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There was so much innuendo in her voice that I squirmed in my seat.
Roman gave her a polite smile like he hadn’t heard it and ordered a ton of sashimi tacos to share and the yellowtail for himself. “And of course, whatever my gorgeous girl would like for her entrée. Did you decide between the tempura or black cod, Soph?”
A giddy feeling spread through me as he gave me a nickname, essentially telling the server to back off in polite terms. “I’ll have the black cod miso. Since you sold it so well, Rome.”
“Right.” Our server clutched her notepad to her chest as hearts throbbed in her eyes. She smiled down at me. “I’m sorry. I know it’s super unprofessional, but can I just say how much I love that the two of you are dating.”
“Uh…” I sent a helpless look at Rome, but he just hitched a shoulder. I turned back to Jennifer, feeling bad for all my judgmental thoughts earlier. “You’re welcome?”
She smiled back at me. “I’ll have those apps right out for you.”
I watched in stunned disbelief as she left through the curtain then swung my head back to the table after I saw the number of people straining to get a peek at us.
“This is all just so insane,” I muttered under my breath, reaching for my water.
“I was thinking.” Roman drummed his thumbs on the table. “We should practice kissing before the food comes.”
Chapter Nine
Rome
Sophia’s glass fell to the table with athunkbut fortunately landed right side up. I winced as she stared at me in disbelief.
Her voice was more of a squeak when she spoke. “Did you just say what I think you said?”
“That we should practice kissing? What’s the problem? We have some relative privacy here—more than we’d get at my place with my assistant, staff, and family coming and going all the time. You’re not an actor. We need to practice being a couple.”
“What happened to getting to know each other over dinner tonight? I kinda thought we’d do that first before…you know…”
I lifted a shoulder. “Didn’t we kinda do that on the drive over? You’re not ready for kids and marriage yet—you want to focus on your writing career. You get along great with your dad, not so much with your mom. Your brother is married with at least one kid or one on the way? You live with your best friend who’s pissed at you currently. And you have this delightful tendency to blush when you’re taken off guard.”
Sophia stared back at me with wide eyes but didn’t say anything.
I shrugged again. “Hey, it’s more than I knew about my last girlfriend.”
She was still staring at me in stunned disbelief. “I don’t… I just… You remember all that? About me?”
“Of course I do. You only said it like twenty minutes ago.”
“Right.” She took another chest heaving breath, and I couldn’t help but watch the journey her breasts went on.
Only I wasn’t supposed to be noticing her like that. This was business, not pleasure. No matter how gorgeous she looked or how much I wanted to see her tits up close.Business.
I sighed. “If we want this to be believable, we need to practice some stuff. Putting my arm around you so you don’t jump. You have to get used to me being in your space. And that goes for kissing too.”
Her eyes grew wider.
Was I making it better? I couldn’t tell. But I pushed through. “We need to practice so when the paps get pictures of those ‘stolen moments’ they look authentic. I’ve done enough rom-coms to know you can’t trust chemistry will happen. And as we’ve established, you aren’t an actor, so we gotta practice.”
Sophia finally blinked before shaking her head. I caught the tail end of something about a dream and pinching she’d muttered under her breath.
I just laughed. “It won’t be that bad. I promise.”
Sophia turned in her seat to face me, her head cocked in a challenging tilt. “No, I understand. And you’re right. We should practice.”
Despite her bravado, her voice trembled.
“I promise to make this as painless as possible,” I whispered as I leaned into her.
