“No.” He stabbed his fork into his kale salad with chicken and walnuts.
“No?” I challenged. “I’m not one of your employees. I’m a person.”
“You see the way I talk to my employees—and that’s not how. And the answer is still no.”
“If we’re going to keep spending time together, I don’t think it’s fair that you—”
He leaned forward as he looked me in the eye. “No means no. It’s nothing against you. It just makes me very uncomfortable when people pay for my things.”
“Why?”
“Does it matter why?” He took a bite of his salad.
“I’m getting to know you, so yes. It does matter.”
“Alright.” He finished chewing before he gave his answer. “I’m a very wealthy man who’s never had to live on a budget. Seeing someone less fortunate than I am buy my food…doesn’t sit right with me. I’m not being a gentleman. I just…don’t like it.”
“So if I were richer than you, you wouldn’t mind?”
He shrugged. “I’ve never met someone richer than me.”
Both of my eyebrows shot up. “How rich are you?”
“I just mean, I haven’t gone out to eat with someone wealthier who then offered to buy my food.” He kept eating, enjoying his low-carb, low-fat salad.
I got a foot-long pastrami sandwich. I was used to being broke all the time, so anytime I ate, I ate as much as possible. It was a bad habit. “So if I ever become richer than you, you’d let me buy your food?”
He grinned at the thought. “Maybe not…”
“So you are a gentleman.”
“No. I just like you.” His phone vibrated in his pocket, so he checked the screen before he put it back.
I smiled at the comment. “You like me?”
“I don’t think I would go through all this trouble to fuck you if I didn’t.”
“What do you like about me?” I set my sandwich down and watched him, seeing the way his brown eyes darkened when he considered his answer. Now that the pressure of putting out was off the table, I felt like I could be myself, see him as a person rather than a predator.
“Is this grade school?”
“I’m just curious.”
“If I answer your question, you have to answer the same.”
“Why I like myself?” I asked blankly.
“Why you like me. We’ve got a deal?”
“Sure.”
“Alright.” He took a few more bites of his salad before he spoke. “You’re beautiful, for one. That’s the first thought that popped into my head when you walked into my office, uninvited.”
“You thought I was pretty? You looked like you wanted to murder me.”
He pointed to his face. “That’s just how I look. I look pissed all the time.”
“Trust me, you do not. You’re smiling right now.”
“Well, that’s because you’re giving me a reason to. Now I have more reasons. Do you want to hear them?”
“Yes.”
“Alright,” he said. “I like that you’re selfless. You did the best thing for your mom regardless of the consequences. That’s pretty damn noble.”
My smile disappeared when I thought of my mother, who’d been gone for over a year now.
He continued. “You’re a hard worker. You worked your ass off to survive in Manhattan. Regardless of your financial situation, you’re an executive with an assistant at a big company. That’s not easy to pull off.”
I never thought about it that way.
“And the last reason is because you didn’t give it up to guys who didn’t deserve it. If you put out too soon, you would have regretted it. But you waited long enough to find out if the guys were worthy—which they weren’t. Also noble.”
“You said waiting was pointless.”
“I still believe that. But unlike everyone else in the world, you think your virginity actually means something. So you want to give it to the right person. That innocence is naïve, but also endearing. And that makes me want to take it from you…because it’s so valuable. I understand that makes me an asshole, but that’s what I’m into. I like being a woman’s first memory of sex. I like knowing she’ll never forget me.”
It did make him a bit of an asshole, but at least he was honest about it.
“Why do you like me?” he asked. “I suspect this list will be shorter than mine.”
“Well, the most obvious reason…you’re gorgeous.” I could barely look him in the eye as I said it, especially when he grinned like he got his favorite toy on Christmas morning. “You’ve got those masculine features in your face…that jawline…and then everything under your clothes is nice too. And that dick…not sure how I’m gonna take that.”
His smile dropped within the snap of a finger, and the same dark expression he’d shown in the office returned. Now he turned intense, his eyes focused on me with such concentration that he didn’t even blink. “You will take it, sweetheart.”
I felt the steam come out of my ears, and the heat grow under the collar of my jacket. He could be playful one moment and then turn into the intense man who longed to fuck me in the next. “Anyway…I liked how sincere you seemed when I told you what happened to my parents. You have a heart under all that hostility. I know it’s there even if you try to hide it. I think you’re a good kisser. And I like that you’re honest, even if it doesn’t paint you in the best light. Honesty is so rare these days that it practically doesn’t exist. But with you…I never have to wonder how you feel about something. No matter how terrible your opinion is, you’ll say it out loud.” I grabbed my sandwich again. “That’s about it…”