I lift a brow. “I’m not a gentleman.”
He laughs. “Damn right. So now that you’re going to be spending more time here can I have your little black book?”
I shake my head at him. “I don’t have a black book.”
“Becausetheyalways callyou.” He lifts a brow. “I swear you got all the luck in the family.”
“No, idiot. It’s because I have a phone to store numbers in.”
“Then just give me your phone, please.”
I know he’s teasing. And at any other time I’d be laughing along with him. I live a charmed life, I know that. I enjoy my job, I have a great family and friends. And I’ve never had a problem getting a woman.
Damn if my gaze doesn’t sweep across the lawn at that thought. Until it lands on the one woman it shouldn’t.
She’s standing on the grass, her dark hair lifting in the breeze, revealing her soft, elegant neck and shoulders, her skin turned amber by the slowly setting sun. Her dress molds over her perfect curves and my dick twitches at the memory of her hard nipple.
If Charlie hadn’t been there. If she didn’t hate me. If I didn’t have my damn rules… all of those scenarios run through my mind.
Because if it hadn’t been for those, I would have run the pad of my thumb over it. I wanted to so badly.
If she was any other person, I’d walk over and charm her right now. And that’s not a play. I want to make her smile. To watch her cheeks flush. To ask her questions and listen to the answers, because each one would help me to understand her.
To understand her needs and wants.
Because this is the thing my brothers don’t get about me. I don’t spend time with women because I want something from them. I spend time with them because I like giving. I like making them happy, I like giving them pleasure.
I like making love with them until they can’t remember their names.
I never leave a woman unpleasured. Multiple times.
Never.
Until…
Christ, I need to stop thinking about this. I have rules for a reason. This way nobody gets hurt. And I wasn’t kidding when I said that a woman like Sophie West reeks of needing commitment.
And you reek of STDs.I start to laugh at the memory of her reply because dammit she’s funny. Then Eli gives me a weird look and I stop.
“Want a game of pool before you have to leave?” I ask him.
“Sure. Sounds good.”
Leaving the lawn – and the woman I can’t have – behind, I follow Eli down to Myles’ basement and proceed to smash the hell out of him on the pool table.
And yeah, it makes me feel slightly better.
CHAPTERSEVEN
SOPHIE
One good thing about working at a regional television station like WVFY is that everybody knows everybody. People have worked here for so long that they’re more like family than colleagues. I always get a warm feeling when I walk through the main doors that lead to the reception area.
One of the bad things, however, is that you don’t always get to choose your family. Or your co-workers for that matter. And I definitely didn’t get to choose Michael Rimmer to be my boss.
He and I went out on a date.Once. We went straight from work to a steak restaurant in the historic district and he proceeded to make a note of everything he ordered, along with the exact cost and what a ten, fifteen, and twenty percent tip would look like. He got extremely upset when I refused to do the same.
I have no problem with splitting the bill on a date. But let’s just split it fifty-fifty. If you’re itemizing the extra Diet Coke you ordered you’re probably not the man for me.