“You did agree to let me drive you home tonight, but you were also going to try to make alternative arrangements over the weekend, weren’t you?” Her eyes stretched in a way that told me I’d hit the nail right on the head. “Yes, it’s mine.”
She walked around the car, looking slightly awed. “What is it?”
A wave of pride rippled through me. It was one of my latest purchases, with all the bells and whistles. “It’s a Bugatti Chiron.”
“It’s a sexy looking car,” she said.
Nodding, I walked around to her and placed my hand over hers on the handle, gently removing it to pull the door open for her. “And one of the rides home you’ll be taking for the foreseeable future, assuming I’ve convinced you not to try to make other plans for transportation over the weekend.”
Her eyes flew to mine. “You planned all this, didn’t you?”
“I might have, but in my defense, you gave me the perfect opening with your line about chivalry being dead.” In my mind’s eye, I saw two birds fall off the wire with the one stone I’d cast.
I knew she would keep riding with me now—if only to prove me wrong about women killing chivalry by denying men the chance to practice it. From the second I left her office this morning, I knew my independent secretary wasn’t going to let me drive her for long unless I did something.
And now I could show her I wasn’t the guy she thought she knew. More than the arrogant, rich bastard she thought I was right from the start.
Stephanie smiled as she sank into the soft leather passenger seat. “Plus, you know, the thing about carbon emissions.”
I shut her door and laughed as I rounded the car, settling in behind the wheel. “Of course. I wouldn’t want to forget about the environment.”
The main rush out of the parking garage was over. In no time, we were pulling out and merging with traffic. I glanced over at her, struck by how much I didn’t want to take her home just yet.
I knew I shouldn’t ask, but I just wanted to spend more time with her. Being with her made me feel different, not like corporate-asshole Jeremiah, but not like the player pre-corporate asshole version either.
“I’m starving, do you want to stop on the way home and have dinner with me?”
She looked taken aback, but I caught her smiling briefly before turning my eyes back to the road. “Do you do this with all your secretaries?”
“Only the crazy ones.” I had joked, before remembering the certifiable secretary to blame, or thank, for having Stephanie in my car right now.
Laughing, she nodded. “You must’ve had plenty of dinners with Jannie then.”
“Did I say crazy?” I tried to save the lightness of the mood between us. “I meant to say crazy good, not crazy deranged. I saw all the work you got caught up on today, you’re a machine.”
Pride crept onto her features. I could see in her eyes, in the way she sat up a little straighter and the way her jaw relaxed. “I had a sick day to make up for. My boss really jumped down my throat this morning about missing the day.”
“What an ass.” I meant it too. As soon as she told me why she’d really taken the day off, I wished I knew sooner so I could’ve given her today off too. I hated admin, but seeing how much Jannie scared her, knowing I should’ve been there to take the brunt of her delusions… “Your boss owes you one.”
“He does,” she agreed, sliding her eyes over to me. I could see her watching me from the corner of my eye. “And since he’s insisting on taking me to dinner, I think he can make up for it by choosing somewhere that serves a good steak.”
“It’s the least he could do,” I said, mentally paging through the best steak places I knew of. “How about La Fiamma?”
I heard her draw in a quick breath. “I’ve never been there. My best friend and I keep threatening to go, but it’s really expensive and always fully booked.”
Both accounts of the trendy restaurant were true. The guys and I were regulars there though. If we were going to be seen somewhere people went with the aim of being seen, it was for our buddy George’s rib-eye steaks. “I went to high school with the owner.”
Stephanie laughed, pursing her lips as she shook her head. “Of course, you did. Why am I not surprised?”
“I don’t know, maybe because you’re getting to know me.” It was meant to be a lighthearted joke, but it charged and changed the air between us.
“Not really.” She turned her head to look out of the window. “You’re not exactly an open book.”
Neither are you, Stephanie Donavan.“What do you want to know?”
She spent the next few minutes on the drive over to the restaurant asking me all sorts of questions. My favorite animal. Least favorite color. Trivial stuff I answered mindlessly, knowing the real questions were still headed my way. At least I got an answer from her on all the trivial stuff too. Her favorite animal was an elephant and least favorite color was beige.
George greeted us heartily when we got to the restaurant, giving me a discreet thumbs-up behind Stephanie’s back when he showed us to our table. I rolled my eyes and gestured for him to cut it out. We were seated at a small table near the back with no windows anywhere around it. George knew me well. I introduced him to Stephanie, and he caught up with me for a few minutes. Before leaving us he promised us he’d send over a bottle of a new red wine he was excited about and confirming with Steph that she’d also like the rib-eye. He didn’t need to take my order. He knew it already.