Page 5 of Beautiful Broken Love

A laugh snuck out of me before I could stop it, and I clamped my mouth shut for the lack of professionalism.

“Oh wow. Um, I’m sorry.” I cleared my throat, pressing a hand to the center of my chest. “Are you beingseriousright now?”

He lifted a brow. “I’m dead serious.”

“Sothisis how you get the women.” I nodded at the aha moment.

As if to entertain me, he asked, “How’s that?”

“You do a little bickering, ask them to dinner, make your move, do your whole bachelor-famous-athlete thing, then you drag them to a hotel or something, right?”

Deke let out a hefty chuckle. “I usually don’t have to ask.”

“Right. Because women just show up to dinner because you tell them to.”

He shrugged. “It’s that easy for me.”

Man. Tish didn’t mention how cocky he was.

“Well, that’s nice.” I flipped my wrist and checked the time, feigning disinterest. “I suppose I can move some things around on my schedule to meet you for dinner.” I narrowed my eyes at him. “But it willonlybe for dinner and to discuss the deal. Purely business. Yeah?”

“Are you always this uptight?”

My eyebrows shot up.“Excuse me?”

Deke’s head tilted as he looked me over, and as if he hadn’t heard me, he continued with “When’s the last time you’ve been wined and dined?”

“I’m not sure why that matters right now.”

“Matters a lot, actually.” He scanned my face like he was searching for the answer. Those eyes of his were electrifying. I found it hard as hell to look away from them. Fromhim. “What’s your favorite restaurant?”

I blinked up at him before finally snatching my eyes away. “I don’t have one.”

“Of course you do. You’re a woman who clearly knows what she wants. The confidence radiates off of you, and I gotta admit, it’s damn hard to ignore. So tell me,Davina. What’s your favorite restaurant?”

I huffed a laugh, which was an attempt to ignore the delicious twist in my stomach. The way he said my name was deep and husky enough to make a woman’s toes curl. I knew the game he was playing, but I wasnotabout to be the woman moaning his name that night.

I just wanted to close this deal. I didn’t have time to drag this out or bother entertaining this man longer than necessary. But the sooner we had dinner, the quicker I could lock it in.

And I supposed basketball players needed their own entertainment too. If I played along, I could hook him.

“Silver Wolf in South End. We can meet at seven, but I have to be out of there by eight.” I wasn’t about to tell him my actual favorite was Valentine’s, a little steak house in the heart of uptown that was a regular for my date nights with Lew. That place was too sacred.

“Silver Wolf at seven,” he said, his gaze falling to my lips. I swallowed, once again fighting that spiral of heat in my lower belly. “See you there,Davina.”

He walked to the door, and I don’t know why I expected him to look back, but when he didn’t, a breath of relief escaped me. It was a good thing he didn’t look back. It meant he was just flirting and hoping to get lucky. But he wouldn’t.

We could have dinner, a couple of drinks, and I’d lure him into signing the deal. His ego would be fed, and my business would continue thriving.

All I had to do was hook, line, and sink him.

THREE

DEKE

“You’re meeting heroutsidethe office?” Camille cut her eyes at the phone and stopped the rapid tapping on her keyboard.

It was Thursday, the day of the week when my sisters and I reserved at least thirty minutes of our time for a FaceTime call. Between her and my other sister, Whitney, they made me want to bash my head into a wall.

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