“I like beer better anyway.”
“Me too.”
She smiled back at me, and I felt my heart skip a beat. Then, after taking a beat off, it seemed as if my heart was trying to make up for lost time, and it started to beat faster and faster. I was riding a high from those meetings, or more accurately, I was riding a high from watching Kat dominate in those meetings. She was smart, and funny, and tough but not too tough. I was in awe of her negotiation skills, and her unyielding confidence. Watching her walk circles around those guys in suits, who clearly did not come prepared to go up against someone like her, was, in a word,hot.
It wassohot.
Shewas so hot.
And she was here, sitting right next to me, her leg touching mine and her beauty overwhelming me, and I couldn’t help but be reminded of the dream I’d had of her. She was wearing the same coat today as she had been in the dream, only with more clothes on underneath.
“Jonah,” she said, and I realized I had let my gaze fall from her face down towards the neckline of her shirt. My face felt hot.
“Wha—yeah? Did you say something?”
“I did actually,” she said. “But you know what, it doesn’t really matter. I was just trying to strike up some small talk, but in all honesty, I hate small talk.”
“Who doesn’t? Well besides your dad.”
“My dad,” she said this at the exact same time I did and we both laughed. She reached out and gave me a gentle nudge on the arm. “Right? I don’t get it. That man can small talk with anyone, forhours. It’s a very good skill to have in the business world, I understand that, but still, I just don’t understand how he can do it.”
The waitress soon returned with our beers as well as our food, and I proposed a toast, holding my bottle up in the air. “To the future of SHDC,” I said. “And to the best new hire a guy could ask for.”
She clinked her bottle against mine and we drank. She kept her eyes on me as she tilted the bottle to her mouth, and I found myself wondering what it would feel like to have those lips of her pressed against mine.
* * *
Kat ended up ordering us a second round of beers, and the two of us got to talking about this potential new project in Japan. I told her what I knew about it, which admittedly, wasn’t a lot. “I just know that every major real estate development firm in the US as well as Japan is gunning for it, so we are really going to have to shine if we want a chance at nabbing that contract.”
“I’m not scared of a little competition,” she said.
“Neither am I.”
She put her beer down slowly on the table and shifted around so that she was facing me in the booth. “I’m serious. I will get you that deal, if you let me take the lead with marketing. Penny can’t travel to Japan with her new little baby at home, you know that, so really you don’t have many other options. Plus, as I think I proved to you today, I’mverygood at my job.”
“And so humble.” I smirked but she held onto her determined expression. “Okay,” I said. “You can be the point person for the marketing on this project.”
Only then did she allow herself to smile, and she leaned in a little closer to me. “You won’t regret this.”
I didn’t move back. “I know I won’t.”
Our eyes locked and her face was so close to mine, I could feel her breath against my neck. If there had been any easy way for me to escape the booth, I might’ve made a run for it, but that wasn’t an option. I was stuck.
And I liked it.
Before I could talk myself out of it, I made an insane snap decision and moved to kiss her. She accepted the kiss as if she was expecting it, and that turned me on even more. She knew I wanted her, and she wanted me right back. I pressed my mouth against hers and tasted the combination of sugary sweet lip balm and salt from the French fries she had stolen off my plate earlier. I slipped an arm around her waist and pulled her body against mine. Her hand found its way to my knee, then it slowly traveled up my thigh and rested over the pocket of my jeans for a moment. I felt like I was on fire, and my mind was losing the battle against my body. I wanted to lay her down on the table, right there, and rip all her clothes off.
She moved her hand so that she was rubbing me through my pants and my breath caught in my chest. I pulled away and balked. “I—I’ve never done anything like this in public before.”
She winked at me and whispered. “I have.” Then she was kissing me again, sucking on my neck and running her hand more aggressively over my crotch. Her fingers danced along my fly and up over my belt. I felt a chill as her fingertips, cold from her icy beer, slid underneath the top of my pants and then my eyes went wide and I understood what was happening.
“Wait,” I said, even though that was the last thing I wanted her to do. “We can’t. Not here.”
“Where then?” She didn’t move her hand, and I was too aroused to think straight. “You want to go back to the car?”
The car! Yes, of course. The car. That was perfect. Nobody would see us. I would just pay the check, and we’d run there as fast as our legs would take us. I felt like a teenager, sneaking away from a party with a girl I liked. It was all so exciting, so irresponsible, so—
The bell over the door to the diner rang as a man in his late thirties walked in, trailed behind by two kids in colorful coats and an exhausted looking pregnant wife. I watched as this sweet little family took the booth across the restaurant from ours and sighed.