Page 57 of Mess With Me
“Thanks. But there’s still a possibility. Claire could come through with something else. She has incredible connections.”
His voice turned husky, making her knees weak. “You free for dinner on Saturday night?”
“Yes.”
He smiled warmly. “Then it’s a date.”
Her self-preservation kicked in, needing to slow it down, protect her heart. “But I’m not spending the night this time.”
He arched a brow. “Not even for what women want?”
She hesitated, but told herself to remain firm with the boundaries. “Not even that.”
“All right.” He played with a lock of her hair. “I’ve got another thing you might like.”
That got her attention. No, she needed firm boundaries. Besides, next Sunday morning was Lauren’s bachelorette brunch. Her friend was such a sweetheart, she wanted her bachelorette party to be a classy brunch at a nice restaurant. There’d been much debate among her friends over secretly springing a stripper on Lauren at the brunch, but Hailey had put a quick halt to those proceedings, declaring they’d be kicked out of the restaurant for that. They’d settled for the much tamer mimosas with secret gifts of naughty lingerie. Ally personally thought that was more a gift for Lauren’s fiancé than Lauren, but it would be fun to watch her blush and attempt to thank everyone in her usual sweet way.
“I have plans Sunday morning,” she informed him, but then she couldn’t resist. “Tell me the other thing I might like.”
He pushed her hair behind her ear. “You’ll have to spend the night to find out. I’ll make sure you’re not late for your plans.”
She narrowed her eyes. This sounded like a trick. He just wanted to cuddle her and that was bound to get her all mushy and vulnerable.
“Up to you,” he said with a smirk. “Last woman I did it too actually…nah. You don’t need to know that.”
She slammed a hand on her hip. “Not cool to talk about other women with the woman you’re currently propositioning, you know.”
He shrugged and watched her with a confident sexy look in his eyes.
Ooh, she couldn’t take the suspense. “What’d she do?”
He leaned down and whispered near her ear, the words hot against her skin. “She turtled.”
“She what?”
He stroked her hair back from her ear and held it as he cradled the side of her head and whispered, “She made this wheezy sound like a turtle orgasm.”
She was so confused. Also intrigued. And a hot mess of hormones. “And you know about turtle orgasms how?”
He dropped his hand and met her eyes. “YouTube video. Guys at work showed me.”
“So you didn’t actually witness turtles fucking while you were doing your park ranger thing?”
He grinned and looked around. Luckily, they were alone down at this end of the aisle, because she’d said that turtles-fucking thing a little loud. “That would be a no,” he said. “And I’m not a park ranger.”
She crossed her arms. “I’m not sure I want to turtle.”
He gave her his sexiest smirk. “Bark? Meow? Howl?”
She laughed and uncrossed her arms.
He took her hand in a firm clasp. “I’ll pick you up at six on Saturday. Dinner will be all suburban-like with running water and a chef that prepares the meal.”
She melted. “Okay. Will there be benefits after?”
“Up to you,” he said at the same time as he nodded.
She laughed. “All right, it’s a…” She coughed, nearly choking on the word. She was so afraid she was going to get her hopes up again, go all Cinderella on his ass when there simply was no prince waiting to whisk her away to everlasting happiness. Real life didn’t work that way.
