Yum.
Then, he pulls out a bottle of wine and a plastic glass from the side of the basket.
“When did you sneak that in?” I ask.
“I put it in when you were in the bathroom. I just forgot to tell you. Thought you might like a drink.”
“Aren’t you having one?”
“I’m driving.” He gives me a duh look.
“I know you’re driving, smart-ass, but you can have a glass, can’t you?”
“I only brought the one glass.”
“Then, I’ll share mine with you.”
He pours the wine out, and I take a sip and then hand it to him.
“Thanks for bringing me here,” I say before taking a bite of my sandwich. “It really is beautiful. And kind of romantic if you think about it.”
“I’m a romantic kind of guy.” He grins.
“Can you ever be serious for just a minute?” I nudge his thigh with my foot.
He stares right into my eyes. “Like I told you, I’m serious about you.”
Butterflies swoop into my stomach, going nuts. “I’m kind of serious about you, too, West.”
We eat and drink—well, I do most of the drinking—and we talk about everything and laugh. I laugh so much when I’m with him.
I think humor is such an attractive quality in a man, and Vaughn has it in spades. That, and a gorgeous face and smoking-hot body.
I’m a lucky, lucky girl.
I’m just nibbling on a strawberry when I remember something that I’ve always wanted to ask him. “West, can I ask you something?”
“Is it dirty or kinky?”
“No.” I giggle.
“Sounds boring to me, but go on then. I’m listening.”
I shake my head at him, my lips curved into a smile. “Why didn’t you have me fired when I stabbed you?”
He furrows his brow. “Why would I have?”
“Because you had Millie fired for incompetency. I stabbed you in one of your balls. Seems kind of worse than being incompetent. Even though she is incompetent.”
“Who’s Millie?”
“The girl who did the job before me.” I put the rest of the strawberry in my mouth and chew.
“Oh, her. I had her fired because she kept hitting on me.”
“Oh.” I swallow it down. “Well, it makes sense. She always did seem to like the men I did.” Even if she did see Vaughn first, it doesn’t count because I don’t like her.
“Do I smell a history there between you two?”
“I just don’t like her. She’s crap at her job. And she slept with my ex after I dumped him.”
“Ah. Well, Pins, I wouldn’t have fired you for an accident even if it hurt like a motherfucker. And you intrigued me. I liked your fire. And you made me a cock warmer, so…”
“Oh my God! It wasn’t a cock warmer! It was—”
He cuts my words off with a soft kiss.
His lips part from mine, his thumb brushing gently over my mouth. My eyes flutter open to his warm stare on mine.
“It wasn’t a cock warmer,” I utter softly.
“Sure it wasn’t, Pins.” He winks.
“Kind of ironic that you fired her for hitting on you, and then you ended up sleeping with me.”
“It’s different.”
“How?”
“Because, first off, she was seriously inappropriate. You never behaved that way with me.”
“True.”
“And, secondly, I wanted to fuck you the moment I laid eyes on you.”
I hold back a smile. “You were quite standoffish when I first met you.”
“Because I wanted to fuck you, and I knew I couldn’t, hence the hard-on when you stabbed me.”
“I knew you had an erection!” I exclaim. “And you were all, ‘I didn’t have a boner. You’re not my type,’” I say, mimicking his voice.
“What was I supposed to say? Oh, yeah, I got a boner while you were on your knees in front of me because I couldn’t stop imagining you sucking my cock. I’m sure that would have gone down really well.”
I laugh. “You said I wasn’t your type.”
“I lied. You’re more than my type.”
“You seemed very convincing.”
“I’m an actor, Pins. I’m paid to be convincing.”
“So, how will I actually know when you’re telling me the truth or lying?” I’m teasing, but his face instantly turns serious, surprising me.
“Because I would never lie to you. You’re far too important to me for me to ever do anything to fuck this up.”
My own secret thumps me hard in the chest. I swallow, my mouth suddenly dry. “I know,” I whisper. “I was just teasing.”
“Sorry.” He grabs ahold of my hand and tugs on it. “I just…after what happened with Cain…I just…I would never do that to you.”
“I know you wouldn’t. And I would never cheat on you. You know that, right?”
He looks at me for a long moment. “I know, babe. I trust you.”
I take a sip of wine.
Vaughn gets a strawberry and puts it in his mouth, biting into it. Some of the juice runs down his lip. He catches it with his tongue. “So, tell me about this ex-boyfriend.”
“Huh?”
“The ex who Millie slept with.”
“Oh, Michael.”
“Sounds like a prick.”
I laugh. “He is. A prick who was a drug dealer, which I found out about after six months of dating him. The second I found out, I dumped his sorry ass.”
“How did you find out that he was dealing?”
“I was working on a show, and an actor told me to thank Michael for the coke and that it was good shit, that’d he be telling all his buddies about him.”
“Sounds like a charmer.”
“Oh, yeah, a real charmer.”
“You’ve really gone up in the world with me, Pins.”
I glance at him, and he’s grinning.
“I know, right? But then there wasn’t exactly anywhere for me to go but up after Michael.”
His brow furrows. “I don’t know if that was actually a compliment or not.”
“It was. Well…a backhanded compliment—argh!”
I squeal as he dives on me. Taking me to my back, he pins my hands over my head.
“Your smart mouth is going to get you in trouble one of these days, Charlotte Michaels. Hey, do you realize you’ve got the same surname as your douche ex’s first name?”
“Of course I realized.” I laugh.
“If you’d married him, you could’ve made him change his surname to yours, so he’d have been called Michael Michaels.”
“You’re a fucking comedian, West. And why exactly are you talking about me marrying another man? My ex, to be precise.”
“I have no clue.” He frowns. “The thought actually makes me want to punch a hole in that tree over there.”
“You’d have to be pretty strong to punch a hole in a tree. Like Hulk strong.”
“You’re killing the romantic in my words.”
“Sorry.” I bite the smile on my lips, but I can’t stop the laugh that comes out.
“You suck.” He frowns, climbing off me, sitting down.
I sit up next to him. “I do suck. Very well, according to you.”
He slides a grin at me. “You do have a mouth like a vacuum.”
“Was that another one of your romantic statements?”
“Yep.”
“Uh, well, thanks.”