Page 54 of The Best Book Boyfriend
“I’m impressed. For once in your life, you’re right, Matthew. No man has ever been able to keep up with me.” I want to laugh at how ridiculous these lines sound coming from my mouth, but I feel fucking badass. Powerful, in control. Briony takes no shit, so tonight neither do I. He leans forward and raises one eyebrow.
“So far.” God, he wears Matthew’s cockiness well.
“Yes. So far.” A blush creeps through me, surely turning me pink from head to toe as the tension grows between us.
“Challenge accepted.” He tilts his glass towards mine and I meet it with a clink.
Our conversation flits in and out of character while we eat. We talk about music, movies, and memories, just like they do in the book, but we answer with our own favourites. We talk about food, clearly a subject with lots in common, and just like Matthew and Briony try to out-do each other, we invent wildly outrageous dreams.
“If you could do anything with your life, what would you do?” he asks me.
“I’d take a month long sabbatical and spend it reading books and eating bread and cheese in the South of France, on a journey of self-discovery.” I let my voice singsong through the fantasy. “You?”
“I’d retrain as a lawyer, locking up the bad guys and throwing away the key.” He’s got a full sexy smoulder thing going on and I eat it up. “I’d rescue one of their wives and we’d go on the run from the mob, making love all across Europe, but always looking back over our shoulders.”
“Sounds like an awkward position,” I tease and he attempts it, palms flat on the table, head turned back over his shoulder, pouting.
“OK, I haven’t thought that one through. What else would you do?”
I keep my eyes on him across the top of my glass, another sip of wine, buying me time to consider another fantasy. “I’d be a sultry librarian with a penchant for helping meet customers’ needs between the stacks.”
“Let me guess, you meet a shy nerdy guy who has a dark side?”
“Absolutely,” I giggle. I love this game.
“I buy it. What else?”
“Hm, I’d run a tech company and spend years trying to take down a rival firm.” I add a hint of malice to my voice. “On the day I’m scheduled to buy them out with a blind offer, I’ll get stuck in a lift with their CEO and decide there is something I want even more than his business.”
“Is it his penis?” he raises one eyebrow.
“Yes,” I nod formally. “Yes, it is.”
“I’d buy a forest and build a cabin with my bare hands,” he says. “I’d sleep under the stars, bathe in the river, eat wild berries and embrace a life of solitude. Then one day a gorgeous woman will stumble into my clearing just as I’ve finished building the bed. I’m shirtless and sweaty, of course. Holding an axe.”
I snort laughing. “That’s a good one! I’d sleep my way through an entire Canadian Hockey team.”
“I don’t doubt it, you filthy minx,” he says, palming his mouth as his eyes sweep over me.
“Are you flirting with me, Matthew?”
He leans in close and skims his fingers along the side of my hand. “You fucking bet I am.”
Oh no, oh shit.Amidst all our bantering and roleplay, I’d stopped thinking about just how Matthew and Briony’s date ends,as if I could ever forget,and now I’m panicking. This is my Matthew fantasy come true, but when is Luke going to stop playing this game with me? What happens after we leave here? Am I just going to go home, or will Matthew,Luke!,keep this going? And if he keeps this going, do I want that? The heavy ache between my thighs says I do.
“Can I interest you in the dessert menu?” Our waiter appears just as we finish our wine, and Luke looks to me for an answer. I’ve already looked at every pudding on the menu, and the tiramisu here is legendary, but they don’t have the one thing I really want. Am I really going to do this?
Fuck it.It’s my birthday. For one night only, I should be able to have whatever I want. I smile sweetly at the waiter, then turn to stare Luke straight in the eyes. “I’m in the mood for pancakes.”
Chapter 22
Luke
Pancakes.Fucking pancakes.
I didn’t seriously believe she’d go there, but that’s a clear signal, right? In the book, Matthew takes Briony back to his place. Things get heated, and afterwards he makes her pancakes and they eat them hot from the pan at his kitchen counter.
I’m trying to get a read on what Kara is really saying here. Does she want to leave? With me? Does she genuinely want pancakes? And everything that happens in between? The tiniest nod and the bite of her lower lip give me my answer.
