Chapter 10
Zia~
As Quaid and I rode the elevator up to my office, I couldn’t help but feel like a complete fool.
Granted, I had no idea what the man was doing here, but that still didn’t stop me from feeling like the most popular boy in school was about to ask me to the homecoming dance, and that was stupid as hell.
Seriously.
When he had texted me from the lobby, I’d gone to collect him, acting as professionally as I could in front of our receptionist, Helen Dufré, and he’d been astute enough to return the favor.
Anyone watching us would think that Quaid was simply a client, and that was important.
It was important because I didn’t want to look like a besotted fool for the man.
After our night together, I’d done what any respectable woman would do in such a situation, sneaking out of his bed before returning home for a hot, hot, hot bath.
Not only had I let the man break me in anally, but we’d also had sex three more times at his place, leaving me sweaty, sticky, and probably smelling like a weekend binge.
As for getting his number, I hadn’t felt the need.
While Quaid had said and done all the right things that night, it’d be unfair for me to hold him to anything that he’d said.
Anyone that had any kind of sense knew that anything said during sex was just in-the-heat-of-the-moment ramblings.
It was different when you were an established couple having sex.
At any rate, when I’d finally gotten home and in that tub, all I could think about was how Quaid Crawford had been too good to be true.
Not only had he aced the scene at the club, but when we’d gotten back to his place, it’d been more of the same but different.
With no audience to blame it on, Quaid had still been attentive, thorough, and satisfying.
He had continued to please every inch of my body, and in between bouts of sex, we had laid in his bed, his arms wrapped around my body, the feeling a comfortable and content one.
Which was probably the real reason why I had snuck out.
I’d found myself wanting it to be real, and it had scared me enough to spend the following days forcing the man from my mind, though unsuccessfully. Even if I were to never see him again, Quaid was still my father’s attorney on record, and so Dad spoke of the man quite often.
Once the elevator doors slid open, Quaid followed me to my office in silence, and I wasn’t sure if he could feel the tension rolling off me in waves, but I sure felt it.
I had no idea why he was here, but whatever his reason, it couldn’t be all bad, right?
I mean, would he really show up at my place of work to cause a scene?
For Christ’s sakes, he was a lawyer, a bona fide professional.
We finally reached my office, and I immediately shut the door once he crossed the threshold. I wasn’t high up enough to have a secretary, but the people here were good about knocking before just entering an office on their own.
I passed Quaid on the way to my desk, and once I was safely positioned behind it, I said, “Okay, you’ve got my attention.”
Instead of taking a seat in one of the extra chairs provided, Quaid chose to stand, eyeing me from across my desk, and he looked just as good as he’d had on the day that I’d first met him.
Surprising the hell out of me, he asked, “Are you busy next Friday night?”
I arched a brow. “Got a taste for being on stage, Mr. Crawford?”
I mean, why else would he be asking?
He shot me a telling look. “No, Ms. DeLéon. I’m asking because I need a date for the Starlight Gala that night, and I thought that you might like to go with me.”
What?
He was asking me out on a date?
Seriously?
With my brows furrowed in some serious confusion, I asked, “Like...you’re asking me out on a date?”
He let out a low chuckle. “Yes, I’m asking you out on a date.”
I shook my head a bit, trying to clear my thoughts. “Why?” I finally asked. “What happened to me being an attention-craving spoiled narcissist?”
“I never called you a narcissist,” he drawled out, though not denying the rest of it.
“That’s reassuring,” I retorted, though I had to laugh at his honesty. Most people cringed or flat out lied when you called them out.
“I misjudged you,” he finally admitted. “I misjudged you, and I apologize for that.”
Eyeing him, I said, “You’re going to have to do better than that, Quaid. If this is about The Fantasy-”
He immediately put his hand up to stop me. “This isn’t about Friday night,” he replied, and his voice was exactly what I pictured while he was in a courtroom. “Remember, that was your fantasy, not mine.”
“Then what is this about?” I asked, trying to tap down the hope in my voice.
I didn’t say anything as Quaid made his way around my desk until he was standing right in front of me.
He reached out to play with the collar of my blouse as he said, “This is about how you felt in my arms later. This is about how my sheets still smell like you, like us. This is about how I can’t stop thinking of you, Zia. ”
Yeah, there was that hope again, and it was soaring high.
We weren’t naked or having sex. We weren’t putting on a show, nor were we still basking in the afterglow of some amazing sex.
It was a week later, and Quaid was asking me on a date, and not to the local steakhouse.
He was asking me to the Starlight Gala, an event that was going to have photographers, press, and all that jazz.
“And what are we going to tell my dad?” I asked, still processing that this was really happening.
“That we ran into each other again, and that we hit it off,” he replied, which was true if you didn’t put a fine point on the details.
“I just...I didn’t expect this, Quaid,” I told him honestly. “I think I might need a minute.”
His warm hand reached up to wrap around the side of my neck. “What’s there to think about, baby? And don’t act like you haven’t been thinking of me all week, either.”
“You make it sound so easy,” I chuckled nervously.
“Oh, there’s nothing easy about this,” he retorted, his hand giving my neck a quick squeeze. “Not only is your father my client, but I’m also fifteen years older than you are, and I work too many hours to make any kind of a decent boyfriend, let alone someone’s husband.”
“Already proposing?” I quipped, though I was glad to hear that he wasn’t as indifferent to all this as he seemed.
“I’m also too old for children,” he said, and while that was too serious a topic for right now, I could appreciate his candor. “I think that you should know that upfront.”
“Well, luckily for you, I’m too self-centered to ever want children,” I replied half-serious. “Honestly, I don’t think I’d be a good parent to anyone.”
Quaid stepped closer, his body heat warming me from head to toe. “That’s better than lying to yourself and having children just to appease society’s expectations.”
“You know, this probably isn’t the best place or time for this deep of a conversation,” I pointed out. “Maybe we should talk about this later.”
“Over dinner at my house tonight?” he suggested, and his eagerness had my chest warming with hope again.
“I thought you were too busy to be a decent boyfriend?” I teased.
Quaid just smiled down at me. “I am. I’m just faking it until you’re so in love with me that you have no choice but to ignore all my flaws.”
That got a genuine laugh out of me. “Oh, really?”
“Yeah, baby...really,” he replied, still smiling.
“Well, I guess since we’re already talking marriage and children, then it’d be kind of awkward if I said no to the Starlight Gala next week,” I said, sighing as if it was going to be a chore.
“I’m glad you’re willing to make the sacrifice,” he quipped.
After a few seconds of silence, I said, “Please don’t be bullshitting me, Quaid. I don’t need my heart broken just because you need some extra entertainment in your life.”
His other hand found my right hip as he said, “Zia, the last thing that I’d ever do is play with anyone’s emotions, least of all, yours.”
“So...we’re really going to do this?” I asked, still scared to hope too much.
“Yeah, we’re really going to do this,” he replied, sounding serious enough not to doubt him.
“Are you going to kiss me to make it official?”
“If I kiss you, I might not stop with just a kiss,” he warned me.
“You say that like it’s a bad thing,” I said coyly.
“Don’t say that I didn’t warn you,” he smirked right before his lips finally came down on mine.