“It was nothing. I don’t have to tell you all my thoughts, do I?” she challenged.
“Not at all.”
Good.
“But when it’s something that I’ve said or done that’s put such a dark look on your face then I need to know. So, spill. Or the next few minutes aren’t going to be nearly as pleasurable for you as the previous few were.”
There was a stern look on his face that told her he meant business. She bit her lip and looked away. He turned her face back. “Lacey, last warning.”
“I guess I was just wondering how often you’ve done this.”
“Done what? Brought women to this restaurant?”
She nodded. “I know you must have dated before. A lot. And it’s silly of me to be jealous, but—”
“But you think I’ve brought a whole truckload of women here and teased them with vibrators and ice before bringing them out to my car and bringing them to orgasm?”
His look was incredulous, but she didn’t know why he was so amazed. He was the one with all the knowledge about cameras and where to park for privacy.
“I know you have a history. I know you’ve probably dated a lot of women.” No doubt all more beautiful and experienced than she was. “I just couldn’t help but feel . . . I don’t know . . .”
“Jealous?” he supplied. “You’ve no need to be. I’ve never brought a woman here before.”
Never?
“Not even just to go out for lunch?”
“No, never. But I’ve come here plenty of times on my own. There hasn’t been a whole harem of women I’ve worked my way through. I’m not interested in a bunch of one-night stands. I’m interested in a real relationship with a real woman.”
He stepped back, and she felt the loss of his body against hers.
She’d said the wrong thing. Again. And as he belted her in then moved around to the driver's side, doing up his own seat belt before turning on the car, she felt terrible.
She glanced over at his cold face and wondered how she was going to fix this.
“I don’t have much experience,” she blurted out.
Looking started, he turned to her then turned back to look at the road. “Experience?”
“With men. With sex. I don’t have much experience. I’ve only really had one long-term relationship, and that ended after four months. He hated my job and thought I spent too much time apart from him, that I became too obsessed with my cases and he came second. He was right; I was a workaholic, and I guess I did care about my cases more than him. That still didn’t give him the right to start sleeping around. He told me he was looking for companionship, that he was lonely, but I knew he just wanted to get his dick wet. By the time I figured out he was cheating on me, he’d gone through most of the women, married or not, in our apartment building.”
Gray reached over and grabbed hold of her hand, squeezing it briefly. It was just a small touch, but it was enough. She’d done the right thing opening up to him, even if it did open old wounds she’d rather just forget.
“I’m sorry that happened to you, but it sounds like you’re better off without him,” he told her.
“Oh, I was. Definitely. The thing is, I wasn’t even that upset when we broke up, so I knew I didn’t care about him that much. But I cared about the idea of having a boyfriend. Of having someone I could lean on, talk to. I missed the company, I guess. More than having an actual boyfriend. He was right, I didn’t pay attention to him like I should have.”
“That doesn’t excuse him cheating on you,” he told her as he pulled up outside her apartment building.
She undid her seatbelt slowly, not ready to end their date. “No. And it seems to have affected me in ways I didn’t imagine. I may not have cared about him like a girlfriend cares about her boyfriend, but I’ve found it hard to trust anyone else enough to open up, to let them into my life.”
Until him.
He opened his door then came around to hers. When he reached out his hand, she took hold, not prepared for the way he pulled her up, drawing her against him. He kissed her softly, so gently that she felt tears well in her eyes.
“I’m sorry that guy was such a jerk. I would never treat you that way.”
“Even if I got so involved in work I ignored you for weeks on end?” Their relationship ending hadn’t been all Lyle’s fault. She carried a lot of the blame.