“I don’t blame you. This would be the place to do it.”
He squeezed my hand that rested in the crook of his elbow tenderly. We took a seat at one of the metal tables near a window that was bolted shut.
After setting the food down, Alfie glanced at the dark window curiously. “What was in this building before? Do you know?”
“Business suites,” I said, and glanced at the window as well with a nostalgic pang. “It was where my old boss’ business used to be. When I worked with him as an intern while going to college, I found this place because all the smokers would crawl out that window to take a break.”
“Much better than taking the elevator I assume.” He winked at me.
I laughed. “Gary is anti-smoking. He tried to get every single of his employees to quit by making them go all the way downstairs to smoke. It was a little too much effort even for a much-needed high.”
“That’s a genius way to get someone to stop smoking,” Alfie said, chuckling.
He leaned back with a sigh, interlacing his fingers behind his head. A serene expression crossed his face for the first time I noticed since landing in New York City.
“All right, mister. Let’s eat.” I reached for the bag and unpacked everything as he watched me closely, the look on his face one I’d seen several times before. I couldn’t help but notice the thick outline of an erection in his slacks, and he was doing nothing to hide it.
“You look so good, Mol.” He reached up and ran his fingertips down my forearm as his eyes moved around my face. “I haven’t stopped thinking about you since we got here. Does that make me a creeper?”
I laughed and finished setting everything out before sliding into his lap. I wrapped my arms around his neck and leaned down close to his face. “Not at all. I know the feeling all too well.”
He slid his hand into my hair and gripped the strands softly as he pulled me down to kiss me. The press of his wet lips against mine had my heart fluttering in my chest. I moaned, and he tilted his head, deepening the kiss. His tongue rolled past mine, and I sucked on it gently as his free hand slid down my back and cupped my ass. Any more and we weren’t going to be eating dinner.
We’d be eating each other. The thought had my head spinning, my heart racing.
“So hot,” I whispered against his lips sensually.
“Yes, you most certainly are, love.” He kissed me once more. “Hop off lest you have me stripping you down naked and devouring you in front of the whole city.”
“That is not a good way to get me off of your lap.” I laughed, and he joined me. After kissing him a few more times for good measure, I got up and moved to my side of the little, rickety table. “All right. So, prepare yourself for greatness.” I lifted my sandwich and smirked. “It doesn’t get any better than this.”
“Really?” He picked his sandwich up and unwrapped it as I bit into mine and moaned loudly. His eyes widened a little. “Now you’re just being a tease.”
“Nope. I love these things,” I mumbled through a mouthful of sandwich. I hadn’t felt so free in all of my dating life. It was odd, as if we were made for one another. I wanted to blurt out a million things, including the fact that I was falling in love, but my heart wouldn’t let me.
The truth of Harry’s infidelities left my confidence limping. Where I’d never in a million years let anyone know the truth, it still was very much the truth.
He took a big bite, and his eyes lit up. “Damn. This is incredible.”
I laughed. “Told you. You should start listening more to me.”
“Speaking of listening to you,” he paused to pick up a napkin and wipe at the sauce dripping down the side of his mouth, “I had the meeting with the investors today. I told them about your marketing ideas. They loved it.”
“Oh, yeah?” My insides tightened. I was praying my idea would help him out. It sounded like it was a hit, and I wanted to push, but his tone wasn’t nearly as playful as it had been just a few seconds before. “Tell me more about it. Did you expect it to go well or—”
Alfie’s expression darkened slightly before it cleared into a neutral expression. He shrugged his shoulders slightly. “They went as good as I had hoped it would go. They all thought it was a good idea,” he said.
I frowned at the vague response. “That’s it? Nothing else happened?” It was weird that he wasn’t diving into it for me, seeing that it was my concept/idea. Maybe he was just tired. I’d been busy since we hit the ground in New York, but I knew my busy was nothing like his was.
“The only thing I can say is that we will see how it goes when the numbers come in on Friday,” Alfie said, a bit shortly. He looked at me then sharply. “I don’t want to talk about work tonight, if you don’t mind. It went well, but I jus
t want to enjoy the evening with you.”
“Of course,” I said, taken aback by the abrupt change in his behavior. “Work is out of the conversation for the rest of the night.” He hurt my feelings a little by his abrupt change in tone and mood, but maybe there was more to the story. Maybe there was something he wasn’t telling me.
Sure as fuck seemed like it.
“Okay, so talk about what you’ve been up to. You went to see your old boss?”