Page 10 of Square Deal

He chuckled as he filled the glass again and took a sip. “I’ll try not to let it go to my head that you’ve talked about me.” He took another drink and dragged the pad of his thumb across his bottom lip to wipe away the sheen. “Let me put it to you this way: some men buy their dream car and drive nothing else for their entire lives. And that’s cool. To each their own.”

“Let me guess: you like your garage full and your options open?”

Isaac finished his glass, poured another, and handed it to me. “No, I like to think of myself as a mechanic. I like all cars. All makes and models. Shapes and sizes. I enjoy popping their hoods and finding out what makes them tick. I love the feeling when I get them to perform at their peak. I don’t use women. I appreciate them.”

“You did not just compare women to cars.”

“I believe what you meant to say is that I just made a winning argument,” he retorted.

I tossed back another glass of champagne. “Then what did you win?”

He tapped his fingers on the armrest of the chair and looked me up and down without an ounce of shame. “I wanna know more about what you said when we were dancing.”

I snorted. “Why? So you can pop my hood and figure out what makes me tick?”

He grinned. “Something like that.”

“You’re gonna have to elaborate, because the only thing I remember telling you was to suck my dick.”

Isaac stroked the sandy stubble on his jaw and kicked his ankle up to rest on his knee. Regardless of the situation, he always looked comfortable. Relaxed.

I, on the other hand, was as uptight as they came.

“I wanna know why you have such a problem with casual sex.”

“I never said I had a problem with casual sex,” I corrected, pointing a finger at him. “I said I don’t do hookups. There’s a difference.”

“Really?” He chuckled, trailing his index finger along the arch of my foot and up the back of my calf.

Dammit. He had planned every move and, like an idiot, I fell into his trap.

Here I was, thinking we were playing checkers while he was playing chess.

I sat up and went to pull my feet from the edge of his chair when his hand closed around my ankle to keep it still. I let out a little whimper when his thumbs started working along the soles of my sore feet. My eyelids fluttered shut and I blamed it all on the champagne.

“I fall too easily,” I said with a sigh, melting at his touch. Satanhimself could have been the one giving me a foot massage and I wouldn’t have cared. It felt too good. “I get attached—even if I agree to a casual relationship. Recovering from having my heart broken hurts too much. I want commitment. Monogamy. Sex is such a small part of relationships. I don’t know why people make it such a big deal. I want companionship.”

“Interesting,” he said flatly.

“What?” I asked.

His hands stilled and I whined, wiggling my foot to get his attention.

If he was going to get me tipsy enough that I’d have to sleep in my office, or worse—swallow my pride and call Chase for a ride, the least he could do was finish the damn foot rub.

“If you have something to say, just say it. Not like you’ve ever held back before.” I ran my hand back through my hair and closed my eyes. “You wouldn’t be the first man to call me a prude, and you certainly won’t be the last.”

Isaac’s hands left my feet, sliding up the back of my legs as his talented fingers worked the stiff muscles in my calves. “I don’t think you’re a prude,” he said. His hands moved a little higher, sliding up under my skirt to my thighs. “But if you think that sex is only a small part of life, that just tells me you’ve never been properly fucked.” He squeezed the inside of my thigh, adding in a low rumble. “I don’t think the boys around here would know what to do with a feisty thing like you.”

My fingers curled around the armrests of the chair. I held on for dear life and closed my eyes. It had been a long time since I’d been this intimate with a man and we were still fully clothed. I didn’t even like Isaac, but I knew he would break my heart if I let him get any closer.

“And you think you would know what to do with me?” I choked out.

Before I could argue, Isaac was lifting me out of my desk chairand into his lap. My skirt bunched around my waist, and he set me down so that I had to straddle him. Cool air rushed around my thighs and I could feel his heated gaze when he noticed that I?—

“Naughty girl.” His smokey timbre sent shivers racing up and down my body. Isaac dragged his finger up the side of my thigh, stalling on my hip where a pair of panties should have been. “It’s a good thing I didn’t know you were bare underneath that skirt when we were dancing. I wouldn’t have been such a gentleman.”

“That was you being a gentleman?”

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