Page 18 of Desire

He grinned. “Oh, there’s still plenty I plan to discover about your body, but I mean beyond the physical.”

“Yeah, I guess that’s important, too,” I joked as if disappointed.

“I’ve always thought we had good chemistry, but I want to know what’s going on in that pretty little head of yours. If we plan to make this last forever, fucking will only take us so far.”

“You’re right. I already have a few questions.”

“Ask away.”

“Okay. How did you manage to clear your schedule for a full week?”

“That’s not exactly personal, but it’s a start. I had to move a lot of stuff around. I haven’t taken a vacation since I’ve been in office, so it was no trouble. What about you?”

“It wasn’t hard. I’m a preschool teacher at a private school; they have substitutes on demand.”

“That’s good.”

“What did you do before you were the mayor of OC?”

“I own a few car dealerships and a small percentage of the Blazers.”

“The Blazers? As in the Onyx City Blazers?” He nodded. “Wow. Impressive.”

“You think so?”

“I do. I had no idea you were so accomplished. I feel so… lucky.”

“Nah, I’m the lucky one.”

“Well, my portfolio isn’t nearly as impressive as yours. Hell, I don’t have a portfolio.”

“The school doesn’t pay well?”

“It pays fine, but my school loans won’t let me live.”

“You’re still paying back your loans even with those loan forgiveness programs?”

“Well, I got some of them forgiven, but I have a lot of debt. I had some scholarships but borrowed a lot of money between undergraduate, graduate, and law school.”

“Law school? You went to law school?” I nodded. “How the hell did you end up a preschool teacher?”

“My parents wanted me to be a lawyer, and I wanted to make them happy. By the time I got to law school, I realized trying to make them happy made me unhappy, so I dropped out. I had to take out more loans for my teaching degree.”

“Damn.”

I sighed. “I know it sounds awful, but I’ve been managing.”

“Why were you still single? Did you treat all the niggas how you treated me?” he asked, changing the subject.

“I’ve had a few serious relationships that I thought might evolve into marriage, but men these days…”

I couldn’t even think of words to describe the type of men I’d dated. They were noncommittal, sneaky, dishonest, and simply not worthy of the time I’d given them.

“That bad?”

“Worse. It was exhausting, and I’d begun to lose hope.”

“Is that how you ended up at Arranged Hearts?”

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