Chapter 17
TESTING HIM
Somehow Spencer was changing to meet London out for dinner and he wasn’t sure how the hell it happened.
They were going to meet up at a place she suggested. Somewhere he’d never been before, but he was open for anything.
With tan pants on, a pair of casual white sneakers and a blue short-sleeved Henley shirt, he grabbed his phone and his money clip, shoved them in his pocket and left. It was only a few blocks.
Eight minutes later, he turned the corner and saw London coming out of a building, then jogged to catch up with her.
“Hey,” he said. “You live there?”
“I do. With Paris.”
“Is she home tonight?”
“Nope. She’s actually out to dinner with a potential client.”
“Ah, so you didn’t want to sit home alone and that is why you agreed to dinner tonight?”
“I agreed because you asked,” she said, skirting around people.
“I didn’t feel as if I had a choice with the way you dropped the gauntlet down on me.”
She tilted her head and grinned, light brown hair, almost more blonde now with the sun on it, flowing behind her in the breeze. And damn if that didn’t hit him harder than it should.
She’d changed too. A tan denim skirt that hit way higher on her thighs than his sanity appreciated. Brown sandals. A green V-neck shirt that hugged her body far more than he hoped it would.
If she was testing him, she was acing it.
But she’d been doing that since the minute he met her.
“We needed it to get to this point,” she said. “Time to see how it goes when we don’t feel trapped in a stinky little town with one sad corner store.”
“That’s definitely not here.”
She looped her arm through his and pulled him through the door of the restaurant she suggested. This wasn’t the same woman who made his skin itch after one of her verbal tirades.
This woman? She was fun. Magnetic.
Someone he might have asked out on an actual date if he’d met her anywhere other than in the middle of a professional minefield.
But wasn’t that what she was trying to prove?
Or maybe he needed to prove it to himself.
They were seated quickly, their drinks ordered just as fast when the menus were set down.
“So,” she said. “Did you try to talk yourself out of this before you left?”
“No.”
She squinted her eyes. “I’m not sure I believe you.”
“I thought I told you I don’t lie.”
“You did. You seem different though,” she said.
“So do you.”
“I’m trying. Don’t I get credit for that?”
“Maybe I’m doing the same.”
“But you don’t want to if it means being someone you’re not?” she asked.
“I’m never someone I don’t want to be. Don’t get that twisted.”
She nodded, their drinks put down in lightning speed. This was going to be a quick date if everything was served this fast.
She glanced down and picked a special quickly and he did the same. He’d rather get back to their date.
The night where things either popped with pizzazz, or fizzled down the drain.
“My sister knows what happened,” she said.
It was like a knife right to the gut. “I thought we agreed it’d be a secret.”
Which meant he wasn’t so sure he could trust her now. And that meant everything to him.
“It is one. She won’t say a word. The thing is, she knows me better than I know myself. You could say I got home in a mood and she wouldn’t let me go until I confessed it.”
“I’m listening.”
He put the beer to his lips and would let her set the stage since she went back on what he hadn’t wanted to happen.
“I told her how we ended up in the same room together. By the way, she thinks you’re cute.”
He coughed and put his hand in front of his mouth. “Is that going to be an issue?”
“What? That my sister thinks you’re cute. She didn’t say you were hot.”
“Do you think I’m hot?”
“Excuse me,” she said, her nose in the air.
“Oh, come on. You can put me on the spot with your question this afternoon, but I can’t do the same?”
She lifted her glass to him. “Fair point. And you won’t even have to ask me more than once to answer. Yes, I do.”
“It’s mutual.”
“I know it is,” she said. “It’s why I pushed you.”
“That’s it? The only reason. That you had to see if you could win.”
“You’re trying to push my buttons.” Her head was angled, but she wasn’t losing her patience just yet.
“You do it to me all the time.”
“I don’t try though. It’s just a natural talent I’ve got.” The wiggle of her eyebrows said she was making this fun.
He laughed. “You know, like this, we get along well.”
“I do know. That’s why I pushed. If I waited for you, it might not happen. You know, that honor and all.”
“I’m not going to apologize for that. And I’ll still be cautious. I think that is just smart.”
“It is. And back to Paris. She knows we kissed. She thought it was funny. Not in a humorous way, just a good one.”
“Does she know about dinner tonight?”
“No. She left before I got your text. She came back from her meeting, finished a few things up and left early to get ready. Then your text came in. Faster than I thought too.”
“Good. I want to throw you off as much as you’ve been doing to me.”
“We’ve got that in common then.”
Their dinner was placed down five minutes later. “Do they always serve everyone this quickly?”
“They do. I picked it in case we get on the other’s nerves. It can be a fast date. See, I can be smart too,” she said.
“You know we are going to always get on each other’s nerves,” he pointed out, then picked up his knife to cut the massive chicken sandwich in half and lift it up for a bite.
“We are. I don’t have a problem with it. It keeps things spicy. Don’t you think?”
He nodded while he chewed and thought of the next words out of his mouth.
She was eating along with him.
“What’s the next step other than not letting anyone know we are here?”
“If we want to keep it too much of a secret then we shouldn’t have met here,” she said.
“You suggested it. So you don’t care?”
“Oh, I care. But if someone sees us they can think we are working. Since we just went away together recently, we could brush it off that way.”
He was good with that.
“What do you think your sister is going to say about this date tonight? I’m sure you’ll tell her.”
She shrugged, the smile still on her face as she chewed and swallowed.
“She’ll think it’s a good thing. Neither one of us has had much of a personal life in years.
It’s hard when you’re on the road. Then we knew for at least six months that this move was in the works.
Why even bother trying at that point. What about you?
You never said why or how long you’ve been single. Let’s have some common date talk.”
It wouldn’t hurt. They already knew more about each other than he would someone else on a date like this. He supposed this would be considered their first because the others were on a work trip.
Then he wondered why it mattered all that much to him.
It was guilt—that was why.
He needed to get it out of his mind that he knew better than to mix business and pleasure.
He’d seen enough other people do it and be just fine in the end. No reason he couldn’t be mature enough to navigate it.
It was whether London could be mature enough though. Which pained him to think, but he had to be honest with himself at the same time.
“I’ve been single for about three years. Work has played a good part in it.”
“You’ve not dated at all?”
“I’ve dated. Dated a few women for a month or so, but don’t consider that a relationship.”
“Because they wanted more of your time than you were able to give?”
“I like how you said able and not willing. It was that more than anything.”
“Was there anyone you wanted to give more time to?” she asked.
“No. So that means I didn’t try.”
And that ate at him too.
“Are you willing to try here?”
“I wouldn’t be here if I weren’t,” he said, continuing to eat. She did the same.
It was as if she needed more time to comprehend what he’d admitted. “Is it because we work together?”
“No. I don’t want to mix them up. I’m being clear there,” she said.
“Good. Me neither.”
And she couldn’t get much clearer when she invited him to her apartment, saying that it was on his way anyway, and she wasn’t ready for the night to end.
“This is a nice place,” he said. “I can see a combination of you both here.”
“It’s more Paris than me. I don’t have the patience for decorating.”
That didn’t surprise him in the least. “It’s calming,” he said, tongue in cheek.
“Which should have told you right away it wasn’t me. We know there isn’t anything calm about me.”
“There isn’t,” he said, reaching for her arm and tugging her into his body. To see if she teased him like before.
If she got right in his face and then pulled back again.
He’d give her a pass on the first one. Because the truth was, she was right. It took the guilt off his shoulders not kissing her in the office environment.
But if she did it this time, he’d be done. It wasn’t the type of games or flirting he had the time for.
She didn’t though. She slipped her arms around his neck. She held on tight like he had wanted her to do days ago.
Her body pressed to his, her hips nudged against the very obvious reaction straining in his jeans.
Her breath was just a whisper away from his mouth. “This time I want you to kiss me,” she said.
And he did. There was no reason to push it off.
No reason to deny them both.
His mouth slanted over hers, the heat he’d been feeling for days ready to be unleashed.
Her lips parted beneath his, welcoming him in, and the kiss went from a spark to a full-on ignition. She tasted like wine and challenge and something he’d been craving long before he admitted it.
She tightened her arms around his neck, drawing him closer, like she wanted every inch of space between them obliterated. He slid one hand down her back, tracing the dip of her spine, and stopping at the flare of her hip.
She fit against him too perfectly, and the groan he swallowed against her mouth was pure reflex.
She nipped at his bottom lip, teasing, testing, pushing him right to the edge.
“London,” he breathed against her mouth, the warning in his voice rough. “You keep doing that and it’s going to be hard to leave.”
Her fingers threaded into his hair, tugging just enough to make his pulse spike. “Maybe I don’t want you to leave.”
“But you also don’t want me to stay,” he said, his mouth lowering again.
They were nibbling at each other’s lips now. She wasn’t arguing what he’d said.
It was too soon for them both.
If she took him to her room, he wasn’t sure what conclusion he’d draw from it. And maybe he didn’t want her thinking the same about him.
She shivered once, then twice, her mouth pulling away, her nails grazing his jaw. “We need time to figure out what happens next.”
He lifted his head and met her eyes. They were bright, determined, and a little breathless. “I’m already pretty damn sure, even if I agree one hundred percent with you.”
“It might be the first time we agree about anything.”
He kissed her again. Deeper, slower, claiming every inch she offered. Her hands slid to his shoulders, gripping them tight, and he felt her melt into him as though she’d been waiting for this just as long.
And God help him… he knew this was the start of something he wasn’t going to walk away from.
But for tonight, he had to do it.
Otherwise the regret would seep in just as much as the guilt.