“You caused me to be so hot and bothered,” she murmured close to my ear. “Only fair you should be reminded as often as I am.”
Reminded? Hell, the heat from that square of fabric was branding a tattoo on my skin straight through my clothes.
And the scent of her. God, I had to be imagining it. But just the mere idea that the lace had been against her pussy was going to kill me.
“Your wine, sir, madam.” The server poured the Muscadet I’d ordered into two glasses. He waited until I sampled and approved of the taste, then Grace held up a finger so she could do the same.
“Perfect,” she informed him while I smiled behind my menu.
She would never take a deferential role in anything.
“I’d like to order the oysters on the half shell to start,” I said, ignoring Grace’s sharp kick against my leg. Her heels today weren’t quite as lethal, but they were bad enough. “Then I think we’ll have the Chateaubriand for two, with a side of—”
“I’d like the chicken,” Grace interrupted.
I cocked a brow. “The Chateaubriand here is excellent.”
“I’d like the chicken.”
The waiter gripped his pad. “I could come back, if you’d like more time…”
“No, this is fine. We’ll take the Chateaubriand and the Poulet aux Champignons, please. Thank you.”
The instant he’d taken our menus and left the table, Grace fisted her napkin. She’d started to unfurl it over her lap before the waiter had made the mistake of trying to take her order. “I didn’t want that fancy-ass chicken. I wanted the simple grilled breast. No champagne, no scallions, no cute little button mushrooms, just plain damn chicken.”
“The chicken I ordered for you is perfectly satisfactory. I’ve had it myself.”
“Satisfactory for you. And that’s just it. Ordered for me? Who does that?”
“I ordered you to remove your panties. Didn’t see you protesting there.”
Watching her flush was a revelation. “There is a difference.”
I smoothed my own napkin over my lap. I didn’t want her to know I was growing even more rigid from this conversation. Her panties had started me off, and her anger would finish me.
She was so fucking hot when she was pissed.
“And that difference is?” I asked, reaching for my wine.
“Sexy stuff is one thing. But when it comes to dinner, I make my own decisions. I’m my own woman. I can decide on my own wine and my own meal. And you know what else? I think it’s absolutely ridiculous to pay over one hundred dollars for fancy beef when there are people starving. It’s wasteful. It’s—”
“On my tab, so I’ll take the karmic burden.” After taking a sip of my wine and setting aside the glass, I lowered my voice and spoke close to her ear. “Enough, Ms. Copeland. Or else I’ll order you to not only remove your own panties, but to take my cock out right here and not stop until your mouth is full of something else.”
Her chest heaved, her full breasts rising and falling against the bodice of her dress. “I’d bite it off.”
“I doubt it. Seems silly to harm something you enjoy making use of so much.”
She screwed up her mouth to the point that all I could think about was being inside it. “Go to hell.”
I brushed a kiss over the shell of her ear. “How wet are you right now?”
“I’m not.” Her chin came up. “I’m dry like the freaking Sahara.”
“Really. So if I were to do this…” I slid my hand up the outside of her thigh, tugging her dress up until I could see she’d worn hose and garters again, just to drive me insane. I wasted no time in slipping between her tightly clenched thighs and drew my fingers through the moisture sealed between them. “You’re a liar, Ms. Copeland.” I nipped her earlobe, clinking my teeth against her large silver hoop earrings. “I don’t like liars.”
Her breathing sped, but she said nothing. Didn’t move at all.
“Especially because I’ve discovered if someone lies about one thing, they’ll lie about another.” I inched my hand higher. I’d never intended to go down this path here—not to touch her intimately in a public restaurant, and especially not to prod at the boundaries of her deception—but a wise businessman never refused an opportunity when it was presented. “Have you found that to be true, Ms. Copeland?”