“Can you do me a favor?” Charles asked.
She shrugged. “Maybe with a bit more details, I can answer that.”
“Date me for a week. Don’t think about my name or my title. Let’s just be us.”
“You’re serious, aren’t you?” Rosslyn asked.
He stroked her hand with his thumb. “Go to dinner with me tomorrow.”
“Charles, we’re having dinner now. Or at least we’re supposed to be,” Rosslyn said.
Their food was cold on the plate and he didn’t care. “This didn’t turn out the way I thought it would.”
“And how was that?” Rosslyn asked.
With you in my arms all night.“Relaxing, like the rest of our dates.” A much better choice of words, he thought. The last thing he needed was for her to think this was all about sex. Amazing as it was, there was more to this than just that.
“What do you suggest?”
This is where it got tricky. The wrong choice could end up in a refusal. He needed to keep it simple, yet not so much that it looked like he was trying too hard. “I’ve been dying for pizza. I mean the deep dish loaded to the max with extra cheese.” He could almost see her mouth watering. Nailed it.
“Okay. But I have one confession.”
At this point, unless she told him she was married, nothing else mattered. “What is it?”
“I like thin crust.”
He pretended to be wounded and said, “Oh, the pain.” Then he laughed. “I don’t see an issue with that, since I can eat a pizza all by myself.”
“Not if Mama was cooking it,” Rosslyn said.
“That’s because restaurants normally just refill your beverage. She believes no one should see the bottom of the plate.”
“Okay. Even though I love it there, maybe we can find a place in the city.”
“There’s a few I frequent. It is another one of my weaknesses.”
“You weren’t kidding. You like anything you don’t have to cook,” she teased.
There was a sense of relief that he’d been able to not only secure another date, but see that beautiful smile of hers again. Not a forced, trying-to-be-polite one either. He might not have known her long, but there were certain things she couldn’t hide.
The only major issue he could foresee now was her reaction when the Feds eventually showed up at Grayson Corp. Absolutely, without a doubt, this was not the time to inform her of Maxwell’s doings. And on top of that, his part in Maxwell’s downfall would tip the scale in the wrong direction for sure.
“I don’t know about you, but if I’m going to eat cold food, it’s going to be ice cream. How do you feel about tossing this and taking a ride for a sundae?”
“Whip cream and nuts?” Rosslyn inquired.
Nodding he said, “Hot fudge and a cherry too.”
For the first time since Rosslyn learned who he was, her fingers were playfully entangled with his. It wasn’t even close to what he wanted, but it was going to have to do. Damn it. He never knew that not holding someone could actually physically hurt. Hopefully they would be past all this soon.
He never thought he’d find someone like her, now he had to figure out how to hold on to her.