Her back stiffens. “I think you’re married with a wife and two-point-five kids waiting for you to come home.”
I almost forget her question, I’m so caught up in watching the windows to her soul. I see something there, but I can’t put my finger on what it is.
I hold up my empty left hand and point to where a wedding band would be if I had one. I smile because the thought of me being married is such a polar opposite from the truth. “No wife. No two-point-five kids.”
She sits back in her chair and doesn’t appear as though she’s buying what I’m selling. “The lack of a wedding band doesn’t prove anything.”
“I am secretive, but it has nothing to do with being married.”
Our server returns to remove our dishes and we fall silent until he walks away. “Why are you secretive?”
“For lack of a better answer, it’s just how I am.”
She frowns. “Well, that explains everything.”
These are dangerous waters I’m treading. This girl is different from the others. If I don’t handle her the right way, she’ll run. Of this, I’m certain. “You and I will both be in Wagga Wagga for the next three months. I’d really like to see you while we’re here.”
“Would I finally get to know your name?” She’s laughing but has no idea that withholding real names is my number-one stipulation for dating.
Hell! She’s got me off my game and feeling like I’ve never done this before.
I draw a breath to clear my head before I begin. “My life is complicated for reasons I won’t discuss. When it comes to dating, I need it to be simple and undemanding. Disclosing my identity complicates things, so you wouldn’t know my real name.”
“You’re not joking.”
I can’t read her reaction. I have no idea if she’s on board or freaking out. “When the three months is over, so are we. I’ll move on and you will too. Because you won’t know my name or any identifying information about me, you’ll have no way to contact me. Ever.”
This face I can read, and it’s full of confusion. “But why?”
I have reasons, but I won’t explain them. “Because that’s the way I need things to be.”
She’s clearly pissed off as evidenced by the scowl on her face. “If you never wanted to hear from me again, that wouldn’t be a problem on my end, Jack.”
I smile because she has no idea she just used my real name. “You’d have the same courtesy. You don’t have to tell me your real name and you choose how much or how little you want to tell me about yourself.”
She puts her elbows on the table and leans forward. “You’re crazy as hell, but you already know that, right?”
I feel her slipping through my fingers, so I’m forced to use my last line of defense. “I’m a very wealthy man. The three months we spend together would be the best of your life. You’d never be able to top what you’d experience with me.”
She sits back and laughs. “Well, at least you’re not egotistical.”
I wasn’t finished. I had one more card up my sleeve. “I’d make your fantasies a reality.”
She licks her lips and then draws the bottom one into her mouth. God, I’d love to do that for her. “You want me to have sex with you.”
Now she’s catching on. “Yes, I would like that very much.”
“Sounds like you need an escort or a prostitute, and I’m neither of those things.”
Oh, shit. I’ve f**ked up royally now.
I reach for her hand to calm her. “I wasn’t suggesting you were either. Sex wouldn’t be the only part of our relationship. There would be much more to it than that.”
She jerks her hand away. “I don’t sleep with strangers and apparently that’s what you’d continue to be since you won’t even tell me something as basic as your name.”
I pull my hand back. “You have a very reasonable argument, but it wouldn’t be like that. We would come to know each other in our own way.”
“To hell with this shit. I’m outta here.” She pushes away from the table. “Please call your driver and ask him to take me home.”
Way to go, Jack. Way to go.
I pull my phone from my pocket and call Daniel. “Front of the hotel, now.”
I watch her face as she stares off, refusing to look at me. I regret we didn’t have more time together. I wish I could take it all back and handle it differently.
“He’ll only be a minute. Please, allow me to walk you out.” She doesn’t agree or object as I stand to walk her toward the exit.
The car is at the curb as we move through the revolving doors. I open the back passenger door for her and her caramel eyes meet mine before she gets inside. “Have a nice life, whoever you are.”
Wow, that’s final.
She climbs in and I stand, my hand on the door, waiting to shut it. I don’t want to let her go like this. I fight the urge to get into the backseat with her but I know it’s useless. I’ve insulted her, and she’s made it clear she wouldn’t accept my proposition. But dammit, I don’t want this to be the last time I see her, so I stop arguing with myself and get into the car.
She regards me with narrowed, suspicious eyes. “What are you doing?”
I close the door. “I’m riding with you.”
She scoots as far from me as possible. “My answer is no, so what’s the point?”
Great question. “I don’t know.”
We ride in uncomfortable silence as Daniel drives us to where she is staying. I rack my brain trying to think of an alternate approach, but come up short.
After the car stops, Daniel opens the door and she gets out. I follow, walking by her side toward the apartment’s entrance, and I can’t fight the urge to make another plea. “Please, think it over and reconsider my offer.”
She stops dead in her tracks. “You arrogant jackass! You rode with me so you could try to talk me into going along with this crazy-ass idea of yours.”
I’m not sure why I feel like I have the right to touch her or why I think she’d let me, but I reach out and place my finger over her lips. “Shh. Don’t say no again right now. Wait until you’ve had time to think about it. This is a new idea, and you might find you feel different about it once you’ve thought it over.”
I trail my thumb to her bottom lip and rub it as I remember the way she sucked it. If you say yes, you’d spend the next three months having the time of your life.”