“Wait,” I said, grinning. “Let me see if I can name all five of you. There’s always one that I forget, but I’m going to try anyway. It’s you, Matt, Adam, Ezra… oh shoot, who’s the youngest one?”
“Ezra is the youngest,” he said. “You’re forgetting Jeremy. He’s the second youngest.”
“Jeremy! That’s it.” I nodded, remembering now. “All your brothers' names are always mentioned in the articles written about the business, but for some reason, I can never think of his name when I’m trying to remember you all.”
“Do you do that a lot?” he asked with a raised brow. “Try to remember all my brothers’ names?”
I frowned at him. “Just as a sort of mental challenge, nothing more. I like to keep my brain sharp, is that a crime? I do the same thing by trying to remember the names of all the boys from One Direction and all the Spice Girls. That one is extra hard because I make myself come up with their spice names as well as their real names.”
“Very impressive,” he said. “But I’m not surprised you forgot Jeremy’s name. He and Ezra are the two brothers that don’t work at the company, so it’s not like you would’ve seen them around. Plus, I’m a lot closer with Matt and Adam.”
“You don’t get along with the younger two?”
“Sometimes,” I said. “Other times, not so much. I was hoping that when we all took the trip to Hawaii together, we could start to rebuild some of our relationships again, but everyone had their own plans for that trip. Nobody seemed all that interested in brotherly bonding.”
“They just don’t know how lucky they are,” I said. “I always wanted to have siblings. My childhood friends, the ones who were with me in Hawaii, are like my sisters, and I thank God every day I have them in my life.”
“You’re acting as if you’ve never fought with any of them,” he said with a smirk. “When I know for afactthat you got into a fight with one of your friends the very same night that the two of us met. She also had a flower name, was it Daisy?”
“Rose,” I said. “Her name is Rose. And believe it or not, I think the two of us arestillin a fight. Though I can’t be sure because she won’t call me back. But I’m impressed you remembered that.”
“What can I say? I was enamored. I was hanging onto every word you said that night.”
I smiled down at my lap. “You’re a nice guy, David Becker. The CEO of a Fortune 500 company, but still you’re a nice guy, who would’ve thought?”
He put a hand on my leg and looked into my eyes. “You think so?” I nodded. “Would a nice guy do this?” He kissed me with such passion and fire that I thought he might be trying to start up round two, but then the intercom by my door buzzed and the pizza delivery man asked to be let up. I pulled away, even though I wanted him so badly and quickly started to put more clothes on.
“Let him up, would you?” I said.
He got out of bed and threw some pants on. “Yes ma’am,” he said. He walked over to the intercom and pressed the button to open the downstairs door. I watched him and let my eyes linger over the view of him from behind. His broad shoulders and strong back muscles were driving me a little wild, so I focused instead on getting dressed and acted like he wasn’t the most attractive man I had ever seen.
* * *
David ended up staying late into the night.
We ate pizza, drank, and talked for a long time. He told me more about his childhood and then got me to open up about my life growing up in Riverside. My stories from when I was younger were a lot less exciting than his stories, but that was to be expected. He grew up rich, and I grew up lower-middle class. He spent his summers going skiing in Aspen, while I spent mine at the local summer camp making macaroni portraits. Still, he listened when I talked as if everything I had to say was the most interesting thing he’d ever heard. He really seemed to want to get to know me better, in a way that Bret never did.
When I checked the time and saw it was almost eleven, I was shocked.
“We’ve been talking for like five hours,” I said. “I had no idea it was so late.”
“Me neither,” he admitted. “Time flies when you’re spending it with someone as interesting and as sexy as you, I guess.”
I felt my cheeks get flush, and I got up out of bed and went to put away the leftover pizza. “You should probably be heading home soon. We have to be up early for work tomorrow.”
“Yeah, all right,” he said. He gathered his things and then joined me in the kitchen. “But when will I see you again, besides at work I mean?”
“Uh… I don’t know,” I said. I remembered what Michelle said about how to keep things casual, but then I pushed that advice aside and let myself be swept up in the moment. The time I had spent with David that night had been amazing, and it was stupid of me to act like I didn’t want to do it again. And soon.No games, remember?“Maybe this weekend?”
“I’m not sure I can wait that long,” he said, wrapping his arms around me and kissing my neck. “What about tomorrow?”
“I’ll be too busy,” I said. “That paperwork really does have to get done.”
“I’ll help you. We can make a whole night of it.” He started to run his hands down the front of my body, getting his fingers dangerously close to the waistband of my sweatpants.
“David,” I said softly. “It is getting pretty late. As good as your hands feel on my body, I’m exhausted and full of pizza and beer…”
He laughed and stopped moving his hands. “I get it. Tomorrow though? Paperwork first, then whatever else we feel like doing.”