Page 10 of Casey
A dick joke?
When I tried to swallow, it went down the wrong way. I ended up coughing and trying to breathe as the burger tried to kill me. Once Preston was confident I wasn’t going to die on what seemed to be our first date, he started chuckling and shaking his head.
“Trying to kill yourself to get out of dating me?”
Date.
He thought it was a date too.
When I could finally talk, I shook my head. Not letting myself second-guess my response, I smiled. “You won’t get away from me that easily.”
I flirted with him!
They were never going to believe it.
One of my online friends had recently teased that it would get an act of God to get me to step out of my comfort zone. I couldn’t wait to shove this down his overly helpful throat.
Preston’s smile widened as he reached for a fry. “I’m glad. It’s taken a while to get to this point, and I’m not planning on letting you get away either.”
The submissive part of myself I didn’t let out very often, and never around someone else, loved the possessive note to the words. Preston might not have meant them that way, but the fantasy was incredible.
“I’m…shy and…” I pictured my friends crowded around me and pushing me to be honest. “I had a few things to figure out first.” I took a deep breath and gave him a hopefully flirty smile. “It’s not like you went any faster either.”
His grin looked a little sheepish. “I wasn’t sure if I would scare you off, and to be honest, the fact that we work together occasionally makes me nervous.”
For some reason that seemed to be hard for him to say. Sending out a quick prayer to the universe that I wasn’t shooting myself in the foot, I reached over and took his free hand that was resting on the table. “If it makes you feel any better, I’m getting ready to quit.”
That seemed to surprise him.
“Why?” Preston turned his hand over and laced his fingers through mine. “What happened? It’s that idiot in marketing, isn’t it?”
A wave of emotion rushed through me, and I smiled. “No, but if I have to listen to him talk about your ass one more time I might throw a stapler at him.”
Preston let out a bark of laughter that echoed through the room, causing heads to turn. Normally, I would have pulled away as people started to stare, but at that moment, Preston was more important than my embarrassment.
He grinned at my blush and shook his head. “I have not encouraged him at all.”
“Suuure.” It was my turn to shake my head. “And his story about hanging out with you at a club was just a fantasy?”
Preston groaned. “Okay, I saw him at a club, and he bought me a drink. He came on strong and it was very awkward, but I made it clear nothing would happen, and he eventually wandered off.”
That hadn’t been how the marketing asshole, as Preston called him, described the evening. “You don’t strike me as the type to appreciate the heavy-handed approach.”
Preston had always appeared to me as the take-charge type in dating. Maybe not necessarily a Dom but not the type to enjoy some overly confident asshole buying him a drink.
When I’d initially heard the story around the office it’d hit me hard, but it hadn’t taken me long to realize it had to have been blown ridiculously out of proportion. Preston hadn’t looked like the type of guy who wanted to be hit on by bad pickup lines, and he also wouldn’t have hidden it from the people he worked with, and Lane had never mentioned anything about Preston seeing anyone.
If anything, he’d gone out of his way to mention just how single Preston was.
Preston smiled and let his fingers stroke over my wrist, sending another wave of need through me. “You’re absolutely right. Of course, he didn’t stand a chance even if he’d been a bit more…subtle. I’ve been preoccupied with someone else for a while.”
Me?
How long?
I hated the idea that I might have wasted the last few months because I hadn’t been willing to step up and let Preston know I was interested. Realistically, however, if I was honest with myself, I hadn’t been ready to open up to him until just recently. How could I explain what I liked to him if I wasn’t even sure myself?
“Well, I’m glad someone that…outgoingcouldn’t distract you.” I forced the words out, but as I spoke, my gaze fell back down to my plate. I was proud of myself for not pulling away, though.
