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“I can’t go on a date with you,” she said as she leveled me with her gaze. “I don’twantto.”
I was a pretty confident guy, but that shot had me wanting to reach for the dishtowel myself. I took a moment to steady my racing thoughts. I’d been in quite a few tricky situations over the years. None had ever made me this nervous.
“I see,” I finally said, not bothering to hide the hurt in my voice. “If you don’t want to go on a date, I can’t make you. But could you at least give me the courtesy of an explanation?”
“I—” She tapped her foot. “It’s just not a good idea.”
Vivian discreetly nudged me in the back as if to saydo something.
“I was hoping for a little more than that, but if that’s all you can give, then that’s all you can give.”
Her lips parted, her tongue played peek-a-boo with me in the corner of her mouth. The woman was trying to kill me, testing all my patience and restraint in one sitting.
I flattened my palm against the counter to keep from snatching her into my arms and kissing some sense into her. We’d never recover from a setback like that, but her sexy mouth was inspiring dangerous thoughts that I only seemed to have around her.
“I’m sorry you wasted your time.” Her shoulders drooped. “I’m sorry I couldn’t hold up my end of the deal. If there’s any other way I can make it up to you…”
I shook my head. “Sorry. But three dates is the only thing I want.”For now, I added in my head.
Vivian opened her mouth like she wanted to say something and then thought better of it. I adored her, and certainly could’ve used a little help, but what she’d say was a wildcard. I liked to deal in certainties.
I tapped the stone countertop a few times with my index finger. “Tell you what,” I said, like I was getting ready to compromise. “Let’s not call it a date. How about calling it lunch? We’ve done that plenty of times.”
“Not alone,” she said quickly.
“Actually, that’s not completely true. Remember that terrace in Capri? The one that overlooked the ocean, was bigger than the house.”
“There were supposed to be three bedrooms, but one was a home gym.”
I pointed at her. “That’s the one.” Her face pinched at what I was certain was a memory ofthatdiscovery. “We ate every meal out on the terrace.”
“With Vivian and Daniel,” she insisted.
“Except one afternoon. They started lunch with us, but excused themselves before they finished the meal.” I winked at Vivian, whose cheeks turned pink. “Neither one of us went back inside for three hours.” I pointed back and forth between Muriella and me. “So we had three-quarters of a lunch all alone. It wasn’t that bad, was it?”
She chewed on her lip. “That doesn’t count.”
I clutched my chest. “You wound me. Here I thought we’d had a nice time.”
She looked at me apologetically. “We did. But you know it’s not the same as this.”
“I don’t see why not. Only thing that’s different is the geography.”
She glanced to Vivian, who was suspiciously quiet, and then back to me. “I—”
I cut off whatever objection she was about to put up. “How about if you start having a rotten time with me, then we call Vivian and she can join us?”
That lip went back between her teeth. I’d had plenty of wary horses eye me the way she was now. Sometimes things went my way. Sometimes they didn’t.
“You’d do that, wouldn’t you, V?” I lifted an encouraging brow, and she nodded enthusiastically.
“Absolutely,” she added.
Muriella sighed, her attention on Vivian. “You’re on his side.”
“I’m completely on yours,” she said, her expression serious.
“Is that why you haven’t said a thing during this conversation?” She flicked a hand in my direction.
