and he looks away. “Are you ready to go?” he asks without looking at me.
I silently chastise myself for my reaction and how dismissive I acted. Before he can walk away, I quickly reach out and grasp him by the wrist, stopping him in his tracks. “You could never look crappy either,” I tell him, my voice shyer than usual. Man, I’m such a nerd. I’m supposed to be a love goddess, and the best I could come up with was, you could never look crappy either? Sev would facepalm so hard right now.
Warren assesses me again, like he’s trying to see if I’m being sincere or not, and then a flicker of amusement crosses over his face. “Yeah? Do I look better than that jerkoff last night wearing the turtleneck?”
I grimace at the memory of Sparrow’s hands on me, and I shiver slightly. “Definitely,” I say without hesitation. “There’s no way that Sparrow could match your level of debonair, Mr. Knight.”
Warren scoffs with derision. “Of course the fucktard’s name was Sparrow,” he says scathingly.
“I thought he was artsy and different,” I admit. “But it turns out he was just a douche with really strong weed,” I chuckle, trying to lighten the mood. It doesn’t work.
“Well, he better hope that he never sees me again, because the next time I do, I won’t let him off so easily.”
I tilt my head, studying him curiously, but then the pieces quickly fall together, and I smack a palm to my forehead for being such an idiot. “So that’s why you got so mad at me that day,” I say, dropping my hand. “You...I hurt you,” I say with a bit of awe, because honestly, it’s unbelievable.
I’m not the only one in this unlikely duo who’s developed feelings. His temper, the way he reacted when I tried to set him up again...I should have recognized it for what it was. But I suppose when we’re closest to each other, that’s when we’re often the most blind.
Now I feel awful.
“I didn’t realize that you had feelings for me,” I say, taking a step towards him. He shifts on the barstool, turning his body towards me as I step between his legs. “Honestly, it doesn’t make any sense. I mean, you’re you,” I say, waving a hand up and down at him.
His dark eyebrows pull together. “What does that mean?”
“Well, look at you. You’re Warren Knight. The ridiculously hot, successful, rich, aloof, asshole bachelor. You date Hollywood stars, and even then, you never seem to like anyone you date.”
He looks away uncomfortably and gets up, moving around me to put his cup in the sink. “We should go, or we’ll be late.”
My eyebrows practically shoot to my hairline as I look from him to the sink and back again. “Oh shit, I totally have you flustered,” I say as a slow, flattered smile spreads across my face. I’m right. He does like me. He never leaves dishes in the sink. Ever.
“What are you talking about now?” he demands.
I grin. “It’s true. You have a massive crush on me.”
When I realized I had feelings for him last night, I never imagined that he would actually reciprocate them. But based on the way he’s nervously pulling on his tie and the red blush that’s creeping up his neck, I know I’m right.
He shuffles me out the front door, and I follow him to his car, where a driver is already waiting. He holds the door open, and I get in, letting my fingers run over the smooth leather seat as he slides in after me.
“Now that I know the reason, I think it’s cute that you got all huffy puffy mad at me,” I say as the car pulls out of the driveway. The back is completely private, with a fancy partition separating us from the driver.
“I don’t huff.”
I scoot closer to him, letting our thighs touch, and he tenses slightly.
“There was definitely huffing,” I say pragmatically. My eyes drop down to the front of his slacks before raising again. “Next time, you should just tell a girl that you have a big, gigantic, throbbing crush on her.”
He chokes a bit and looks over at me incredulously. I just wink at him because making Warren Knight flustered is basically the most fun I’ve ever had. “Don’t worry, I have a super big crush on you, too, Mr. Asshole Bachelor Dud.”
He skips over my nickname. “You do?” he asks suspiciously.
“Yep, I realized it last night.”
“When?”
I tap my lip