The Seduction Game

“Right.”

“You like Mexican?”

She nodded. “Of course.”

“Let’s go then.”

Will’s car was so low it was almost like sitting on the floor. Kate was not a fan. She shifted in the seat, buckled herself in, and tried to look as blank as possible. Not an easy job. Her brain was a riot of questions, her stomach flipped oddly, and she wondered how she was going to get through the next couple of hours without looking like a freak. She also wondered whether Will really would take no as a final answer and leave her alone. Which she wanted, of course. She did.

“I hope this isn’t too early for you,” Will said as he turned out of her street. “What time do you usually shut shop?”

The blank look did not last long. Kate glared before she could stop herself. “Why?”

“Just wondering.”

“Whenever I feel like. If there’s work to do, I do it. Plus we have a lot of customers and I like to be open for them.”

A left-hand turn and they were moving past what used to be galleries and boutique shops. “Business is still good then?” Will asked. “Even with the area the way it is now?”

“We’re as busy as ever.”

Will nodded, making Kate glare some more. He probably knew she was lying. Because business was so not good. Over the weekend, Kate had spent hours going through her balance sheets and by the time she was through she’d wanted to cry. Unlike most businesses, she didn’t have to worry about rent. Her building belonged to her—a legacy from her parents when they had died. She hadn’t been able to keep their family home but she’d kept this and it was the next best thing. Still, she had bills to pay and wages for both Meg and her. Right now she was barely bringing in enough to do that, even though she’d cut her own pay to the bare livable minimum. Yes, Will probably knew. Damn him.

“We’re fine.”

“Uh-huh.”

Another quick turn and then Will rested his free hand on the edge of his seat. It was mere inches from her thigh and a traitorous heat began at the base of Kate’s neck. She wanted to reach up and rub it, but she was worried Will would notice.

“You repair computers, right?”

She shook her head and, as casually as possible, edged her thigh away from his hand. “No, mostly I soup them up. More processing power, better graphics, stuff like that. Most of my customers are teenagers, gamers and such. I mean, I could repair computers if someone asks. Last week someone stepped on their laptop and the screen had to be replaced. And then the week before that I had to do a major defragging. The guy could have done it himself but he was too busy.” She paused, aware that she was babbling, aware, too, that Will’s hand was still far too close to her thigh. “It just depends.”

“And do you enjoy it?” Will asked.

“Yes,” Kate answered honestly as they moved into a neighboring residential area that was still occupied. Will had clearly drawn some sort of line around the area he had wanted to buy versus the bit he didn’t, though Kate couldn’t tell what the line was about. She’d bet it had something to do with money. Regardless, the space inside the dividing line encompassed several dozen buildings, a mixture of businesses and studio rentals, and it was just her luck that her building fell smack-bang in the middle.

“What do you like in particular about it?” Will asked, and Kate pulled her gaze away from what seemed like an impromptu street party, and shifted enough that there was finally sufficient space between them. Her neck was still hot. She still wanted to reach up and rub it.

“I love my computers,” she said, resisting the urge. “I always have. I’m in my own little world with them.”

Quickly he turned away from the road and shot her a smile. “I don’t know too much about computers myself,” he said. “I mean sure, I can use them, but if you asked me how they worked, the programming language and such, I’d have no idea.”

His eyes were brimming with both amusement, and something that made Kate’s chest tighten. “Lots of people don’t.”

“True. Isn’t that odd?” he mused. “We rely on them so much and yet there aren’t many people that can actually work them.”

“There’s enough.”

“And what do you like to do when you’re not working? What are your hobbies?”

They were pulling up in front of Will’s hole-in-the-wall restaurant and he was right, it was tucked out of sight. Kate didn’t think she’d ever noticed it, yet she lived not a ten minute walk away.

He jumped out of the car the moment they were stationary and made his way around, giving Kate a few seconds alone inside. She was kinda grateful for that and made a show of undoing her seat belt to buy as much time as possible. She needed time. She needed it badly. Just a quick drive and already she was struggling with the situation. The heat, the belly flipping, the weird self-consciousness, and now, the questions.

What do I like to do?

Kate didn’t want to answer honestly because she was well aware of how it would make her sound. She didn’t have any hobbies, unless you counted an extreme sci-fi addiction. Beyond Meg, she didn’t really have any friends…and had never needed any. She liked her computers, her books, her games, and her movies. That was what she spent her time doing.

Will probably dates sophisticated women. High-powered, accomplished.

She paused. What did it matter who Will Thornton dated? What type of women he liked? This was not a date. It was nothing more than a business meeting. He wanted her building, for frak’s sake, not her.

“Oh, you know,” Kate tried to say as airily as possible as he opened the passenger door for her and smiled in a way that did nothing to help her confusion. “This and that.”

She slithered out of the car, brushed down her jeans, and pushed her glasses up the bridge of her nose. They weren’t falling. It was just a habit of hers. Feeling nervous? Push the glasses. Worried? Push the glasses. Kate had no idea how it had started but it was ingrained now. One time she’d tried out contact lenses but she had constantly pushed the space between her eyes before realizing there were no glasses there. And the contacts had made her eyes itch so it had seemed easier and smarter to just stick with her glasses. She wondered what Will thought of her huge spectacles and then cursed herself for doing so.

“This and that?”

He was leaning against the passenger door, crowding her, and just like she had in the shop, Kate swallowed once and then again. “Yeah.”

“And tell me, Kate,” he said, leaning a little bit closer. “Do you date much?”

Kate lied before she even considered doing anything else, the words falling out in a tumble. “Now and then.”

He smiled. “I bet you’ve left a trail of brokenhearted guys in your wake.”

That was so absurd Kate should have snorted but she couldn’t. Will was too close, hemming her in. The scent he wore tickled her nose, and made her want to breathe deeply. She was hot and nervous and a million other things she couldn’t classify.

“Hardly,” she breathed.

“I’m positive of it.”

He wrapped a hand around the top of her arm and pulled her to him. Kate squeaked and made to pull back but Will pointed in the direction of the hole-in-the-wall. “Let’s eat.”