An Act of Persuasion - By Stephanie Doyle Page 0,69
starting to believe it could happen. Really believe.
“Are you ready?”
Anna nodded. “Yes, I think I am.”
“Then let’s go.”
Eventually they ended up at the IKEA store near the King of Prussia mall in the outskirts of Philadelphia. They wandered the displays and, sadly, it didn’t take long for them to become locked in a ferocious battle of wills.
“This bed is prettier,” she said.
“This bed is bigger,” he said, pointing to the king-size bed he preferred.
“I’ve never needed anything bigger than a queen.”
“Well, I need a king. If the plan is for us to be sharing this bed one day—and, as far as I’m concerned, that is still the plan—we will need the big one. I like to have room...to work.”
Anna turned to him, exasperated. They had been picking out furniture for her new house for hours now and it occurred to her that Ben’s primary motivation was making sure the piece was of good quality and large enough to accommodate them having sex. The chair had to recline fully, the couch had to be big enough to support them both if they were lying side by side, which her purple couch would not.
“Is sex really all you can think about?”
He considered her question. “Yes.”
“You want me that bad?”
“Yes.”
Anna laughed. “I don’t get it. How do you go for years without thinking about doing it with me, then suddenly one night lose control over a pair of yoga pants and now all you can think about is getting me back into bed.”
“Into the larger bed, yes. I should never have told you about the yoga pants.”
“Ben, I’m being serious.”
“Anna, I don’t know what to tell you. I didn’t think about having sex with you for six years, because I wouldn’t let myself think about it. Sometimes a thought or two...I couldn’t help that. But mostly I would suppress it. Then in a moment that night... I don’t like to refer to it as losing control—”
“You wouldn’t, Mr. Control Freak.”
“I prefer to think of it as letting the moment take over.”
“That’s such crap.”
“The point is now the deed is done. You are no longer my employee. You are, instead, the woman carrying my child and the woman I’m attempting to court. The fact is I think about taking you to bed quite often. So when you take me furniture shopping and you ask me which piece I prefer, I imagine making love to you on said item and that helps in my decision-making process.”
Anna tried to wrap her brain around the concept of him wanting her like this. The way he said what he was thinking blew her mind.
“It is the craziest thing. If you were any other guy on the planet, I would know to take this as flirting, perhaps with intent to seduce. But you are actually dead serious.”
He closed the distance between them so that less than an inch remained. Less than a breath really. “I’m deadly serious about wanting to take you to bed. I have been since I had my first erection after my treatment. I would not be lying if I told you it occupies many of my day-to-day thoughts. Does that answer your question?”
Anna caught her hand around her throat as she tried to calm her breathing. This man was seriously getting to her. First on the desk in his office. Now today with this completely honest admission of what he wanted from her.
“Let’s get the bigger bed.”
His smile was more wolfish than anything she had ever seen before.
“Hey, Anna, Tyler.”
They turned at the greeting. Mark approached them with a seemingly reluctant teenager in toe. The girl wore a pair of shorts and a T-shirt that read Music Is My Life, What’s Yours? Her expression let anyone looking at her know how unhappy she was with her current circumstance, whether it was shopping or the company she was with was hard to say.
“Sharpe,” Ben said, glancing at the recalcitrant teenager. “Can we hope you didn’t kidnap her?”
“Don’t let the I-would-rather-be-anywhere-else-than-here look fool you. We’re having a great day.”
“Whatever,” the girl muttered.
“Anna, Ben, this is my daughter, Sophie Warren. Sophie, this is Ms. Summers—I told you about her. And this is Mr. Tyler. We used to work together in the CIA.”
“Oh, did you abandon your children, too?”
Mark’s smile was big and tense. “Fun. We’re having fun. Sophie is helping me pick out the furniture for her room, which I’m setting up in my condo.”
“Which I’m never going to visit, so I don’t really know why we’re bothering.”