Page 13 of The Marriage Deal
“Why?”
“Already told you, I have a job to offer you.”
She shakes her head, but it’s not a refusal shake. More of an ‘I don’t know’ shake. A shake of bewilderment. “I mean why do you want to offer me, specifically, a job? All we’ve done is argue.”
“Maybe because you won’t be able to argue once I’m your boss.”
“Aww.” She gives me a smile that spells mischief. “You’re cuteanddelusional.”
“You think I’m cute?”
“I think delusional men are adorable.”
So quick with that sharp tongue.“Lilah.”
She gets to business. “You’re not offering me a jobto stop me from arguing with you, Briggs. So, why, then?”
“The town likes you.” She doesn’t expect my answer, and the notching of her head on her shoulders in surprise tells me as much. “You’re little miss popular, a finger in all the jars.”
“I don’t have a finger in any jars.”
“You do,” I tell her matter of fact. “And that’s why I want you.”
Her chest inflates on a sharp breath at the words, and that’s when I see the first ever blush I’ve clocked forming in her cheeks. It’s diluted, hardly there, really. But it is still exquisite.
I want to do something to make it deeper, hotter, more consuming. I want to do something to make that blush one she can’t deny with her sharp tongue, always locked and loaded with a cutting quip.
She clears her throat and I fight my grin. I can’t help but wonder if this is the first time she’s ever been lost for words.
“I’m free tomorrow night.”
“I can’t persuade you for tonight?”
“Don’t push your luck,” she warns. “Tonight is wine night. We do it once a week.”
“I don’t know what wine night is. But it proves my point.”
She cocks her head. “What point, again?”
I take a backward step in the direction of my truck. “Little miss popular.” I swing up into the cab, and call, “I’ll pick you up tomorrow at seven.”
“You don’t know where I live.”
“Everyone in this town knows where you live, Lilah.” I don’t know what it is about my words, but they deepen the pink in her cheeks.
Blood rushes south at the sight of her standing there in her shorts and oversized T-shirt, her hair mussed in a knot on the top of her head with bewildered pink in her cheeks. I imagine it’s what she might look like in the morning after a night with me. Only, it’d be my tee she’d wear. Nothing else.
Christ. I need to get my head screwed on straight.
7
TO BE DECIDED…
LILAH
“He asked you out?” Madelyn leans forward on the pillow she’s pulled onto her floor and the pooch with his head in her lap lets out a low grunt.
“He’s offering me a job.”
