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“I’m busy but not like you. I’ll rephrase that. I don’t have the patience for the whole dating thing. I’ve tried it for years. It never works. Or maybe, as my mother says, I can’t give in and compromise enough. I don’t know. I just like what I like and want what I want. I don’t think that is a bad thing and I’m not controlling or mean with it.”
“It’s not a bad trait to have,” he said. “We just all have to live with our choices.”
“And I have and don’t have an issue with it.”
“Then what is the problem?”
“No problem,” she said. “A proposition.”
“That’s right. What’s the proposition?”
His throat had gone dry so he picked up his soda and finished it off. His food wasn’t being touched again. No reason to drop more of it on his clothing.
He wasn’t even sure how she could say he was so pleasing to the eye when it seemed like he hadn’t done or said anything positive to her.
She probably thought he was some idiot that was a slob on top of it.
“That we skip the hoopla and song and dance of dating and just get to what happens after the third or fourth time after we go to dinner?”
For someone that was so straightforward, she wasn’t saying the words. He wasn’t going to be left assuming or guessing.
“Hmmm, I just said I make a lot of assumptions and they tend to bite me in the ass. You might need to be clearer.”
“Sex,” she said quietly. “I don’t need pretty things and lots of time where you have to feel me out. I’m attracted to you. Very attracted. We’ve had a working relationship for years. I know you’re an upstanding citizen and single. You have to have some good traits or the Fierces wouldn’t have picked you.”
He laughed this time. “I don’t picture you as a friends with benefits type of person.”
“I’ve never been that way before. This is going to be new territory for me. I think we might need some ground rules if you’re open to it. I figured, hey, we are both single. You don’t have a lot of time and I’m not going to demand or require it from you. Sounds like a win to me.”
He’d be stupid to say no, but this was all sounding like a setup or dream too.
“It could be a win,” he said.
“But you want to think about it,” she said. “Which is exactly why we are having this conversation. I wasn’t asking we start now on the way back to work.”
“There is a hotel not that far from here,” he said, seeing what her reaction would be.
She blushed and it only turned him on more. “There is. Maybe another time. This is just a conversation. You’re busy and we need those ground rules of sorts.”
“Which could be considered a date to get them,” he said.
“Nope,” she said. “Verbal contract negotiations.”
He grinned at her. “I like that.”
The waitress returned. “Can I get you guys anything else?”
“I’m good,” Chloe said.
“Just the bill,” he said. He needed to get her back to work and think on this himself. He also had to find out if what Chloe said was true and if his father was in on this and how he’d get that out of him.
“You’ve got time to process this,” she said. “Come up with any rules you want. We can lay it out and go from there. If you don’t think it’s a good idea, that’s fine. Then you just know the Fierces have you on their radar and you’ll be hearing my name a lot.”
“I think I can handle them,” he said. “But speaking of them...if we do agree to this, who is going to know?”
“No one,” she said. “That will be part of one of my rules. I’m not telling any friends or coworkers. Especially not my bosses. I don’t need to be looked at like that. As I said, this is uncharted territory for me, but I’m open to it.”
“Why are you open to it?” he asked. He should know that going in. “Besides what you already said. Or is it as simple as that?”
