Page 110 of Dark Love

He’s just jealous.

“I don’t wanna hear about your love life. It doesn’t matter how independent they appear, when they realize how much money you have, they’re all the same.”

And I thought I was jaded. “Dahlia doesn’t care. She wouldn’t even let me buy her clothes.”

Payne spews his mouthful across the couch, just missing my pant leg. “What?”

“She won’t take my money. As far as I can tell, she’s got enough of her own.”

“Dahlia isn’t poor, but she doesn’t come close to your money. Are you sure that wasn’t just a fluke? A mental break because of the stress of everything that happened?”

“She doesn’t listen to anything I say.”

“That’s a woman thing. This needs more testing. Buy her something nice, like diamonds, and see how she reacts.”

Payne is driving me out of my mind, or that could be all that I’ve drunk. “Diamonds aren’t getting rid of Adonis and his soup.”

“Stake your claim then. Start showing up at her job being the doting boyfriend. Make him step back.”

That could work. “How would I do that?”

“You know, if you dated before, this would be easier.”

There was never anyone worth the effort. I raise my eyebrow and snatch the bottle back.

“Send her flowers at work. Have lunch delivered to her. Show up and kiss her in front of everyone. Pick her up or drop her off at work occasionally. These are all the basics.”

Hmmm. “I could do flowers. She really likes them. But we haven’t kissed yet. And she seems to be a private person. I don’t think she’d like me showing up to kiss her in front of everyone.”

“Wait. Back up.” He rolls his hands backwards like that is going to help. “You haven’t kissed her.” His gaze narrows at me. “But it’s stupid o’clock in the morning and you just left her house?”

“Dahlia isn’t like that. We haven’t even gone on a date—”

“You slept over. That should count as a date.”

“It doesn’t in her mind. Not to mention she wasn’t feeling well. I didn’t want to take advantage of her weakness.”

“You take advantage of everyone else’s,” Payne mutters under his breath.

“They deserve it.”

“You are so falling for her. The first thing you need to do is kiss her. Gotta find out if you two are compatible.”

“Compatibility isn’t an issue.” Just looking at her turns my blood into fire. “Adonis is.”

“Just punch him in the face and get it over with. It’s going to happen, anyway. You might as well do it now so she can stop being mad at you sooner rather than later.”

Would Dahlia forgive me? Probably not. “She got mad at me for slamming the door in his face.”

“Oh, maybe she likes him.” Payne’s grin is positively evil.

I should wipe it off his face with my fist. “Don’t test me.”

“Fine. I’ll give you one more hint. According to my research, she’s shown no interest in him. Not even one hint of it.”

My fist relaxes around the bottle.

“But there might be another party interested in her that you’ll need to worry about.”

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