Page 33 of Vas

“What was the last movie you saw?”

“One of the Mission Impossible movies. The last one, I think.”

He raised a brow. “It has been a while.”

“What was the last movie you saw in a theater?”

Easy question as he could count the number of times he’d been to a theater on one hand and still have fingers left over. “Iron Man. The first one.”

Her eyes practically bugged from her head. “You’re kidding?”

“A friend and I snuck in to see it.” Right before his life would change.

Anya wanted Red Vines and popcorn so he got a large tub and two sodas and between that and their tickets, ended up spending more than he had for dinner. What a racket and probably not a bad investment. Definitely something to think about.

Anya hiked up the stairs, Vas in her wake, finding seats in the very back row. “Best seat in the house,” she said while getting situated, stowing her drink in the cup holder to her left and pulling up the other armrest to position the popcorn between them.

Times had definitely changed since the last time Vas had been in a theater. Not only were their seats leather and spacious, but they reclined back to practically horizontal—a fact he discovered when Anya repositioned hers after they had finished the popcorn. Lying in the dark next to Anya and holding her hand, he wanted the movie to last forever. But it wasn’t meant to be. Forever seemed to pass in the blink of an eye and disappointment filled him as the credits started to roll.

“Wasn’t that amazing?” Anya asked as they walked out of the theater.

Amazing? Yeah, he would agree with that, but not because of the movie. He usually stayed away from action flicks as they proved too unrealistic to be entertaining, sticking to sci-fi and fantasy. This one had been no exception. Loud and jam-packed with over-the-top, non-stop action that could never happen in real life without everyone dying, in a nutshell, it had been over-the-top. The only draw was every time he’d glanced over at Anya, there’d been a big grin on her face. The experience, if not the movie, had been amazing. “You know, I’m surprised you picked an action movie. I figured girls usually picked rom-coms or dramas.”

Anya wrinkled her nose. “You really haven’t been on many dates, have you?”

“Actually, this is my first one.”

She stopped dead in her tracks in the center of the parking lane and Vas captured her hand to pull her from in front of an oncoming car. “I don’t believe you.”

He chuckled. “Why is that so hard to believe?”

“Well, because… You’re you.” She waved a hand in his direction. “You’re everything a woman could want. You’re nice, you have a good job, and you’re hot.” She glanced up at him and her cheeks pinkened when she saw his smirk. “Don’t let that go to your head.”

“Oh, believe me, it already has.”

She chuckled and swatted his arm. “So why have you never been on a date?”

He beeped the locks on his SUV and helped her into the car. “For the same reasons I gave you before. My job is very demanding.”

He rounded the hood and got in, but she wasn’t done with the conversation. “You’ve never dated or had a girlfriendin school?”

“Nope.”

“Why? You didn’t have your job back then.”

“No, but I did have one that was even more demanding. I worked for a courier after school and on the weekends.” The truth—though a bit stretched.

“So if you’ve never dated or had a girlfriend, are you,” she lowered her voice as if they weren’t alone in a locked car and he wasn’t the only one who could hear her, “a virgin?”

He sucked in a breath wrong and nearly choked. “No!”

A pucker formed between her brows. “So the women you’ve slept with were…”

She let her sentence trail off and he filled in the blank. “Mainly one-night stands, yes.”

“Oh.” She was quiet while he backed out of the parking space and navigated the lot.

“What are you thinking?” he finally asked when he could no longer stand the silence.

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