His laughter died away slowly, and what was left were soft brown eyes I wanted to get lost in.
“Go out on a date with me,” he said suddenly, getting me out of my thoughts.
I blinked.
“What?”
He sat up on the bed and moved closer to me. My skin tingled with awareness, and I forced myself to hold still.
“Go out on a date with me,” he repeated.
I frowned. “What about Trinity?”
He mirrored my expression. “Who?”
Did he really not know her name? Was he the kind of man who would sleep with a woman and not even know her name? And did he consider the fact that he knew mine as a step up?
“Our neighbor.”
“Okay. I don’t understand what she has to do with me asking you out on a date.”
“Uh, I saw her bring cookies over to you.”
The confusion cleared from his face.
“Ah,” he said, smiling a little. I wanted to slap the smirk right off of his gorgeous face.
I scowled at him, and he lost the battle and laughed. Unlike the first time he’d done it, I didn’t find this laugh beautiful—
Oh, who was I kidding? I still found his laughter beautiful, even if I was annoyed with it.
“Do you think because she brought me store-bought cookies that I’d invited her to have sex with me?”
Well, when he put it that way…
“So you didn’t have sex with her?”
“Baby, what kind of man do you think I am?”
Uh…
Good question.
I didn’t know what kind of man he was.
All I knew was that he was unbelievably gorgeous. That he was in bed with me. That he saved me from an assault last night and possibly rape, took me back to his place, and held me while I cried, obviously not turned off from a woman’s tears. I also knew he had a nice laugh, and he was rough around the edges, and he wasn’t the kind of man I would ever have thought I’d want to bring home to my parents.
I’d always thought I would end up with someone similar to the people in my parents’ circle.
People who were similar to my parents.
My dad’s mentee and friend, Brent Ledger, came to mind.
He was a lawyer who studied under my father’s tutelage and had been around while I was growing up.
Admittedly, I had a huge crush on him when I was twelve, and that crush persisted for a few years, up until he’d moved to Chicago for a prestigious job.
Naïvely, I had thought I would end up with him, despite him being ten years older than me.