Page 27 of Roark
Roark only stared at her. “I don’t believe in fate.”
She chuckled. “Of course you don’t. Do you believe in lust at first sight?”
Busted. “I didn’t used to. Attraction is a general effect. Sometimes it happens and sometimes it doesn’t.” Roark knew that was a thin explanation, but she’d caught him off guard, so that was all he had.
“Attraction can be mind-blowing. Or it can be deadly.” The last word had been spoken so quietly he wasn’t sure he’d heard her correctly. But that could’ve also been because he was more concerned with her previous words.
“Are you attracted to me, Tamika?”
“Well, there we go with the candid and sometimes abrupt questions.”
“You started it this time. Does that make you uncomfortable?”
She took another drink of water and shook her head. “Not at all. And to answer your question, yes. I’m really attracted to you. When did you decide you were okay with being attracted to me?”
The question was so spot on he didn’t even bother to refute it. “About two hours ago.”
Her laughter came in a quick burst, the smile stretching across her face and lighting up her eyes. “You’re brutally honest, Roark.”
“And you’re a big surprise.” He cleared his throat, because to his ears that sounded weird. “I mean, I wasn’t expecting anything like this. When I came to Painswick, I just figured I’d get the meeting over with and then I’d spend some time walking in the gardens and sitting in the rooms my mother liked so much. I didn’t think there’d be a woman like you.”
“Well, I’m not going to ask if that’s a good or bad thing, because you don’t know yet. Neither of us will know until after we get the sex out of the way.”
And she called him blunt. “We’re going to have sex?” He felt like a teenage virgin asking that question, but the forty-year-old man wanted to make sure he wasn’t getting mixed signals.
“Absolutely.”
“When?”Way to go, Roark.That sounded pretty desperate.
She shrugged again. “Probably tonight. I’ve been on a hiatus from sex, but I’m thinking it’s time to put a stop to that. How about you? When’s the last time you’ve slept with someone?”
“Six months ago. Two dates and then sex. No calls from either side after that.”
“Wow. Was that a pre-made agreement, or did you just not like the sex?”
He wasn’t going to sit here and discuss his past sex life with this woman.
Last night and again this morning, he’d insisted he wasn’t going to have sex with her, and now his dick was already pressing painfully against the zipper in his jeans. She wasn’t helping matters by looking at him like she was ready to jump across the table and ride them both into an orgasmic haven. “It just didn’t work out. Sometimes that happens.”
“I agree,” she said with a quick nod. “But I’m betting that won’t happen this time.”
“That’s a bet I think you’d win.” He signaled the server for their check.
The twenty-five-minute ride back to Dynasty Manor would have to suffice as Roark’s contemplation time. Was he really going to have sex with this woman he’d just met yesterday? A woman whom he had nothing in common with and who might be part of a very dark time for his family?
All things considered; he probably could’ve made a better decision. Perhaps they should wait until after they got to the bottom of whatever was going on with their parents and these fires. Go on a few dates, spend some time together that didn’t consist of reviewing scenes of a fire or sitting in a hospital waiting room? Decide how much they liked each other as people before they figured out if the sex was going to be good or not. All of those things should be considered, right?
His body vehemently disagreed.
As she sat just an arm’s length away from him in the car, the heat that had been on a low simmer between them since yesterday morning was kicked up a notch. That was most definitely due to the conversation they’d had in the pub. The very candid conversation about wanting to sleep with each other. Roark had never moved this fast with a woman before, but it was something he knew his brother would be rooting for him to do at this very moment. Ridge was the go-all-out guy, the one who didn’t give a damn about normal rules of dating or living his life for that matter. Roark was the conventional one, the one who’d dated a woman for an entire year before proposing and marrying her. He was also the one who’d been divorced after three and a half short years and who’d had nothing to show for that time but a divorce decree he kept in a file cabinet in his home office.
“Are you nervous?” She’d stretched a hand over the console between them, resting it on his thigh just as he turned a corner. He didn’t jump like a nervous kid, but the touch did send a heated jolt straight to his dick, which had been hard since leaving the restaurant.
“I’ve had sex before, Tamika. Just as I’m sure you have.”
“I did and I liked it. How about you? Do you like sex, Roark, or do you just do it because it’s the thing to do at the time?”
This woman had some type of beam directly to his thoughts, and he wanted to know how she was pulling it off. “You really think I’m that rigid?”
