“Shh . . . be a kitten tomorrow,” he whispers, his hand sliding slowly up my arm. “Be a cougar tonight.”
I giggle in his face. “Oh my God, Lukas, seriously? Did you just say that?”
He laughs with me and leans his head against mine. “I did. I’m losing my mind over you. You have to agree to have dinner with me before more cheesy shit starts coming out of my mouth.”
I try to suppress more giggles. “You are crazy, you know that?”
“I know.”
“You have to stop this,” I tell him, although I can’t stop smiling at him.
“I don’t think I can.”
I pull away from him and straighten my sweater. “You look really pretty,” he says. “That sweater brings out the teal in your eyes.”
“Thank you.” I love that he used the word teal. How many men know what color that really is? Of course, he does because he’s an artist, and I absolutely love that about him.
“Lukas, I can’t just leave Tim. I work with him. I have to see him every day. I am not a rude person, and I’m not going to start being one.”
He looks defeated. “Don’t make that face, please,” I retort. “You look just like my son.”
He pouts some more, making me laugh. “You better stop,” I say.
“Ivy, this sucks. We could be having a really nice dinner right now, at a nice quiet place, I might add, and instead, you’re with that poser and I’m bored out of my mind. Now, I’m going to go home alone and think about you all night. There’s no telling what I might do to myself thinking about you.” He grins deviously and raises his eyebrows up and down.
Lordy. I can feel my cheeks getting redder by the minute. “You are naughty,” I tell him, shaking my head at him. He is so damn playful and hot, but I’m starting to love it.
“Come to my place after your non-date then,” he offers. “I’ll be there, just drawing probably. I’ll show you all my artwork. I have books of it. And we can eat the cookies and brownies that my Gram sent me home with.”
I really need to get back to my dinner, or Tim is going to think I left him here. “Lukas, no. I am going directly home after this dinner, and I will see you at our appointment. I told you I would consider having dinner with you, since you are being so crazy persistent, although I cannot for the life of me figure out why.”
“Because I feel like we’re meant to be together. That’s why.” He shrugs. “Laugh all you want. I don’t care. I felt it the first day I saw you, and I don’t fucking get it either, but you’re like a fucking magnet. I just keep getting pulled back to you. Even when I’m not around you, I can’t get my mind off you. And when I am with you? All I want to do is get closer to you.”
I want to tell him he’s crazy, but I can’t, because I feel the same way. So maybe we’re both crazy. Whatever it is, it’s scaring the hell out of me.
“I really have to go,” I whisper, looking up into his eyes. “And I’m not laughing at all.”
Once again, as I walk away from him, that familiar ache from leaving him comes back.