more thing I needed to talk to Wendy about the next time I had a session with her, I supposed.
Levi leaned back in his chair, crossing his feet at the ankles. The chairs and tables weren’t designed for someone of his size. He seemed cramped in them, almost like they were meant for children. He took his chocolate out of the wrapper. “You gonna try yours?”
“Thought I’d wait to be sure it doesn’t kill you first,” I joked.
“I see. I’m the royal food tester.” He winked at me before biting off half the chocolate. Then he groaned in pleasure.
Once he swallowed, I unwrapped my own chocolate. “Since you haven’t keeled over yet…” The second the chocolate hit my tongue, there was an explosion of flavor. Salt, creamy caramel, and rich dark chocolate. “Oh my God,” I said, my mouth still full. I didn’t care about manners just now, though. It was too good.
He gave me a wry smile. “So I did okay, then?”
“Okay?” I licked my lips, noticing how his eyes followed the path of my tongue. “You scored bonus points with this one.”
“So maybe I move up a step or two in the process?”
I sipped from my espresso, buying time. “Process?”
“The one where you decide whether you can trust me or not. Where you decide how much to let me in and how soon.”
I couldn’t stop myself from smiling. He was so persistent, but without being pushy. I wasn’t sure what to do with him, but there was no denying I wanted to be around him. “A step or two… Yeah, sure.”
“Any chance you can tell me how many steps there are and which one I’m on?”
I finished off my chocolate, taking my time savoring the flavor as I debated how to answer him. “To be completely honest, I don’t know how many steps you’re going to have to take. A lot.”
“So basically I’m on step three of twenty, or something like that?”
“More like step three of two hundred.”
But two hundred was a lot less than the seven thousand four hundred and twenty-seven I’d estimated before. Something else I needed to chew on for a while.
