Page 30 of Lulu

A feminine snort escaped her. “Do you want to fuck right here on the table?”

She’d obviously picked up on thedouble entendre.I laughed, not put off by her sarcasm. “Watch your smart mouth, Hellcat, unless you want me to put it to good use. There’s not much I won’t do, and I don’t give a fuck if we’re in public. And I was just thinking about how easy it would be to undo those tight pants and push my hand inside that sexy thong you have on.”

The server returned with our drinks and took our orders. Lulu ordered the eggplant and house salad, while I ordered the ribeye steak pasta puttanesca with a Cesar salad. Once she was gone again I reached for my beer.

“So are we going to talk now, or wait until after dinner?”

I thought for a moment. “May as well get it over with.” Being the kind of man I was, I decided to get right to the point. “I want an arrangement with you. For sex.”

Lulu’s expression cleared. I could tell that I’d shocked her, and she was either too stunned for words, or she was waiting for me to continue.

“It wouldn’t be exclusive, only when I’m in town.”

Her eyes hardened. “So I would go from being a whore to a prostitute? I’m not a—”

“I’m not going to pay you for sex,” I said firmly. “This would be a mutually satisfying arrangement between two consenting adults who aren’t looking for a serious relationship. I don’t have time for that shit, but I do like fucking. When I’m on the road it’s easy to pick up a willing woman at a bar. I never have to see her again. But here, I have roots.”

“What have you been doing up ‘til now?”

I didn’t stop the grin from spreading across my face.

“So you have an arrangement with someone you use for a booty call right now?”

“Until recently.” I wasn’t going to admit that Lana had gotten too clingy for us to continue, but I had to make it clear to Lulu that if she agreed to this, a booty call was all it would ever be. “I made the mistake of letting it go on for too long.”

Lulu sat back against the booth, amusement swimming in her eyes. I could see that she was working it out in her head.

“She thought it meant more?”

I shrugged.“Hoped.”I took a sip of my beer. “I’m looking for a woman who won’t expect anything but sex. Someone I can call when I’m in the mood.”

A few minutes of silence passed between us before Lulu released a sigh with a twist of her lips. “So with my history you naturally thought of me?”

My eyes made a lazy trip down her body. “I think you know why. I have to be attracted to the woman I want in my bed, and you’re a beautiful woman.”

“And experienced.”

I shrugged with a grin. That wasn’t the reason I wanted this arrangement, but I’d let her think that.

“And we won’t be exclusive.”

There was something in her tone I hadn’t expected to hear. Disappointment? Regret? I must have been imagining things. I had to bite my tongue at her comment. I didn’t like the thought of Lulu with another man. In fact, just the thought of it made my blood boil. But I could hardly demand that she only fuck me when I wouldn’t give her the same consideration. I was often away for a long time, and a good fuck was a good way to kill time, not to mention it was a great stress releaser.

“Being exclusive won’t work for me.”

“You really are a cold bastard,” Lulu said coldly.

The waitress came with our meals, and for a while we concentrated on eating. I knew that Lulu was thinking shit over. If she was smart, she would realize that the arrangement I was suggesting would benefit us both. Sex with no strings. As long as I didn’t have to see her with someone else, it would work well. I didn’t question myself as to why it would bother me so much to see Lulu with another man.

Maybe it was because I was a possessive bastard.

The truth was that I wanted Lulu for myself, but it wouldn’t be fair to her. I had a good idea what her life had been like with the Desert Rebels, and now that she’d broken free, she was building a new life for herself. She deserved a good man who could give her an even better life, give her some babies if that’s what she wanted. Children had never been on my radar.

Neither of us commented on our meals as we ate in silence. Her eggplant must have been good because she ate it all, as I had my dinner. I was working on my third beer when Lulu ordered another margarita. We didn’t speak again until the waitress had taken our desert orders and cleared our dishes away.

“So--” I turned toward her, and tried to gauge her emotions. “What are your thoughts on what we were talking about?”

“I should be angry,” she said snarkily. “The only thing keeping me from scratching your damned eyes out is that it’s my decision to make. I’ve had enough years of being at the beck and call of others.”

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