He kissed my forehead, then skimmed his nose down my temple. “I want a bit more time with you. I’m glad we didn’t waste time sleeping.”
I laughed. “I’m glad too, but I think we’re going to both pay for it today.”
“No regrets here.” He straightened up, looking me in the eyes, the unspoken question hanging between us: You?
“No regrets here either,” I reassured him. “But we should go if you don’t want to be overly late.”
“I don’t really care. I’m the boss. I’m allowed a cheat day.”
I narrowed my eyes. “How often do you take cheat days?”
“This is the first one.”
I all but melted. I suddenly felt so jittery that I barely kept from breaking out in a happy dance. I wasn’t ruling out the possibility of that still happening as we walked out of the room arm in arm. The elevator was empty, and I only saw staff members milling about the lobby.
New York on Saturday morning at six o’clock was surreal. Aside from garbage trucks and occasional cabs, there wasn’t much traffic.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen the city empty like this,” I said.
“I’ve seen it a couple of times during Restaurant Days.”
“I’ll take you to the restaurant and then head to the store,” I said. “I’ve still got some time.”
He shook his head. “I’m not going to the Tribeca restaurant today but one outside Manhattan. It’s in the opposite direction.”
I pouted as Rob instructed the doorman to flag two cabs for us. Chuckling, he brought a hand to my face, resting his thumb right against my mouth.
“I take this as a sign that you’re sad we don’t get to share a cab.”
I nodded, pouting in an even more exaggerated manner. I rarely behaved so childishly, and mostly with my siblings, but I couldn’t seem to help myself. What was this man doing to me? And when he pinned me with those smoldering green eyes, smiling until dimples appeared in his cheeks, I forgot all about pouting. I was too busy trying not to swoon right here.
“What are you doing tonight?” he asked. Wow. He already wanted to make plans?
“I don’t know. I think I’m just going to close the store and then probably crash.”
He drew his thumb from the center of my mouth to one corner.
“We’ll see about that.”
My heart was beating fast. “Oh?”
“You’ll see.” He winked, opening the door of the first cab. I slid onto the back seat.
“Give me a hint.”
He leaned in, bringing his mouth to my ear.
“I just can’t get enough of you.”
He straightened up, then reached down to my ear again and whispered, “And when you get to your store, cover your ass—that’s mine.” Then he stood up and closed the door.
That man. I had to laugh.
My palms were sweating a little as I told the cabbie the address, then pressed my nose to the window when the car lurched forward, watching Rob get into the second cab.
I tried to analyze the situation, but this was so new for me, so different from any experience I’d had with men, that I just had no basis for comparison. So, I just relaxed against the back seat, unable to hold back a smile. Suddenly, I wished it were evening so badly that I just wanted to fast-forward the day—another first for me.
I arrived before Tess at the store. Since we still had two hours until opening time, I checked our online orders before answering some customer questions.