Page 43 of Had to Be You

Knox had done his best to concentrate on each partner on the mini dates as they played musical chairs. But it was difficult when all he was doing was watching Laura with all the men she was dating out of the corner of his eye.

She had a magnetic pull on him that was impossible to ignore. Knox lowered himself into the chair in front of Laura. Every time he saw her, her beauty astounded him, and this time was no exception.

When it was finally his turn to sit in front of her, he found himself at a loss for words once again.

"You look…" There were truly no words to describe just how gorgeous the woman across from him was. Beautiful. Breathtaking. Stunning. None of them came close to encapsulating what she was. "Fuck. I don’t think a word has been created that would do you justice."

She stared at him for a minute before asking, "Does that line normally work?"

"I’ve never said it before. And it’s not a line."

Without responding, she put her hand in the bowl and pulled out one of the questions. As soon as she read it, she crumbled it up.

"Wait, what did it say?" Knox asked.

"Nothing." She reached in to get another one. He blocked the entry by putting his hand over the bowl.

"Are you really that scared of a question?" he asked.

He may not know Laura well, but he did know that she didn’t back down from a challenge. Their entire relationship had felt like a game of tug of war.

She stared at him for a moment and then uncrumpled the paper and read, "In past relationships, have you felt comfortable telling your partner your fantasies?"

Since she obviously didn’t want to answer it, he went first. "I’m assuming they are talking about sexual fantasies, and I don’t really have those. If I want to try something, I do."

"Okay, so what about fantasies that aren’t sexual?" she asked.

He loved that she’d caught the fact that he’d specified the fantasies as sexual. "I do have one, and no, I’ve never shared it with anyone."

Her face split into a wide smile. "What is it?"

"You haven’t answered the question," he pointed out.

"No. I’ve never told any partner that I’m with about my fantasy," she admitted.

"What is it?" he asked, wishing so badly he could be inside her head.

"What’s yours?" she countered.

He felt ridiculous for hesitating. Chances were, if he just told her, she’d tell him hers. Still, he hadn’t been lying when he said he’d never told anyone about his fantasy.

Something was telling him that he should just say it. That if he was going to tell anyone, it should be Laura. But when he opened his mouth instead, he said, "That’s not what the question asked."

As he picked another question from the bowl, he wanted to kick his own ass for chickening out.

The three minutes felt more like thirty seconds and were up before he knew it. As he stood, he was tempted to take her hand and ask her if she wanted to get out of there. And if the look she was giving him was any indication, he was fairly certain her answer would be yes.

But just like he chickened out on telling her his fantasy, he bailed on this too. He moved to the next table, and within twenty minutes, the event was over. Everyone stood as Felicity, the organizer, wrapped things up.

"Okay, thank you all for your participation this evening. I have sent you an electronic list of your top three matches from the questionnaire and sensory portions of the event. Now that you’ve had a chance to talk to each participant, you can decide if you want to pursue one of your matches or not. You can check your results here or later. You will have access to each other’s profiles on the site, and you can contact each other and decide from there if you want to exchange personal information, such as social media, phone numbers, etcetera. Thank you all for coming!"

The men and women around him pulled out their phones to check and see the results. He didn’t. He had no interest in any woman but the one who looked like she was trying to make a break for it. Laura was headed to the stairs on the side of the deck that led down to the parking lot. She didn’t seem bothered by checking her phone either.

He tried to catch up with her and offer to walk her home when he saw that he wasn’t the first to intercept her. Felicity, the woman running the event, stopped in front of her and was motioning to the left.

Laura didn’t look happy about whatever the woman was saying. She nodded begrudgingly and started to walk beside her. His plan was to wait around and see how this played out, but that plan was thwarted when Felicity walked straight up to him.

"Knox, right?" she asked.

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