Page 46 of Devil in a Tux

I released her wrist and for the first time in my life, pleaded. “Please, Allie. I need you.”

As the noise of the restaurant softened, she looked around at our obvious audience and then back to me, placing a hand on my chest. “On one condition,” she whispered.

“Anything.”

“We’re partners,” she said softly.

I pulled her hand up to brush a kiss across her knuckles. “Partners,” I repeated.

“Well,” she announced loudly, “if the crème brûlée is that good, we should stay.”

The conversations around us started up again, and my thundering heart began to slow.

I held her chair for her, placed my hands on her shoulders after she sat, and breathed in her ear, “Thank you, partner.”

When I retook my seat, she stood, and my throat went dry. What the fuck had I done wrong now? She pulled her chair around the table to sit by me. “Scoot over a smidge.”

I moved. “A smidge?”

“A Brooklyn term for a little.” She slid into her seat and our thighs touched, sending a jolt up my leg. When her hand slid over onto my thigh, my cock jerked to attention.

Two could play this game. I kissed her ear. “What are you doing?”

“Getting cozy. Way over there, I wasn’t sure you could hear me. Was it hard hearing me from that distance?” Her hand tightened, and we both knew what was hard about this situation.

“A little,” I admitted. “I hear you loud and clear now.”

She leaned close. “My suggestion is that you warn me ahead of time what the plan is and what we might face. You didn’t prepare me for the vultures last night, or the fishbowl tonight. The next time you do that, I’m yelling something entirely inappropriate, and you’ll wish you’d only gotten caught in a fountain again. Got it?”

“Understood. Here’s the deal. Tonight, I knew they’d be camped outside and requested this table to be sure we could be seen. It’s just a romantic dinner date, for the record.”

She didn’t object to my arm around her, which I counted as progress. In fact, when she looked up into my eyes, what I saw could almost pass for desire. “What’s in tonight’s script?” She laid her hand in mine.

“A quiet dinner. We whisper sweet nothings in each other’s ears. Maybe a kiss, which we’ll both enjoy, and we drive off.”

“Isn’t kissing on the first date a little too forward?”

“This is our second date, remember?”

Her brows knitted. “You have an answer for everything, don’t you?”

“Problem solving is what I do.”

“Maybe on the cheek. I don’t know if I can pull off a full-on kiss without puking all over your very nice suit.”

I laughed. “Very funny. You had to kiss the leading man in your college play, didn’t you?” I’d been jealous of the guy at the time. “Actual kisses are a part of the character.”

I could see the wheels turning as she contemplated for a second. “Sweet nothings, huh?”

I nodded.

She leaned in, her breath hot on my ear. “If you use tongue, I’ll bite it off.”

Laughing, I whispered back, “We’ll go slow.” I wouldn’t kiss her deeply tonight, but I couldn’t promise we wouldn’t progress.

That provoked a giggle. “In your dreams.”

She had no idea how dirty my dreams could get.

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