Dating the Boss (Blue Harbor #2) - Jaclyn Osborn Page 0,56

she younger?” I asked, amused.

“Yeah. Pathetic, right?” Daniel smiled, though. He might’ve complained about his sister, but it was obvious he loved her a lot.

“So… Olivia,” I said a while later. We’d been sitting there for a good two hours as we ate, drank, and talked. “Do you ever see her around town? Do you talk at all?”

Daniel shook his head. “She moved shortly after the engagement ended. After begging me to take her back, she met some drummer and ran off to Cali with him.”

“Ouch.”

“Tell me about it.” Daniel finished off his wine. “I’m not in love with her anymore, though. I wonder if I ever was… or if I just thought I should be.”

“What do you mean?”

He thought a moment before answering, “Marriage. Kids. A white picket fence. I thought I needed all of that in order to be happy. I think I loved the idea of it much more than I loved Olivia.”

“And do you want them?” I asked. “Kids, I mean.”

“No. Maybe when I was younger, but not now,” he answered, then checked his watch. “Damn. I’ve talked your ear off. It’s almost nine o’clock.”

“Really?” I looked at my phone. Sure enough, he was right.

Quinn was the only other guy I’d ever talked to that much without having to force anything. It felt great to spend time with a man and not feel pressured to fuck him to keep him around.

“Thanks for dinner,” I said after he paid and we were walking through the parking lot toward his car. “I’m so stuffed I feel like I’m gonna pop a button on my jeans.”

“If they rip, I hope you’re wearing underwear. Don’t want another McDonald’s incident.”

“I don’t mind showing my ass to you.”

Smiling, Daniel placed a hand at my lower back and guided me away from a patch of ice on the pavement. We’d had more snow a few days ago that had covered the grass and left slick spots on the road. Where I normally would’ve upturned my nose at the snow, I found myself smiling as we got into his car.

Snow had brought Daniel and me closer. If not for being stranded together in a snowstorm, I doubt we would’ve ever given in to the desire we’d both felt for the past several months.

“I’ll need to send Jack Frost a thank-you note,” I said, buckling my seat belt.

Daniel started the ignition. “For what?”

“For sending us that blizzard.”

He backed out of the restaurant parking lot, not saying a word. His soft expression said everything he couldn’t, though. That he felt the same.

“Should I walk you to the door?” Daniel asked once we got to my house. “Is that proper dating etiquette?”

“A good-night kiss is too,” I said, opening the car door and stepping out into the cold. “Better pucker up, darling.”

“What am I going to do with you?” Daniel asked with amusement rich in his tone, meeting me at the front of his car. He grabbed my hand as we talked to the porch, and a weightless feeling struck the center of my chest.

“Kiss me. Duh.” I squeezed his hand before releasing it and pulling my key from my back pocket to unlock the door. “Come in for a minute.”

Daniel stepped inside and closed the door as I took off my coat and hung it up in the hall closet. I couldn’t stop smiling. That had been the best date I’d ever been on.

And the night isn’t over.

“Can I get you a drink?” I asked, kicking off my boots and setting them beside the front door. “Sorry. When I come home, I start stripping. Clothes are too restricting.”

“You’d walk around naked if you could, wouldn’t you?” Daniel followed me into the kitchen.

“Just not in fast-food restaurants,” I said, making him laugh. I grabbed an unopened bottle of wine from the fridge and set it on the counter. I drank warm wine sometimes but preferred it chilled.

“I should probably go.”

I turned to him after getting down two glasses from the cabinet. “Oh. I thought you might want to stay for a bit…”

My meaning was pretty obvious. I had been wined and dined. Now I wanted to get good and boned.

“We both have an early morning.” Daniel closed the distance between us and slid his hand along the side of my neck. Did he feel my pulse quicken? His blue eyes darkened a little as they fell to my lips.

“Yeah. Early morning.” I swallowed hard and tried to force my body to calm. I was burning up. His