His lips twitch at the corners. “I’m on board with your brand of crazy, so I’m totally okay being labeled crazy too.”
This man is so much more than what I thought he would be. The media portrays him as a serious, no bullshit, but sometimes wild, rock star. He keeps his personal life as private as he can with him constantly being in the spotlight. There have been a few times over the years, although nothing really recently, when he was caught up in some type of scandal—usually having to do with a woman. There was one time, within the first few years of Grey Water hitting it big, he committed himself to rehab for drugs. From what I can tell, since he got clean, there’s been no other incident of him being involved with drugs.
I never expected him to be so easy to be around though. And I never expected it would be so easy to be myself around him.
Since I’ve been to Louie’s more times than I can count, I know exactly what I want, so I push the menu aside. The waitress, a woman probably in her mid-fifties, comes by to take our drink orders before walking away. I fold my hands on top of the table and regard Asa.
“So, what kind of date is this exactly?”
He mirrors my position with his hands folded together on the table. There’s only a couple of inches of space between our hands.
“The kind where I get to know you better. I get the feeling you probably already know me pretty well.”
His feeling is accurate. It’s ridiculous how much I know about Asa Sharpe.
“Oh yeah?”
“Yep.”
“And why would we do that?”
It takes him a minute to answer. “Because, despite what the tabloids may have said about me, I do like to know more than the name of the woman I plan to thoroughly fuck on multiple occasions.”
Cue the need to change my panties because I’m pretty sure I just creamed mine pretty good. I also might need some ginger ale because my stomach is doing all sorts of tumbles. And you may as well throw in a fan since the temperature just rose a bazillion degrees.
“Wow. Okay.” Picking up the menu, I use it to fan my face. “Pretty confident, aren’t you?”
His lips curl. “You planning on saying no?”
I scoff. The man is crazy in more ways than one if he thinks I’ll deny him. Like my sister told him last night at Whiskey’s, I’ve had a lady boner for Asa for years.
“Hell no. I’m not stupid. You could tell me to drop to my knees under the table to suck you off, and I’d probably be okay with it.”
His eyes bug out, and I can’t help but laugh.
“You’re not serious, right?”
I lift a shoulder. “I honestly don’t know.”
Before he can comment, a new waitress comes by our table to drop off our drinks and take our order. Katie is her name. She’s a few years younger than me. Her worshipful gaze stays glued on Asa, not even acknowledging my presence. My blood pressure begins to rise. I really don’t fucking like the way she’s looking at him. Would it be too terribly bad if I gouged out her eyes?
“Hi,” she breathes out so low I can barely hear her. “What can I get you?” This time, her voice is stronger.
Asa’s eyes move to me. “What are you having?”
I unlock my jaw to answer. “Filet mignon with steamed broccoli.”
Asa’s eyes dance with laughter as they leave mine and go back to Katie’s. Like he knows how much I hate the way she’s looking at him and he’s enjoying my reaction.
“We’ll both have the filet mignon with steamed broccoli.”
“Okay.”
Did she even hear him? Or is she so enamored with Asa it went in one ear and out the other. She certainly didn’t write our order down.
“Is there anything else I can get you? Anything at all?” Her words are very much filled with innuendo.
“Yes,” I say sweetly, but loudly enough that she can’t pretend to not hear me. She reluctantly switches her gaze to me. “You can stop ogling my man before all that beautiful hair gets yanked out.”
Her eyes pop open wide, and I’m pleased when they fill with fear. That’s right. The bitch should be afraid. Asa is mine, even if he’s not really mine. Everyone in town knows this.
“Seriously—”
I hold my hand up to cut her off, not wanting to hear what she has to say. “Just go put our order in, Katie.”
“Fine,” she says snippily. Before she spins around, her eyes flicker to Asa for a second, a look of remorse filling her expression.
“Your man, huh?” Asa asks the moment she’s out of hearing distance.
“I figured since we’re gonna have sex, that makes you my man. Even if only for a little while.”
His chuckle is deep and sends pleasure zinging through my system.
“Fair point.” Leaning forward, his gaze still on me, he starts grazing his pointer finger over the back of my hand. “Tell me about yourself, Taylor.”
I try my best to ignore the buzz of excitement his simple touch produces and focus on his question. “What do you want to know?”
“Everything,” he answers.