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I shrugged. If anyone else treated these streets with such willful ignorance, I’d probably be saying the same thing. I knew too many girls who had been mugged on a dark corner when they were walking home alone—even one who had been raped in Prospect Park.
“Okay, so maybe you’re right,” I conceded. “But this is home. I’ll never be that scared here. Not when I know exactly which way to run and have my pepper spray in hand.”
I pulled my house keys from my pocket and dangled the small bottle on the keychain before stuffing them back in. Stubbornly I omitted the fact that I likely would have taken a cab anyway if Brandon hadn’t walked me home.
“Don’t even joke about that, Skylar,” he said a little too sharply. The “r” on my name disappeared again, this time more overtly, and I tried not to smile. “You’re small and sweet. I’d hate to think what might happen—”
He cut himself off and turned his face away. As we kept walking, I pondered his comments. Men had called me a lot of things in my life, and sweet wasn’t one of them. Bubbe regularly told me that my sharp tongue was going to cut a man down before he could kneel for himself.
“I want to say I’m sorry,” Brandon interrupted my thoughts. “Again. About, you know, what happened.”
I blinked. “Yeah. Oh…kay. But…I still don’t understand why you thought you had to approach me like that.” I paused. “I guess…I’m not buying that you just didn’t know how else to go about it. You don’t seem that dumb.”
Brandon jerked to a stop, and immediately I wondered if my sharp tongue had gotten me in trouble yet again.
He gave a wry smile. “All right, then. I wasn’t lying before. My last relationship—my only serious one, actually—ended badly, and she was after…well…you know. The truth is, I’m complete garbage when it comes to women.”
“I don’t believe that for a second.”
Brandon chewed his lip. “I…” he started again. “Why do I feel like you’d see through any of my bullshit?”
“Well, look at you. You’re basically Brad Pitt, for Christ’s sake.”
His sly grin made my insides flip. “You think I’m handsome, Red?”
I rolled my eyes and started walking again. “Don’t let it go to your head, pretty boy. You’re rich, you’re good-looking—yeah, I bet that makes it super hard for you to find dates.”
“Well, like I said, that’s not always a good thing.” He kicked at a rock. “I also wasn’t lying when I said I don’t really have any time to date. Between the firm, and Ventures about to go public—”
“Sterling Ventures is going public?” I interrupted in shock. This was major news, and it was probably illegal that he was even telling me.
Brandon darted a quick warning glance at me. “Ah, yeah. That’s privileged information, Skylar. You can’t tellanyone, or we could both be in major trouble.”
I gave him what I hoped was a reassuring smile. “You have your interns all sign NDA forms anyway. If I breathe a word, you can just sue me.”
I could tell he relaxed at the reminder.
“I still shouldn’t have said anything, but you…” He gave me that same sheepish smile, which made the butterflies in my belly speed up. “You seem to have that effect on me. Getting me to say things I shouldn’t.”
“Is that a good thing or a bad thing?”
“I’m not sure. I’ve already made a fool out of myself twice with you. I guess…I thought it would be simpler, somehow, if I tried to keep it just to sex.” He smacked himself on the head. “Idiot.”
I wasn’t about to remind him just how close I had come to giving in. I remembered all too well the feel of his solid hands around my waist, the warm texture of his mouth on mine. He didn’t need to know how easy it would have been.
“Is that usually how you approach women?” I prodded him instead. “Propositioning them in your office? Suggesting standing sex appointments and real estate perks?”
Suddenly I wondered how many women might have been served tea in front of his fireplace; gorgeous and rich, he must have attracted women like flies. My stomach rolled.
“Ah, no,” Brandon said a little too loudly. “Which is probably why it went so god-awful. When I do, um, have that sort of company, it’s usually more of a ‘spontaneous accompaniment home from an event’ sort of thing.” He sighed. “I have to go to a lot of those things. They’re really boring.”
I didn’t reply. I had little experience, but getting all dressed up to go to a glamorous benefit didn’t sound like a terrible Friday night. Especially if you had a happy ending waiting for you afterward. Suddenly the image of Brandon in a tux morphed straight into me taking it off him. The shoulders straining against the seams of his overcoat couldn’t be anything but phenomenal uncovered. Except maybe by me, hoisted over one. And...there went my stomach again, flipping all over the place.
Our footsteps crunched loudly on the salt-covered sidewalk as we walked between the mounds of snow piled up on both sides from shovels and snowplows, encasing us in cold, white tunnels. A sneaky patch of black ice caused me to lose my footing. As I fell backward, Sterling shot out a quick hand and caught me by the elbow, yanking me upright again so that we were suddenly face-to-face.
The sweet, minty flavor of his breath was laced with brandy. He sucked in a bit of frigid air and exhaled slowly through his nose. I, on the other hand, found it hard to breathe at all. His eyes shot down to my top lip, clenched between my teeth. He inhaled again, sharply.
Just as he started to lean closer, we were interrupted by the rumble and exhaust of a delivery truck passing by, accompanied by a loud whistle out the passenger window.
