ready to take it all away. No, you need me to help you sift through the bad seeds and find the genuine article.”
For the next thirty minutes, she and Edward argued about the merits of an agency versus using his help, the men he knew and why they would or would not be appropriate for her to talk with. As much as she hated arguing, there was something so stimulating about arguing with Edward.
She actually laughed at some of his points, even when he didn’t see the humor. “You’re very serious most of the time, aren’t you?” she asked softly when there was a pause in their conversation. “Why is that?”
Edward shook his head. “Life isn’t a round of parties,” he replied.
“I know that.” She looked at him carefully. “But I don’t think I’ve ever seen you relax. What do you do for fun?”
Edward’s mind was stumped. “I like my work. I find it interesting.”
She smiled at him. “I imagine that your work is very stimulating, but what do you do to just relax and have fun? What makes you stop thinking, or puts your whole body at rest?”
The image of her, naked and looking up at him with those chocolate eyes on fire for him popped into his mind. Yes, that would definitely shut his brain off to his next business meeting, he thought. “I enjoy working out. I attend several social functions each week. There are many things that interest me.”
She had to allow that the man was driven. “When was the last time you took a vacation?” she asked, testing a theory.
He raised one eyebrow. “I take a vacation twice a year.”
She looked at him with a challenge. “How about a vacation where you don’t have a cell phone or computer nearby? A place where there’s no technology connecting you to your office and your scarily efficient assistant isn’t updating you with information three or four times a day… any period in your adult life when that has happened?”
Edward shook his head. “I am always available to my staff.”
“Hmmm….” She hummed. “I think it would be interesting to tie you up so you couldn’t be in control.”
That got his attention! He looked across the table at her with a lascivious grin. “I think the opposite might get my mind off of work more effectively,” he replied.
Jessica looked up from her salad, her eyes wide and innocent as she tried to understand his reply. When she saw his look, she blushed painfully, finally understanding what she’d just said. “Oh….um…well, no…that wasn’t really what I was saying…” she stammered out, but when he only chuckled at her distress she sighed and smiled back at him. “You know what I meant!”
He laughed again and shook his head. “My comment stands.”
Jessica saw the heat in his eyes and gasped slightly, her water glass halted midway to her mouth but she was frozen by the look. She’d never seen Edward so forward and her heartbeat increased, her mind went dead and the noises of the restaurant disappeared. It was only herself and Edward and that comment hanging in the air between us.
He broke the moment by shaking his head slightly and looking away. He picked up his glass of wine and took a sip as he surveyed the other patrons nearest them. “But since that’s not on the agenda, how about if we get back to the issue at hand? Finding you an appropriate husband in a painfully short period of time.”
Jessica sighed. “Maybe I should just take James up on his offer. He’s a very nice gentleman and he would be a good husband.”
Edward’s glass snapped back onto the table. “Absolutely not. I’ll marry you before I’ll let that man into your life like that.”
Jessica stared at him, her eyes wide with the hope his words struck within her. She didn’t say anything though. And Edward continued talking about the various men he had in mind to introduce her to, but she didn’t hear them. Her mind was racing, her body reacting to the idea of Edward as her husband.
As they were leaving the restaurant, Jessica looked up into his eyes, amusement apparent as she observed his frustration. “Let’s face it Edward. We really don’t make a very good pair,” she teased.
Edward looked down at her, furious that she was pulling away from him like this. He wanted her close and she was just pushing him away. “Why would you say something like that?”
She laughed and leaned against his car. “Because