“It’s more than that, right?” For a split second, he looked emotionally needy, not just aroused.
“Yes.” Taking his lips in a tender kiss, I lingered and deepened it slowly until I was making love to his mouth. When I finally eased back, I pressed one last tender kiss to his lips. “Thank you for asking me out.”
I grinned. “Even if it took a challenge from the man we slept with.”
He blushed again. “That sounds terrible.”
I shrugged, giving him a teasing grin as I stepped back. “I don’t know. That’s how it looked to me. I guess you’re going to have to change my mind…show me that you really wanted me all along.”
Still blushing, he brushed his hands down his shirt and fussed with his clothes as he shook his head. “You could have asked me out.”
I scoffed. “I asked you to belong to me. That’s more serious than dinner. This was up to you and you knew it.” Giving his pinched lips another kiss, I murmured, “But you can make it up to me later.”
Taking his hand as I stepped back, I winked at him. “I bet you can be very creative.”
He laughed. “How about I just answer all the questions you wanted to ask this morning, but didn’t?”
“Deal.” My smile probably looked wicked, but that was definitely a better deal. “Let’s go. I’ve got a list.”
Dakota’s smile said he thought I was ridiculous, but I was only half teasing. I had a list a mile long, but I’d settle for a handful over dinner to start with.
The drive to the little Italian place I’d found near my apartment went smoothly, and before we’d even moved past the small talk about our respective days, we were seated with drinks.
“Yeah.” I pointed out the window, gesturing farther down the block. “The building is just out of sight. It’s small, but it works.”
I didn’t love my apartment, but I didn’t hate it.
“It’s more of a landing pad until I figured out what I wanted to do. The job with you was my first choice, but I had a few other options around here. The rest would’ve had me moving farther away, so I had to stick with one with a short lease.”
Dakota took a sip of his drink, which was not surprisingly water after his long night. “Wanted to stay close to your family or just don’t like the idea of moving?”
“A bit of both, probably.” Leaning back in my seat, I thought about the answer. “I wanted some space from my family, but I like being in one place. Traveling around, yes, that would be great, but actually moving, no.”
A little grin peeked out. “I mentally added a few years to your age when we first met, but Austin was happy to point out our age difference last night.”
I grinned in return. “I was wondering if you’d realized that, but honestly, you look younger than I do.”
He had a baby face that was sweet and innocent when he aimed it at someone, but looks were incredibly deceiving.
Dakota sighed. “It made dating hard when I was a little younger, but thankfully, I look like a grown-up now.”
“You look like a sexy grown-up now.” I leered dirtily at him. “It's one of the things I first noticed about you.”
Chuckling, he shook his head. “Stop that. We’re in public.”
Rolling my eyes, I gestured around the table. “I made sure they put us in the back of the room. No one can see us.”
Leaning into the table, I gave him a dirty grin. “I bet the waiter would do a good job of ignoring anything he caught us doing. He looks like the wicked type.”
In fact, I was pretty sure I’d seen his dating profile online a few weeks before I’d met Dakota at the party. If it was the same person I was remembering, he’d hinted at being more than a little interesting.
But I wasn’t sure of that enough to take a chance.
Dakota’s eyes widened, but he took another drink instead of commenting.
Interesting.
“You know, it might be fun to do fantasy nights once in a while at the club.” When Dakota cocked his head, I continued. “Set up the lounge area as a dining room and have some members being the couples and some being the waiters.”
As he licked his lips, I leered. “I think it would be fun. Single subs could be the waiters or maybe even some who have a Dom who likes to watch them. I think Wade would have