Part 19 (2/2)
”Something between your teeth? Sure. It couldn't be because you're ridiculously attractive and seem to be important in certain circles?”
”You think I'm attractive?”
I laughed. ”Don't get overly excited, Hayden. Everyone else thinks you're attractive, too.”
”I'm not concerned with what everyone else thinks of me.”
I took a deep breath. Then another. Then another, until I remembered that's how people hyperventilate. And that would just suck.
”You're married.”
He leaned back in the chair and took a long swig of his water. Almost finis.h.i.+ng it. Probably wanting to go. ”We keep coming back to this point, don't we?”
”Are you surprised? It's kind of a deal breaker.”
”No, I'm not surprised. Disappointed, yes. Surprised, no.” He finished his water and got up to put it in the sink. I was a millisecond away from asking him to stay when he turned on the tap, filled his gla.s.s back up, and spun around to face me. ”I understand why you don't believe me when I tell you Clare and I are getting a divorce. I understand because you don't know me as well as I wish you did, as well as I wish I knew you. So I'm not asking for anything more than that chance-to get to know each other.”
”I think you've had enough water for one night.” I took it from him and dumped it into the sink. ”Come back when your divorce is official.” I put out my hand, like that would fool either of us into thinking this was a business relations.h.i.+p. Maybe I was trying to remind both of us.
”I will. I will come back. And you're going to have to come up with another reason to not see what this could become.” He took my hand and lifted it to his lips.
I swallowed when I felt my girlie insides melt. ”Where do you get your moves, Mr. Bennett?”
”I watch a lot of black and white movies.” Made sense. Men didn't behave like this anymore. Men didn't behave period.
I stared at him, frozen in thought. ”I believe you. Maybe I'm an idiot, but I believe you're getting divorced. Because you believed me when I told you I didn't leak that information to your compet.i.tor.”
”I didn't, though,” he said sadly. ”Not until you showed me proof.”
”Well...” I sighed. ”I guess that means I'm either a better person or a bigger idiot than you are.”
”Definitely the former.”
I should've added 'better liar' to those options. But I think this was the proof I needed. Proof that I could trust him, that he was the man I hoped he was. If I knew that for sure, then I could tell him who I was. But I couldn't go first. Blind trust had ruined my life and my future, so it was a little tough to muster more up.
”I'm going to ask you this once,” I said. ”Please, don't make me regret trusting you.” The words that mirrored his own held the same amount of meaning. This was about trust, and this was for good. ”Are you really getting a divorce?”
”Yes.”
”But not because of...” It would be the height of arrogance to think it had anything to do with me.
”Are you asking if my interest in you was part of the reason?” Thankfully, he answered without waiting for a response. ”Splitting up is the right thing for both of us. Your involvement is limited to the fact that I never imagined anything better was possible for me. Now, when I talk to you or...look at you, I think there might be. But you get a small say in that part of it, I suppose.”
”Gee, thanks.” I ducked my head. ”There are a lot of things I haven't told you about me yet. Maybe you'll change your mind once you know.”
”Are you married?”
I popped my head up. ”No.”
”In a monogamous relations.h.i.+p with anyone? Let's not count me for right now because our monogamous and incredibly pa.s.sionate relations.h.i.+p hasn't begun yet.”
d.a.m.n, I wished he hadn't said that. ”No.”
”Then the only thing left is for you to give me your ID and a major credit card.”
”What?”
He smiled. ”Like you said, if you give them to me, then I know you're not a serial killer or a rapist. Anything other than that I can deal with.”
Man, I hoped that was true.
25.
Hayden What was happening to me? I'd met a woman for the first time and was already falling for her. Granted, we'd known each other a while, but things like this didn't happen. Not to me, or anyone else. The love-at-first-sight phenomenon could be easily explained away by hormones and other chemical reactions. But this was the reverse. Maybe the fact that I liked her so much was actually making her more attractive. Love before first sight.
”You are very beautiful,” I said, sitting down at her kitchen table again, determined to stay as long as possible. ”Very drunk, but very beautiful.”
”I'm not drunk anymore.” She stood behind a chair, gripping the back tightly. As if that chair would keep us apart more than half a second if I tried to get to her. But I could control myself...for now.
”I'm glad you didn't try to refute the other part.”
”If I'd been listening, I might have. But I didn't hear what I could be refuting. Was it anything good?”
I laughed. ”Very, very beautiful.”
”I can't hear you,” she mocked, pointing to her ears in the silent room. ”It's loud in here.”
”And so different from what I imagined.” Which would have been perfect, too. ”I didn't think you would look like you do.”
”What? You imagined me sitting in front of my computer all day, combing my mullet and covered in cat hair?”
”Of course, not.” I'd imagined her pretty, not stunning. ”I knew you wouldn't be covered in cat hair. It would be dog hair from the pack of wolves who raised you.”
”Ah.” She sat down, a very wicked, probably slightly drunken smile lighting up her face. ”Well then, you're exactly right. But Mom and Dad don't shed this time of year, so fur isn't a big issue. You should probably avoid me in the spring, though.”
”You don't look at all Greek.”
”Greek?”
”Your last name is Greek, isn't it? I thought-”
”Yeah, Greek,” she said quickly. ”I'm adopted.”
I couldn't stop glancing at her lips. The ones that teased me, challenged me, controlled me. Punished me when they would say goodbye. The ones I would give anything for just one taste of.
<script>