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“Oh.”
Angel didn’t’ know how to react to his straightforward and surprising statement. He was right, because if that was true then she’d been harboring a major misconception. The emotions rushing into her—surprise, guilt, hope—along with the quick review going on in her head of every interaction she’d had, and assumption she’d made, left her feeling surprisingly blank. Although an embarrassing heat rose in her cheeks as she realized some of the things she’d implied about him were obviously not true and, while they might not be deliberately insulting, could be considered unflattering.
“I’m sorry... I thought that because of the kind of club it was... I didn’t want to assume one thing and so I ended up assuming something else and... I’m sorry,” she finished a little lamely.
To her surprise, Adam gave her an encouraging smile. “I realize you’re new to the club scene, and I can’t blame you for some of your assumptions. But, to clear things up, I had no interest in Laurie last night. Patrick had asked me to stay out on the floor while he handled something in the office and when I saw you, I wanted to drag you off to a private room so I could be the only one to enjoy the delightful outfit you were wearing. Then I didn’t want to interrupt your dance with Rick because I didn’t have a claim on you for anything other than a scene. I stayed away for a bit longer than I probably should have. But I had no intention of scening with anyone other than you, nor do I have any interest in scening with Laurie or any of the other submissives who approached me last night.”
At that, Angel couldn’t help but giggle. He sounded so affronted the submissives had been approaching him last night rather than following the usual order of things. The look he gave her as she covered her mouth with her hands was both sardonic and slightly amused at her amusement.
“I did try to let them down easily, and when I told Amanda ‘not tonight,’ that’s all I was doing. And as soon as everything from the Lexie-Trevor-Patrick situation was settled, I went home.”
“Oh. So…” She couldn’t quite bring herself to ask if that meant he wanted more from her than scening at the club, even though his actions and explanation seemed to indicate that. As brash and blunt as she could be, when it came to making the first move with a guy, she was terrible at it.
“I would like to take you out to lunch.” He glanced at his watch. “A late lunch. Or an early dinner. Where we can talk and get to know each other some more. Because, while we might make good friends, that wasn’t really my intention.”
“And... you aren’t going to scene with anyone else?” She hated the needy note in her voice, but that was something she didn’t want to be making assumptions about.
Adam shook his head, standing up.
“No, and you aren’t either.” Go figure, any other guy in her life and the simple edict would have had her bristling. He said it and it made her feel all melty and special inside. The smile he gave her was pure temptation as he held out his hand. “So, food?”
18
Adam
Adam was in a damned good mood and it had nothing to do with the fantastic food he was eating. Well, maybe something to do with it. But it had a lot more to do with his current company. Taking her out of the house for dinner while her housemates looked at him with something approaching awe—even Q—had done wonders for him.
They’d both made assumptions rather than talking things out, something he’d meant to fix even before they had their scene last night but they hadn’t gotten the chance. Because he’d been dense enough to stay away and keep talking to Laurie without thinking about how Angel might interpret that, and because he hadn’t clarified with Angel exactly what he wanted their relationship to be, she’d ended up feeling insecure and rejected.
He could fix that over dinner tonight because every minute he was spending with her was making him want to spend even more time with her.
Once they’d gotten to the restaurant it had been surprisingly full—surprising until he remembered it was Valentine’s Day weekend. Fortunately, it was still early in the evening and Angel knew the hostess, so they’d managed to get a seat. Turned out she knew the waitress too, who had immediately come over with a plate of piping hot fresh bread, the kind which had obviously been made at the restaurant rather than ordered in. It was filled with herbs and spices and had a cheesy crust.
And the way he and Angel were both going at it, they were going to have to ask for some more.
“Did you use to work here or something?” he asked, after a third server stopped by their table to say hello.
“No, Q did. He was a bartender here. Eventually he cut back to weekends and now he comes in occasionally if he needs extra money or if someone needs a shift covered.”
“Oh... I didn’t realize restaurants allowed things like that.”
“Normally they don’t, but Q’s uncle bought into the restaurant a couple of years ago and he’s now married to one of the other owners,” Angel said, grinning. “We still come here all the time.”
Their server, a peppy blonde, appeared with a plate piled high with fried food in her hand, setting it down on the table even though they hadn’t ordered anything.
“From Cara,” she said, before briskly stepping off again.
“I love this place,” Angel said with a dreamy sigh, reaching out to snatch one of the little morsels off the top of the pile and dunk it in the creamy looking sauce. She glanced at Adam. “Fried artichoke hearts. They know it’s my favorite.”
“They look good,” Adam said a little cautiously. Fried food wasn’t normally his favorite thing, but he’d never had fried artichokes before so he figured it couldn’t hurt to try. Following Angel’s lead he dipped it in the sauce.
Watching him, Angel smiled as he took a bite and then eyed the plate. Quickly he reached out and knocked over half the pile of fried hearts onto his bread plate.
“Hey!”
Laughing, Angel reached out to snatch some back, dragging the rest of the pile back onto her plate.
“What? They’re good!” They were more than good. Crispy on the outside, creamy textured on the inside, and the dipping sauce gave them a tangy zing that had his taste buds singing.
