“Will you share some mussels with me?” he murmured a moment later, looking at the laminated card of food items available in the bar.
“I could eat a few, I guess.”
He caught the eye of the bartender and ordered, and Sloane wasn’t oblivious to how fast the female bartender hustled over and fluttered her eyelashes at Levi.
“So the guys have been giving you a hard time this week.”
Now, he turned on his stool so he was directly facing her. His knees brushed her hip. “I can handle it.”
“I know what’s going on. We may have gotten off to a rough start, but I know you’re not calling our clients dicklickers on purpose.”
“It was nutsuckers,” he said, correcting her.
“My mistake.” She paused. “It was kind of funny.”
“You didn’t think it was funny when you walked into my office and saw that chick on my computer, getting nailed from behind.”
She bent her head, setting her fingertips to her forehead. “I have to admit I was a bit stunned. Especially after I’d just heard what I thought was either an orgy or a gang bang in the hotel room next door to me and knew you were part of it.”
He choked on his beer. “Jesus Christ.”
“But Mason talked me down,” she added. “And then I was reluctantly admiring of their evil genius.”
“It wasn’t so genius,” he scoffed. “It was just dumb luck that you happened to walk in at that moment. If nobody else had seen it, it would have been a fail.”
“True.” She drank more of her beer.
“So, uh, you and Mason…”
She turned her head and gave him a look. “Me and Mason what?”
“The guys tell me you two are…what was the word…tight.”
God, even that word made her think dirty thoughts, coming out of his mouth. “We’re friends.”
He nodded. “That’s it?”
“Yes.”
“You don’t wear a ring so I gather you’re not married.”
“No.”
“Boyfriend?”
“No.” She hitched one shoulder. “No time for a relationship.”
“Ah ah ah. That’s no good.”
She swiveled her stool so that her knees were alongside his and they were now both facing each other. “From what I hear about you, you don’t have time for a relationship either.” She’d felt sorry for his nonexistent fiancée.
He grinned. “I have time. I just don’t want one.”
“Ah.”
“You know what they say about all work and no play.”
“All work and no play makes Jill financially independent.”
He laughed. “Well, there is that. But you still gotta have time for fun.”
“I have fun.”
“How?”
She blinked. “I, um, garden.”
“Sounds exciting.”
“I have other hobbies.” Not many. Ugh. “I work out. In the winter, I teach figure skating.”
His chin lowered. “Figure skating?”
“Yeah.” She shrugged. “I competed when I was younger. I teach kids on weekends.”
“Huh. That’s cool.” His blue eyes glowed with hot sexuality. “But still. I get the feeling you need to have more fun, Sloane.”
She sucked in a long breath through her nose. He was turning her on and making her want things she shouldn’t. Especially with him.
The mussels arrived along with some warm crusty bread. She hadn’t eaten a huge meal at dinner so she was able to sample a few of them.
“These are really good,” she said a few moments later.
“Are mussels supposed to be an aphrodisiac?” Levi asked, holding a shell in one hand and a fork in the other.
“I think that’s oysters.”
“Oh. Okay. Because looking at these is totally making me think of something else.” He held out the shell and she looked at the flesh inside it. Yep, a definite resemblance to female genitalia.
She rolled her lips in and met his dancing eyes. “You have a dirty mind.”
“Yeah. I eat perv cereal for breakfast.”
She laughed. “So, frat boy. When’s your friend getting married?”
“In two weeks. I’m the best man.”
“Of course you are.”
“What does that mean?”
“The day after you started, I told Mason you strutted around like Prince Levi of Wolcott.” She eyed him. “Though little did I know, that’s pretty much true. I guess growing up in the Wolcott family was kind of like growing up as royalty.”
“Eh. I don’t know about that.”
She nodded, appreciating that he didn’t launch into a description of their mansion or how many maids they had or their European vacations. In fact, he said nothing.
And again, she found herself warming to him.
When the mussels had been eaten, they turned on their stools to face each other and finish their beers, and now somehow her knees ended up between his spread ones. She looked down at his big thighs in black dress pants on either side of her bare knees primly pressed