“You trust me with your cocktail and your dinner?” Grace asked.
“How soon we forget the pedicure.”
Grace started to laugh, her eyes met Dameon’s, and he laughed right along with her. They eased into a conversation that moved from pedicures to projects, and the stress of the day began to melt off her shoulders. They took their time eating and talking about their families. Dameon told her he wasn’t close to his brother, which baffled her. She countered with the fact that there wasn’t a week that went by that she didn’t talk to her brothers if not see them. It helped that she was friends with their significant others.
They finished with coffee and skipped dessert.
With her full stomach and head slightly affected by their drinks, Grace found herself staring at Dameon and wondering how the hell they got there. Yes, she knew, of course, but despite the fact that she knew better than to foster anything more than a working relationship with the man, she kept wondering what if . . .
What if they had met outside of work?
What if he was as infatuated with dating her as he said he was?
What was really wrong with that?
“Someone got quiet,” Dameon said, snapping her out of her internal monologue.
She dropped her gaze to her hands resting on the table. “I was trying to figure out a way to blame you for breaking my self-imposed rule.”
“What rule is that?” he asked with a grin.
“Dinner and drinks with someone I’m working with.”
“Ah. You make it sound like I’m part of the office staff.”
Their eyes met again. “You’re hardly that.”
He reached over and covered her hand with his.
Her skin buzzed with the simple contact. And from the way Dameon’s smile disappeared and was replaced by heat in his eyes, he wasn’t unaffected by the touch either.
Silence spread between them, and for the first time all night, Grace couldn’t think of a single word to utter.
The gentle touch of Dameon’s thumb stroking the back of her hand had her trembling.
“Grace—”
Carrie walked up to the table at that moment, cutting Dameon’s words off. “I’m so glad you came in tonight,” she said, her cheery voice a full octave above the tone at the table.
Grace shrugged out of the spell Dameon was placing her under and turned to her friend. “Let me know when you need a night out, we can go for drinks or maybe a spa day.” As Grace spoke, she slowly slid her hand out from under Dameon’s.
“You don’t know how much I would love that.” Carrie set the bill on the table. “Nice meeting you, Dameon.”
“Likewise,” he said.
Carrie walked away, and Dameon confiscated the check before Grace could grab it.
“I said I was buying,” Grace told him.
He placed a credit card in with the bill and set it on the table. “Not in my world.”
She kept her hands in her lap to avoid the temptation of touching him again. “Is that a sexist thing? You can’t let a woman buy your dinner?”
“No,” he said, shaking his head. Then he stopped and looked her in the eye. “Yeah, probably. My mom would call it good upbringing.”
Grace shrugged. “My dad would say the same thing.”
Dameon paid the bill, and they said their goodbyes to Carrie.
Halfway to Grace’s condo, Dameon brought her back to why they were out together in the first place. “Are you feeling better about tonight?”
“With Sokolov?”
“Is that the guy’s name?”
“Yeah. And yes, I am. I’m sure after a good night’s sleep I’ll be ready to deal with the situation more rationally. I don’t scare easy, but this guy got to me.”
“Last time I looked, offering a bribe was illegal. You can always go after him legally,” Dameon suggested.
She wasn’t willing to go there. “I’ll let Richard know what happened and make a stand when it comes to dealing with him in the future.”
“I don’t like the idea of you having to deal with him at all.”
“I won’t meet with him alone again.” Once bitten, twice shy, she told herself. There was no reason to give the man another chance at scaring the crap out of her. If anything, those tables needed to turn in the other direction. “Thanks for coming with me.”
Dameon turned his truck onto the street leading to her condo. “I’m honored you thought to call me, Grace.”
She didn’t know how to respond to that, so she sat in silence the rest of the way home.