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“What?”
“This seedy bar is exactly where I need to be, because no one I know will be here.”
She laughs. “Snob.”
“No, that’s not how I mean it. I needed to be someplace I wasn’t worrying about everything. Making the right connection, drinking the right drink. Saying the right things to the right people…I needed to be somewhere that I could just be.” I pause, screwing up my courage. “And then this woman, in what I ended up finding out through Google are chef clothes, so clearly not going out to see and be seen, this woman picks me up. Me, when I’m haggard and feel worn to the bone with stress, and she still wants me. So, my first thought when I met you was, ‘How? How can she possibly be interested?’”
“Are you kidding? Have you seen you?”
I laugh hard. “Once or twice.”
“Andyouwere haggard?Iwas in a depression spiral, not willing to wear anything but my chef clothes because I was so upset about my restaurant.”
I give her a squeeze and kiss her again. “Which was how I knew you definitely were not a sex worker.”
She laughs again. “What?”
“The chef clothes. That was my second thought, to be honest. That if a woman will hit on me when I looked that rough, she is a sex worker or needs new a contact lens prescription.”
“If it makes you feel any better, I don’t wear contacts.”
“I know that now. But at the time, I thought it might explain the outfit.”
She nudges me with her elbow. “You dick.”
I laugh and wrap her up in my arms tightly. “Things aren’t conventional between us—
“Oh really? I wasn’t sure.”
“Who’s the smart ass now?”
She grins at me.
“Convention aside, Lily, I’m really glad you’re here right now. I’m glad that I took the near-sighted girl to a hotel. And I’m glad for all the things that have happened in between.”
“Me too. Jerk.”
I grin down at her. “Ready for sleep?”
“Mm, hmm.”
“I suppose I will allow it.”
She giggles again. “Why? What did you have planned?”
“I was going to keep going at you all night.”
“Can you even get hard again after all of that?”
“God no,” I say with a laugh. “But my fingers and tongue aren’t tired.”
She yawns. “I am.”
“Well, then.” I roll her onto her side and cuddle her as the big spoon with my arm over her waist to keep her close to me. To dream of raspberries.
25
Cormac
