Read Countdown To A Kiss (A New Year's Eve Anthology) Page 42
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Leo’s hand tightened on the door handle. How had the evening turned into such a cluster fuck? He wanted to start this relationship the right way, build it into something solid, and she was talking about a micro-relationship. “What about sex?” he gritted out, since it was all he could think about anyway.
“Excuse me?”
Give a girl a princess dress and she starts talking like a Brit. The imperious tilt to her chin disarmed him, even though he wanted to shake some sense into her. “When do we get to have sex?”
Her eyes widened. “Do you have multiple personality disorder? Aren’t you the same man who just two minutes ago refused to have sex with me?”
“I’ve changed my mind.” If he only had two hours, he needed to lead with his strong suit.
“Sorry, I’m not in the mood anymore. Rejection does that to me. Sex is excluded from this micro-relationship.”
“Says who?”
“Says me. Since I invented the concept, I get to make the rules. You have sex with every single woman you date, don’t you?”
“Not every single woman.” He hadn’t had sex with Mandy.
“Almost every woman then.” She paused. When he didn’t say anything, she continued, “This is two hours, Leo. If we have sex, we won’t be able to go back to just being friends. Besides, I don’t like the idea of being one of the masses. I’m aiming to be the outlier, different from your other women.”
He released the door handle and flexed his hand. “You don’t need two hours to establish that.”
She bit her bottom lip. He wanted to bite it, too. “The positives of the micro-relationship outweigh the one negative of not having sex.”
“You can’t say that when you have no idea what you’re giving up.”
“I think I’ll survive not knowing.” Her tone was dry.
He wasn’t sure he would.
“When Michael walks into the ball, the micro-relationship poofs into oblivion. I’m back to being Devine and you’re Ramos. Our friendship and work relationship stay intact. We play poker together on Friday nights and try to put each other on the mat at the Pit.” She took a deep breath and stuck out her hand. “Is that a deal?”
“What do you get out of this?” He gripped her slender hand because he wanted to touch her.
She met his gaze. “You said you like me too much. That you can’t stop thinking about me.” Her cheeks were pink, but she didn’t look away. “I’ve been thinking about you, too. This is our chance to have a fling in a harmless way. To get this––this…attraction out of our system and still be able to work together.” She shook his hand vigorously.
She was giving him what she thought he wanted. On her terms, in a way she could deal with. Only problem was, he didn’t want short term any more. Devine, with her sunshine gaze and blunt honesty had slowly finished the job Dr. Hawkins and his own psyche had begun. “I won’t pretend the next two hours never happened and I can’t guarantee I won’t call you Grace ever again.”
She frowned and looked at their bobbing hands. “I don’t think you’re allowed to change the rules of an agreement once we’re shaking on it.”
He lifted an eyebrow. “Of course you are.”
“Then from now on you’ll bring me a large mocha cappuccino every morning that we’re both scheduled into the office.”
He grinned, suddenly happy in a way he didn’t remember feeling for a long time. “And you’ll…”
She snatched her hand from his with a laugh. “I don’t trust that look. I think we’ll call the deal done.”
Leo nodded, surprised by the intense satisfaction he felt. “For the next two hours, Grace, you’re mine.”
He had two hours to convince her to give them a chance at a lifetime.