Once we had some wine and hors d'oeuvres in front of us, I said, "You know, I think that the snacks at your house were every bit as good as these. "
"Thank you," she said with an adorable smile that lit up those chocolate eyes. "I don't get a chance to make fancy food very often, but snacks are my favorite art form."
"Well, you're very good at it," I said. "Have you ever thought of becoming a chef?"
Grace's eyes narrowed, and she stared down at the table.
"I'm sorry," I said, taking her hand where it rested on her thigh. "I didn't mean to strike a nerve."
Grace sighed. "That's okay. My parents think that I should just become a homemaker, since having an inheritance and marrying a breadwinner seemed to work out so great for Mom."
I could already sense where she was headed. "But you want a career of your own?"
"Yes! I want to do something useful. Productive." She squeezed my hand. "I just don't know what yet."
"I understand. Well, maybe you need to putter around at a few jobs, look into several industries until you find something that clicks."
"Exactly. But it's just hard to get a job anywhere these days if you're not super passionate about it, and you don't already know the business."
"What do you think about the exciting world of stocks?" I asked.
She shrugged her narrow shoulders, bringing my eyes to her lush, full breasts, but thankfully she didn't notice.
"I don’t know much about it. All I know is that you buy, sell and trade shares in companies, right?"
Resting my hand on hers, I slowly dragged my thumb along her thigh, which seemed to make her quiver. "That's the bird's eye view, yes. But if you want to learn more, you could come in and check out the office tomorrow. Shadow me for the day."
"Really?"
"Why not? I’ll show you the research department, introduce you to the traders, the IT folks. It's practically a village of various professions, all stuffed into one company."
I loved how easy it was to make her laugh.
By the time we were finished dinner and I was driving Grace home, I could feel the connection between us growing by the moment.
As we got closer to her house, I turned off the main road to a side street beside a park.
Dashing around to her side of the car, I helped her out. "Why are we here?" she asked.
I leaned with my back against the car, spreading my legs slightly so that she could stand between my feet, our bodies pressed together. "I need to give you a proper good night kiss without worrying that Corbin is staring out the window."
"You know that it's entirely possible Dad will freak out when he finds out about us, right?" she asked.
"The only part of that statement I care about is that you just admitted there is an us."
The second kiss began soft and dreamy, like the first. Then our desperate need for each other took over. Our lips fell open as our mouths locked together hungrily, and her hands gripped the back of my shoulders.
"You're so sexy," I murmured when we finally came up for air. "I've never met anyone as beautiful as you, Grace. You're already driving me wild."
"I've never felt like this before either," she said. "But I don't want things to go too fast. That's how mistakes happen. You know?"
"Absolutely." I pulled my phone from my pocket to get her number. "May I pick you up for work at seven forty-five tomorrow morning?"
Her tiny snort was somehow still ladylike. "That's a bit early. But sure."
"I'm going to cram that beautiful head full of all sorts of information tomorrow," I said. "Then I hope you will let me take you out to dinner again, and we can discuss whether you find the industry interesting, or whether you'd like me to ask a friend in any other field to let you pop in next week."
She seemed surprised. "You'd do that for me?"