I nodded.
“Come on,” she said. “I’ll drop you back at your car before it’s time for you to be at work already.”
“Actually, how about if we go out for a cup of coffee or a drink? I’m not tired.”
Autumn nibbled her bottom lip. “I should get going.”
It would’ve been smarter to use her IOU to have her put a good word in for me with her boyfriend, but instead I reached into my pocket and pretended to pull something out. Extending my empty hand to her, I said, “I’d like to cash in this IOU that’s been burning a hole in my pocket.” I smiled. “Have coffee with me.”
CHAPTER 7
* * *
Autumn
“Is that Latin?” My eyes followed Donavan’s arm as he lifted his drink.
“It is.”
“What does it mean? If you don’t mind me asking.”
“Not at all. Vincit qui se vincit. It translates to He conquers who conquers himself. Someone I’m close to used to say it all the time when I was a kid getting in trouble. It basically means if I can control myself, I can conquer anything.”
“That simplifies a lot, doesn’t it?”
Donovan smiled, flashing one of his dimples, and it set off a flutter in the pit of my belly. His smile had a sort of devilish quality lurking beneath the surface. It was confident and somehow overtly sexual. Dangerous. That’s what it was. I trained my eyes away from his face, only to have them land on his forearms. That certainly didn’t help my situation much. They were so muscular and tanned, and all of the tattoos made the entire package insanely sexy.
“You know, you look very different in jeans and a T-shirt than you do in a suit and tie.”
His eyes moved over my face. “Oh yeah? Which do you like better?”
That was a tough question, like having to decide between Godiva milk chocolate truffles or dark. Both were delicious. Though there was something dangerous to my sanity about a man who looked as good as Donovan did in a custom suit and had all those tattoos hidden underneath. But I didn’t think it was smart to share those thoughts, so I shrugged and went back to enjoying my fries.
When I looked up, I found Donovan staring at me like I had two heads. “What?” I wiped my chin and looked down at my shirt. “Did I drip or something?”
His face was an odd mix of amused and grossed out. “Did you just dunk your French fry into your chocolate shake and eat it?”
“Oh.” I chuckled. “I guess I did.”
“That’s disgusting.”
“Have you ever tried it?”
“No.”
“Then how do you know it’s disgusting? You might love it.”
Donovan smirked as he sipped his chocolate shake. “Never ate dog shit, either. Pretty sure there are some things you don’t need to try in order to know they’re not going to taste good.”
“Whatever.” I shrugged. “You don’t know what you’re missing.”
Donovan and I had gone to a twenty-four-hour diner for coffee, not too far from Park House. But I was sort of hungry since I hadn’t had dinner, so I decided to get a shake and fries, while he’d opted for just a shake. Coming here with him was probably a dumb thing to do, but how could I say no after he’d spent hours combing the streets to find Storm with me? At least that’s why I told myself I’d agreed to come. It had nothing whatsoever to do with how beautiful the man sitting across from me was, or how strongly the magnetic pull toward him gripped me.
“Did you know that French fries are one of the most expensive foods in Venezuela?” I wagged a fry at him. “McDonald’s even took them off their menu there for a while.”
“I didn’t know that. Did you go to Venezuela recently?”
I shook my head. “I read it when I was looking something up once.”
He smirked. “Let me guess—someone mentioned that potatoes were the starchiest food, and that sent you down the Google rabbit hole. I’ve missed your deep dives and random trivia.”
I stuck my tongue out because, well, he was right. I had found that on one of my tumbles down the research rabbit hole, so I had no comeback.
Donovan’s eyes dropped to my mouth. “You shouldn’t stick that thing out, unless you’re planning on using it.” He winked.
I laughed. But I also sucked down enough of my shake to give me a brain freeze, because I needed to cool off. Stirring what was left in my glass with the straw, I said, “So…I hope I didn’t interrupt anything when I called this evening. It is a Saturday night and all.”
He smiled. God, he really needs to stop doing that.
“Are you asking me if I was out on a date?”
“No,” I said defensively. “I was just saying I hope I didn’t interrupt anything good.”