Page 7 of Kiss Kiss Bang
“Yep. Told you I would.”
“Thank you so much!” She took a step forward as if she was going to hug him or kiss him but then stopped herself, so he opened the door to his office instead.
She stopped and grabbed his forearm. “You didn’t ask about a husband.”
“I figured that if you had a husband, he’d have been the one at the electronics store fixing your computer. I know if I had a wife half as beautiful as you, I wouldn’t let her out of my sight. Especially not this late at night when men are just waiting to take advantage.” He smiled.
She chuckled. “Men like you, huh? Out on the prowl at the local electronics store.”
“Exactly.”
She pulled on a loose thread on her shirt. “I’m a widow. My husband passed away five years ago.”
“Damn. I’m sorry to hear that, darlin’.”
“It’s okay. It is what it is, you know? Car accident. Sophie was a little less than a month old.”
He wasn’t sure what to say and he didn’t want to bring up something that would upset her. She cleared her throat. “Anyway, how can I repay you?”
“Have dinner with me tomorrow night.”
She bit her bottom lip.
“Come on. Just dinner. Anywhere.”
She took a step away. “I can’t.”
“You can’t or you won’t?”
“Both.”
He crossed his arms over his chest and tipped an eyebrow up, but he had a teasing smile on his face. “It’s because of the vegetable thing, isn’t it?”
This time she didn’t smile or chuckle. She full-on laughed.
“I have a daughter.”
“I know. Her name is Sophie, she’s five. Hates veggies. We’ve covered that, darlin’.”
“I’m busy. I’m in the spotlight. I can’t . . .” She was just making excuses now, obviously.
“You can’t what? You can’t have a personal life? You can’t eat dinner?”
He moved forward and she moved back. He made her nervous, it was obvious. And that fueled his desire further. Why was such a confident woman nervous around him? He was nothing special, not intimidating, not scary-looking. She wasn’t the kind of woman who frazzled easily. But he did that to her and it was obvious why.
They were so close now, their chests were practically touching. The only barrier was the laptop he was holding. “Say yes, darlin’.”
* * *
This man, he was trouble. It was written all over him. He was too handsome, too funny, too confident, and way too hard to resist. Olivia felt a shiver down her spine when he whispered with a commanding raspy voice that oozed sex and wanton desire. “The only answer I want from you is a yes. Stop thinking so much.”
Olivia wasn’t oblivious, he’d been flirting since rescuing her from the linoleum floor of the store, but a little friendly flirting never hurt anyone. It wasn’t as if she would do more than flirt back, but she felt out of her depth being around him. It had been a while since she’d needed to flex her flirty muscle and she wasn’t sure whether she was even doing it right.
The problem was that in the hour or so since they’d met he’d triggered some weird trait she didn’t know she had and wasn’t sure she wanted. She was normally the ball-busting politician but he made her feel like letting him take the lead, like dropping her guard and just giving in to him. Thinking? It was overrated, right? And for some inexplicable reason, her traitorous knees wobbled and her heart sped up. When was the last time she’d felt like this with a man?
Never.
Absolutely never.
