Then take her back to my place and fuck the daylights out of her.
“Why are you here to see me, then? Can I help you with something?” Her voice is so soft, it’s almost a whisper.
I close the distance between us. “You can come back to my bed.”
She moves away, stumbling slightly. I steady her with my hand, her skin warm. Tingles flash through me when I touch her. Goddamned tingles. What am I? Fourteen?
She eases away from me until the backs of her thighs hit the desk.
“You going to answer me?”
“With all due respect, you didn’t exactly ask a question,” she says.
“True. You did. You asked if you could help me with anything, and I answered. Still, I think my response is worthy of a reply.”
She inhales deeply, and for a moment, I wonder if she’s going to speak to me at all.
Finally, “You’re not even offering me dinner this time?”
I resist a smile, remembering the cold penne and veal I found in the kitchen the morning after our encounter. Marilyn had to throw it away.
“We didn’t exactly get to dinner the last time.”
Her cheeks are adorably crimson as she clears her throat. “A girl still has to eat.”
“Then dinner it is. What’s your pleasure?”
She stares at me. Again I wonder if she’s actually going to speak. Then she does.
“You told me I was something your money couldn’t buy, but now you think dinner will buy me?”
Oh, fuck. Enough of this game playing, dancing around each other. I grab both her shoulders. I gaze into her eyes. “I haven’t been able to stop thinking about you, Skye. I want you in my bed. What’s it going to take?”
She shudders, rubs her hands on her upper arms. “I—I can’t be bought.”
“I’m not trying to buy you. I am trying to bed you.”
“You just want sex, then? Not a date?”
A date? I don’t date. But to have Skye, I’m willing to go an extra mile. I give a half-hearted shrug. “We can go out on dates if you want. If that’s what it takes for you to feel comfortable coming back to my bed. But it will be simply dating. I can’t give you any more than that.”
“Why not?” she asks boldly.
“Because I can’t.”
She narrows her eyes. “Nice try. But I’m looking for a reason, Braden. I’m twenty-four years old. I’m young, and maybe a purely sexual relationship would be fun. A day will come, though, when it won’t be enough for me.”
“If that day isn’t here yet, why not come back to my bed?”
“I have my reasons.”
“Care to enlighten me?”
She wets her lips. “I’m not interested in being your fuck buddy.”
I’m not looking for a fuck buddy, but I don’t say this. She’s not yet ready to hear what I’m actually looking for. Slowly. I must go slowly or this will blow up in my face before I can get her where I want her.
“What will it take to get you back into my bed, then? I told you we could date.”