Page 74 of Seductive Scoundrel

“What are you doing here?” she demands, leaping off the bed like it’s on fire and then throwing her hands on her hips.

“Taking you on a date.”

“But I haven’t…I’m not…You said tomorrow…You can’t…Just get out for 15 minutes! I can’t even deal with you right now. You can’t just…just show up! I haven’t…”

I raise an eyebrow. “I don’t think you can get a Brazilian wax in fifteen minutes.”

She puts her tiny hands on my chest and the contact is welcome even though she’s pushing me out of the room. “Go. I’ll be there soon.”

Her parents’ place is best described as cozy. Mia’s room probably looks identical to how it did when she was eighteen, complete with AC/DC posters on the walls. As I walk down the hallway towards where her parents are waiting in the family room, I’m mesmerized by the pictures of Mia and her siblings at every stage of life.

She goes from adorable baby to awkward adolescent to sexy as hell in six steps.

“Mia’s told us so much about you.” Mia’s mom looks more like her sister, and her smile is warm and welcoming at my sudden appearance – unlike her daughter’s shriek of dismay.

“All good, I hope. I’m sorry for the intrusion. I wanted to surprise Mia.”

“We’re glad to meet you, and we’re thrilled she’s been getting out of the office,” Mia’s dad pipes up. “That girl has always been a workaholic. We worry about her alone in the city.”

I do, too. Her apartment is questionable at best and I’d much rather…

What? Move her in with me?

No.

Get her a proper place of her own. Maybe next door. Because I can’t live with someone.

Her parents share every detail of Mia’s childhood while we wait for the woman herself to appear. She has a funny sense of time if she thinks I’ve been sitting here for fifteen minutes. Oddly, I don’t mind, even though the idea of meeting a woman’s family in the past made me run for the hills.

Mia’s dad is a retired doctor and her mother teaches grade six. They’re both smart, funny, and completely charming, making me feel like a total asshole. I’m well-traveled, but certain places held zero appeal to me so I never bothered learning about them.

I’ve been to Tokyo, Delhi, Shanghai, Mumbai, Cairo, Beijing, São Paulo, Dubai, and countless other global hubs. But I’ve missed a lot of places in my own backyard.

Kansas is what I previously considered an irrelevant, hillbilly state, and I’m learning that humble pie doesn’t taste very good. Good thing I don’t eat it very often.

Mia’s mom is walking me through the rules of Yahtzee when Mia herself finally appears, changed from the pajamas she was wearing to skin-tight jeans and a turtleneck sweater that is covering far too much of her skin.

Somehow, she doesn’t realize I’m completely obsessed with her – I’m in Kansas when I should be working for fuck’s sake – and I could care less about what she’s wearing.

But I still appreciate the effort.

“We shouldn’t stay out too late,” she says, looking at her feet. “My flight home is first thing in the morning.”

“I took the liberty of canceling it for you. We’ll take my jet tomorrow.”

“Oh, my. Well, I bet you two have bigger plans for tonight than playing Yahtzee.” Her mom sounds a lot more impressed than Mia looks.

I thought she’d be happy, but she’s guarded, probably because I haven’t verbalized my intentions. Sometimes women pay more attention to what a man says than what he does when really, that approach is ass-backward. I can promise her the world and treat her like shit, or I can promise her the world and deliver.

That’s what I plan to do, and somehow coming to Kansas didn’t spell it out for her. So the words need to be said.

“I’d love to play Yahtzee with you another time,” I tell her parents, surprised that I mean it. “Mia and I will fly back soon, or we’d love to have you out to visit us in New York.”

Mia’s head jerks up with surprise, confirming my gesture flew over her head.

Jesus. Women are impossible.

“We would love that,” her dad confirms.

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