off the floor. “I guess I should be glad that wasn’t wine.”
He stood. “Literally no one’s ever called me clumsy before.”
She uttered an amused noise. Their fingers touched when she handed over his phone, and maybe it was his imagination, but he swore her gaze lingered on his hands.
Rhi slid into the booth, opposite him. She’d changed since he’d seen her earlier, into slacks and a snug blazer, with a Prince T-shirt on under it. Her thick hair was gathered up in a claw clip, but a few tendrils brushed her cheek. “You look nice,” he said.
“I can clean up when I need to. I’m a board member for a domestic violence organization,” she said crisply. “We have a meeting tonight, I’m going straight there after this.”
“You look nice no matter what you wear.” He tried to dismiss the pang of disappointment that he was a stopover before she went somewhere else. That was fine. He hadn’t expected anything to come from tonight, except talk of their looming partnership.
Liar.
Okay. He hadn’t seriously expected anything to come of tonight. “Do you want a drink?” He slid the menu over to her. “According to reviews, they have good cocktails here—”
“I don’t need a menu.” Before he could signal the waitress, she raised her hand. “Vodka tonic with a splash of cranberry, please,” she told the server.
Samson waited for the waitress to leave. “You know what you want.”
“When it comes to drinks, yes.” Rhi’s face was unreadable. She clasped her hands on the table. Her nails were short and unpainted.
He straightened his shoulders, trying not to remember how those nails had pressed into his skin. And failing, terribly.
“Let’s cut to the chase.” Rhiannon cocked her head. “Crush is willing to get on board with this wacky idea of yours. My team actually loves it. They called it real Wholesome Content.”
Odd phrasing, but okay. “Are you willing to get on board with it?”
“I am.” Rhiannon’s drink came, and she swirled the liquid with the straw, the pretty pink of the glass’s contents matching her lips. There was something glittery in her lipstick, an added pop that might hypnotize him if he let it. “I have some . . . terms, let’s call them, though.”
“I assumed you would.” There was no way Rhiannon wouldn’t wrestle as much control for herself as she was able to.
She’d wrestled him in bed for the upper hand too. He didn’t mind it. He’d had no idea this was his kink, but there was something supremely sexy about being with a woman who effortlessly displayed leadership.
“I like the scenario you proposed, us hanging out and talking about dating, basically an expanded version of the interview we did with Helena. We can keep it purposefully low budget, film it ourselves. We record on my phone. Crush gets first crack at editing, and then you can take over. We both have to agree to the final videos that are released.”
He settled into his seat. “Interesting. Why your phone? What’s your fear?”
“It’s not a fear.” She took a sip of her drink. “I want the footage in my control. If my image gets tarnished, my company’s directly affected.”
He trusted her not to tarnish his image but understood exactly why she might still be suspicious of him. “I’ll have to talk to the team. But I think this should be fine.”
“Second, we don’t tell anyone that we’ve slept together. That includes our respective employees/employer, or the general public.”
“That’s absolutely fair,” he agreed instantly. “I don’t talk about my sex life with anyone.”
Her shoulders relaxed a little, and he leaned forward, interested. “Can I ask you a personal question, though? Related to this?”
She examined him, then finally gave a short nod.
“You’re in the public eye. You don’t like bad publicity. I know I’m not the first man you’ve hooked up with off the app. Don’t you ever worry that one of them will recognize you? What if they, I don’t know. Go to a tabloid?”
“First of all, you make it sound like I have a long string of temporary lovers I’ve met through Crush. I won’t give you the numbers, because I think that’s crass, but it’s not that high, it’s a last resort when I’m feeling particularly itchy. Second, I don’t do shit without thinking about how it’ll affect my business, even the shit I do ostensibly only for me.” She took a sip of her drink. “Like I said, I try to make sure the men I sleep with aren’t assholes—I usually have