She gives a small shake of her head. “No thanks,” she says, eyeing the cake. “I don’t want anything.”
I grin at her refusal. I’m going to have her eating cake right out of my hand.
I wait for the bartender as she rattles off her past employer, giving me details I’d find on a resume and nothing more. When the bartender catches my eye, I hold up the menu. “The lava cake,” I order and then look back at Charlotte.
“And why did you leave?” I ask with genuine curiosity. I have no idea why she left, but I’m grateful she did. Steamens Marketing never attends conferences, so I doubt I would have met her if she hadn’t left.
“Because my ex is a cheating prick and my former best friend is a whore.” The second the last word leaves her lips, she grips the stem of the glass tighter. I imagine her hands gripping my cock with the same force, and my pants grow a little tighter. “I’m sorry,” she says a moment later, though it’s clear she’s not. I love how anger colors her voice. Makes it deeper. Sexier. “I didn’t mean for it to come out like that.”
My Rose has thorns.
“Nothing to be sorry about,” I tell her. “I take it you worked with them?”
“Yes, that’s why I left.”
I nod my head and say, “So that means you’re single.”
She pauses for a moment, taken off guard. “I am,” she says finally, her voice on edge.
“Well that’s a win for me,” I say as the bartender sets the cake down on the bar. Two spoons. He’s a good man. Charlotte’s eyeing me with a look that turns me on; half suspicion, half defiance.
“Would you like a bite?” I ask before I take a bite myself and offer her the other spoon.
She stares at the spoon for a moment. “I don’t think so…”
“I insist,” I say, swallowing down the cake. It’s rich and velvety.
“Well, if you’re going to twist my arm,” she says, taking the utensil and scooping up a healthy portion. I watch as she closes her eyes and moans around the small bite of cake. My dick hardens as I picture her on her knees wrapping those lush lips around my cock.
She looks back at me with an innocent wide-eyed look. Fuck. I can’t tell if she’s doing it on purpose to turn me on, or if she's genuinely enjoying it.
“It’s delicious,” she says, wiping the bit of chocolate from the corner of her mouth and slipping her finger in quickly. “I don’t usually eat dessert,” she says as she takes another spoonful. “I’m always full by the time I’m done with dinner.”
She continues taking small bites, savoring the cake and making my cock rock hard. All the while making casual small talk about the marketing business. She’s bright and knowledgeable. My admiration for her grows, as does my sexual appetite.I have to force myself to look away and take another bite. I don’t taste a damn thing though, I’m just doing it to get her to take another bite.
Each small bite seems to open her up more and more, until it’s all gone and she’s scraping the plate for crumbs. That forces a rough chuckle up my chest.
I lean in and whisper, my lips barely touching the shell of her ear, “You’re beautiful, Rose.” Her head leans back and her lips part. It takes everything in me not to take them with my own. I pull back slightly, fighting the need to restrain myself and when I do, she looks back at me with nothing but lust.
“It’s Char-” she starts to respond, then stops as a chair scrapes loudly across the floor behind us.
A group of men rise and make a noisy exit. My eyes flash quickly to them and then back to my Rose who’s turned to watch them leave. Her hair is on her opposite shoulder, leaving her slender neck bare. My dick twitches in my pants with the thought of leaning down and leaving an open-mouthed kiss along her neck and down to her shoulder.
“I better get going,” she says suddenly. She doesn’t move though.
“You don’t have to; I’m enjoying your company.”
“I have to be up early. The conference is early tomorrow.” She looks to the doors of the bar, but again makes no move to leave. “I don’t want to give my boss a reason to fire me.”
“Let him. I’d hire you in an instant.” I’m quick and hard with my words, and I let them resonate with her.
“I’m flattered, really. But I don’t think that would be wise,” she says flatly. “At all.”
She’s resisting. I like that. “And why’s that?”
“Because... you’re…” her voice trails off and she bites her lower lip. Fuck. So sexy.
“I’m what?”
Her voice is heavy when she responds. “Bad.”
I chuckle. “Is that so?”
“You almost ruined my presentation, you know that?” she growls angrily, changing the subject. She’s grasping at straws here. Trying to find a reason to push me away. How… cute.
So this is why she’s a touch on the pissed side. “I did?” Maybe I shouldn’t have made it so obvious that it pleased me when I threw her off her game.