I nod, agreeing with her completely. “So you want me to pick you up in this again tomorrow?”
“I’m pleading the fifth.” She smiles and tucks a loose strand of hair behind her ear. That’s a hell yes.
“Where are we going to eat?” She searches the restaurants around us. “Ooh, are we going to that one?” She points at a restaurant on the third floor overlooking much of the city across the way.
“No.”
“Where are we going then?”
I point in the opposite direction. A tiny little place that looks like a hole in the wall.
“Ramen? I’m going out with a millionaire, and he’s taking me to get the only food I can afford on my own.”
I laugh.
“Come on; it’s one of my favorite restaurants in town.”
“I doubt that.”
I take her hand and start leading her across the street to the restaurant.
“What are you doing?” She stops dead in her tracks and stares down at our hands like she’s holding onto a spider instead of my hand.
“Holding your hand. Since I’ve already seen you basically naked, I didn’t think you would have a problem with me holding your hand.”
“I have a problem.”
“Noted.”
I release her hand and place my hand instead on the small of her back. She shivers. “I don’t need you to guide me to the restaurant. I know where we are going.”
I nod. “Just trying to get you more comfortable with me.”
“Why?”
I shrug. “Because I want you to like me.”
She shakes her head. “That will never happen.”
“We’ll see.”
“Knight, we weren’t expecting you,” the male host, Joni, says.
“That’s okay; we don’t mind waiting.” I drop my hand from Mila’s back and immediately notice her squirm. She can pretend all she wants that she doesn’t want me to touch her, but I know better. I know she wants me to touch her, hold her, even kiss her again.
Mila glances around at all the people waiting for a table.
“It must be at least an hour wait.”
“Two hours, actually, but we will move you to the front of the line. Just don’t tell anyone,” Joni smiles at Mila and winks. If I were on a normal date, I would pull her to me in a protective manner. I would let this asshole know that Mila’s mine. It takes everything in me to resist the urge to touch her.
She shivers again and looks up at me with her big eyes.
“You need something?” I raise an eyebrow, but my lips frown. I can’t stand this.
“Nope.”
“Right this way,” Joni says, leading us to a small table toward the back.
We both take a seat, and I make sure to keep my hands to myself. I don’t even pull her chair out for her.
Mila looks around the room suspiciously.
“What are you thinking?”
“That I don’t know what I’m doing here.”
“I told you. I need dinner, and I hate eating dinner alone. I want us to at least be civil toward each other.”
“No, you want to butter me up and make me fall for you, so when you are finally ready to ask me to do the one thing you actually hired me to do, I’ll say yes, instead of calling you a bastard.”
I sit back in my chair. “So sure you have me figured out, huh?”
She nods.
I don’t disagree with her. She has me figured out more than she realizes. But in other ways, she doesn’t have a clue.
We both order a stiff drink, and I know I won’t be driving my motorcycle home after this.
“I think I know why you like this place. They treat you like a god here, and nicer restaurants have much higher clientele they need to take care of than a place like this. You don’t have to dress in a suit to go to dinner here. There is a dispensary next door for you to grab a joint from on your way home. And you don’t have to spend much money on your ‘dates’ you bring here.”
I stare at her as I take a drink, not letting her know how close or far away she is from the truth. She needs me to be a bad boy, so I will be.
“And the food is delicious; you are forgetting that part.”
She rolls her eyes, not believing me.
“Tell me about yourself.”
She frowns, downs her drink, flags the waiter for a second one, then responds. “No.”
“You need to find a different word; you aren’t allowed to tell me no.”