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“Yes, we have. She’s my best friend.” I let out a long sigh. “You don’t need to sit here and eat with me. I’m fine being alone until she can make it back.”
“I want to sit with you.” The smile he gives me is enough to make me fall to my butt, if I wasn’t already on it. The waiter returns with a bottle of Dom and Blaze takes it from him. “I’ll pour.” The man leaves and Blaze fills both of our glasses.
“Thank you,” I murmur, picking up my glass and taking a gulp.
“I have a suggestion.” He winks. “Why don’t we play a little game?”
The champagne is utter perfection, but it takes me back to that cabin in the woods on his property, to how he poured it over my stomach before he ran his tongue along the curve of my hip and up and over my breasts. My breathing weakens as I pull myself back to the present.
“What are you talking about?” I ask, hating the slight huskiness in my voice.
“If we’re going to solve this puzzle, we’re going to have to spend time together. Let’s see if we can get through a single meal without a fight.”
“That’s a game?”
“Life’sa game,” he tells me with a smile before he sips again as his eyes trail down to the V of my neck. My breathing deepens a bit more. “We can make anything a game.”
“I don’t believe that.”
Our summer so long ago was all about fun and games. But I left that summer and chose to be responsible, to do what I had to do. My life’s no longer about playing. It’s about being an adult.
“So you aren’t willing to bend at all?” he asks, challenge in his eyes. My hackles rise. He’s challenging me, and it isn’t easy to walk away from a challenge.
“I can sit here and behave.” I lift my glass only to realize it’s empty. I polished that off way too quickly. Still, I don’t complain when Blaze reaches out and refills the glass. Maybe it will take the edge off.
“To mutual understanding.” Blaze lifts his glass. I only hesitate a moment before I clink mine against his, as if I’m making a deal with the devil. Maybe I am. I’m certainly pushing myself past the limits of what I can handle. If this isn’t playing with fire, I’m not sure how that saying came into existence.
Blaze leans a bit closer to me and I have the urge to run again, but at the same time I’m not sure if I want to run to him or away from him. It’s killing me not knowing what to do.
“I forgot to mention how much I like the dress you’re wearing.” His eyes caress every inch of my skin that’s showing above the table. “I wouldn’t mind peeling it away inch by beautiful inch.”
I cough as my drink goes down wrong. Blaze isn’t playing nice at all. The sultry edge to his voice makes me feel like there’s no one in the room but the two of us, and my thighs quiver. He did this to me when I was young, but my innocence was an excuse then.
I’m not that innocent little girl anymore. I should be able to tell him to stop acting like a fool, then stand up, and walk out of the room — preferablyafterthrowing my champagne in his face. But my legs won’t carry me anywhere, unless it’s straight into his arms.
Blaze is a skilled man in more ways than one. And he’s melting me. I’ll be damned before I tell him that. The waiter returns, saving me from having to respond to him.
“Have you decided what you’d like to eat?” the man asks as he holds his tablet. I can’t open my mouth to speak. Blaze steps in for both of us. For once I’m thankful. Why is it so easy with him one moment, and so dang hard the next?
“We’re both going to have the pasta primavera and salads with house dressing. Stuffed mushrooms for an appetizer, and the house-baked bread, please.”
The waiter quickly leaves and my gaze is captured by Blaze’s once more. I’m not some meek little woman and I hate that I feel this way. I need to pull myself together or I’ll never get through this treasure hunt with him.
“So, how do you and Aimee seem to know each other so well?” If I can keep the conversation off of the two of us, my life will be a lot easier.
“I’ve been coming to this restaurant for many years. We kept running into each other, and eventually we became friends. Shebriefly dated one of my brothers, but they found out they were better off as friends too. She’s ambitious and there aren’t too many people I consider a friend, but I genuinely like her. I haven’t been back here much, but we’ve kept in contact. She has a beautiful little girl.”
“Yes, she does. They don’t get more precious than her.” I don’t know why it bothers me so much that he and Aimee are friends. What is wrong with me?
“I finally got to meet her in person the other day and she was all smiles.” That jealousy I keep trying push down pops up again. I’ll never make it through days or possibly weeks with this man if I can’t make it through one dang dinner. I’m losing this little game of his. That’s unacceptable.
“That’s nice,” I say.
“I wouldn’t mind a few little ones like her, but that would require staying in one place for longer than a couple of weeks,” he says with a laugh. His words shock me. I decide it’s nothing more than words.
“You’ve always been too adventurous to settle down and have kids.”
I have a difficult time thinking when he gazes at me with a soulful look in his eyes. I know he isn’t thinking of having those mythical children with me, but the seed was planted and I desperately want to uproot it.
