“For working together.”
He looks so relaxed, leaning back in his seat, with one wrist resting on the table. “What sort of ground rules?”
“For starters, I am not going to date you,” I say.
“Define dating.”
“You’re really going to be difficult, aren’t you?” I ask.
He just smiles.
“Dating means … going out as a couple, just the two of us,” I say.
“But sharing a meal as colleagues doesn’t count?” he asks.
“I guess not.”
“Deal. What else?”
“I’m not sleeping with you,” I say, my voice firm.
“Yet,” he says.
“Ronan.”
“Fine, we’ll come back to that later. What else?” he asks.
“We won’t come back to it later. And no … shenanigans in the office.”
He laughs. “Shenanigans? You’re going to have to be more specific.”
“You need to stop hard-core flirting with me in front of my coworkers.”
“No flirting in front of coworkers,” he says. “Fine. What else?”
“No closed door meetings in your office just the two of us,” I say.
“That I can’t promise,” he says. “There are a lot of reasons I might need to have a closed door meeting with you.”
I sigh. “Fine, closed door meetings with legitimate reasons only.”
“Is wanting to fuck you on top of my desk a legitimate reason?” he asks.
“Ronan!”
“All right, all right,” he says, his one dimple puckering. “Anything else?”
“Just … keep it professional,” I say.
“Always,” he says. “My turn.”
“Your turn?”
“If you get to make demands, I think it’s only fair that I do, too,” he says. “Every business negotiation has a bit of give and take.”
I raise my eyebrow. “What do you have in mind?”
“Neither of us date other people,” he says.