“Can we go to lunch later and I’ll tell you then?”
She stood and shrugged. “Alright.”
As soon as she closed the door to my office, I went back to the emails. One of my clients had sent me a lengthy message about his ex-wife being ten minutes late to drop off their children Saturday morning. I shook my head as I responded, wondering how he was going to feel about getting billed for this.
Part of me wished Kane had texted over the weekend, but he didn’t strike me as a cutesy message sender. I grinned as I imagined a text from him. It would say something like how the fuck are you?
He wasn’t one of those guys who busted ass in the gym to look like a badass; he actually was one. I’d known that the moment I saw him take Eric on in the alley. Kane’s fearlessness was one of the things I liked best about him.
I forced my attention away from thoughts of his dark, intense gaze and back to my emails. By nine-thirty, they were all caught up and I was on my way to court in a cab. I only had one quick hearing, but I had to wait almost an hour for it.
The courthouse was full of suited attorneys looking fresh and ready to take the week on. I felt it, too. Hunger was essential to success for new attorneys in New York. Even the established ones at my firm earned their money with long hours.
Usually I was all about work on Monday mornings. But today my thoughts kept drifting to my intimate dinner with Kane. We could’ve eaten at a crowded McDonald’s and it would’ve felt intimate if he’d looked at me like he did Friday night. He listened when I talked, silently taking me in with that dark chocolate gaze.
By the time we sat down at a downtown deli for lunch, I was dying to talk to Cara about the date.
“Were you lying when you said you didn’t sleep with him?” she asked. “You know I won’t think less of you if you did.”
I lowered my brows at her and finished a bite of my club sandwich. “I wouldn’t lie about it. He kissed me at my door and left.”
“Huh.”
“What? Why do you look so surprised? It’s not like I’m a whore or something, Cara.”
She gave me an apologetic look. “Oh, no. I didn’t mean . . . I’m not surprised because of that.”
“Then what?”
She shrugged. “He just seems like that kind of guy.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“He seems like a guy who’s looking to get laid after he takes a woman out for dinner.”
I glared at her, offended on Kane’s behalf. “And you base that on what, exactly? You only met him for a few seconds.”
“I base it on my inner radar, which is pretty damn accurate. When you meet a guy at a club and he looks like that, he’s usually not looking for anything serious.”
Cara was sometimes too opinionated. I reminded myself of that, but still, irritation made me continue the conversation.
“Looks like what? And he’s one of the club owners, by the way.”
“Oh.”
“Not that it matters. I would’ve wanted to go out with him even if he was a bouncer.”
“He just looks . . . rough.” Cara shrugged again. “With the tats and that scowl. You should try to get him in bed, ‘cause I bet he’s amazing.”
“I’ll keep that in mind,” I said wryly.
Cara set her sandwich down and gave me a serious look. “Viv, I just don’t want you to get hurt. You’re looking for a husband, and this guy doesn’t seem like your type.”
“I am not looking for a husband. I’m looking for a relationship.”
“Which will lead to marriage.”
“Okay, eventually, yes. But in all the time I’ve been here, I’ve gone on lots of dates and I’ve never felt this way.”
“You felt this way before that asshole Eric cornered you in the alley.”
I shook my head. “I thought Eric seemed promising. He checked all my boxes. But Kane . . . he checks none of them. I feel something different with him. It’s like I’m drawn to him for reasons I don’t fully understand yet. I know he’s strong and honest and that means so much more than any of the stuff I thought I wanted in a man.”