He appeared genuinely interested. He leaned a little closer to her. “So how would you suggest people get to know each other?”
“I don’t know. I just think it would be easier without the pressure of going on artificial dates.”
“So you’ve never had a good time on a date with a guy?”
Since the question was genuine, she took the time to think back so she could tell him the truth. “Eh. I had a few okay times in college, but in college it was all just general hanging out. Not date dates. So it felt more natural.”
“How do you have sex if you don’t date?”
“I just tell the guy I want to have sex. I’ve never had anyone object and insist on taking me out on a date first.”
He laughed again. “I would imagine not.”
“And you’re the only one who wanted to play a game of chess before sex.”
“Glad to know I’m special.” His mouth was twitching irresistibly.
She wanted to giggle but managed not to. “So anyway, that’s why I’m bad at pretending to be on a date with you. It’s not you. It’s me. I’m bad at dating.”
“It sounds like it’s because you think you need to be a date-you rather than the real-you on a date.”
“Or maybe it’s because the real-me doesn’t like to date.”
He surprised her by nodding. Accepting the possibility. “That could be it too.” Then he ruined his acquiescence by adding, “But we were basically on a date Saturday night, and you seemed to enjoy that pretty well.”
“We were not on a date! That was casual sex. There’s a difference.”
“Okay.”
“You say okay, but your expression is clearly saying you’re right and I’m wrong.”
“Okay.”
She gave him her coldest glare. “You’re doing it again. If you want to argue with me, argue with me. Don’t think you’ve won an argument that you never even made.”
“I don’t want to argue with you. You’re the one who keeps doing that. I’m sitting here, drinking my coffee and being a nice guy.”
“You use your niceness to be obnoxious.”
The warm smile in his eyes had almost, almost reached his mouth. “How do I do that?”
“I don’t know, but you’re really good at it. So don’t act like I’m the bad guy and you’re all innocent here.”
“Hey, you’re the one on the attack. I’m just doing my best to play a little defense so I don’t get trampled.”
“I doubt you’ve ever been trampled in your life.”
“So I don’t want to start now.”
Their shared gaze was a challenge. Like a duel. Taylor’s heart was racing like crazy, and there was a deep pulsing all over her body.
The most surprising thing was she didn’t just want him to take her hard and dirty right then and there.
She wanted him to kiss her.
She wanted it so much she could feel herself leaning toward him, stretching her neck to bring her face closer.
His eyes were smoldering in that way he had. He was thinking about kissing her too. She knew it.
But the problem was she was imagining softness from him. Gentleness. Slow and tender and skillful the way he’d kissed her last weekend. Kisses that left her weak and boneless and helplessly turned on.
She wanted it. So much.
So much it was terrifying.
She bit her bottom lip hard and pulled back, grabbing for what remained of her lukewarm coffee simply for something else to do with her hands and mouth.
Charles didn’t pursue the kiss that had been brewing between them. He adjusted his position so he wasn’t so close and watched her silently.
“So anyway...” She had no idea what else to say. If only Charles would help her out, think of something that would move them away from this moment so she didn’t have to be so scared of what she was feeling.
“Should we make a plan?” he asked in his natural voice.
“A plan?”
“For our dating plot. Do you think we need a plan?”
She was distracted enough by the unexpected question that her fears faded almost immediately. “Why would we need a plan?”
“To lay out what’s going to happen. How long do you want to do this? How far do we need to take this? Would you feel better about having a plan?”
She did kind of want a plan. It might not feel quite so much like she was free-falling. “That’s not a bad idea if you want to do it. How long do you think we need to date to give you a break from your family’s nagging?”
“I’ve been thinking about that. It needs to be long enough that they’ll believe I gave it a real try. A couple of months? Is that too long for you?”
“No, it’s fine. It doesn’t really matter to me. So two months maybe?”
He nodded. “Two months. We’ve already made it a week, so that’s just seven more weeks. But just to warn you, if we’re dating that long, my folks are going to want to meet you.”
“I know your whole family. They don’t have to meet me.”
“I mean meet you. Like having a big family dinner with you as my girlfriend.”
She rolled her eyes, but the truth was it didn’t sound as bad as she would have expected. She was honestly curious about how Charles interacted with his family. How he would act if he was in a relationship. If he was in love.
She kind of wanted to see it.
“I guess that would be okay, as long as it’s not a weekly occurrence. There’s only so many big family dinners I can handle.”
“We can keep it to one or two over the two months. What does your family think of all this?”
“They’re intrigued but not optimistic. I think they assume it will fall apart eventually, so they’re not getting too excited about it.”
“That’s just as well, I guess.” His expression had changed. His gaze looked almost soft. “How does that make you feel?”
“How does what make me feel?”
“Your family not believing you’re in a real relationship even though you tell them you are.”
She squirmed slightly, taken aback by the question. “I don’t know. I don’t blame them. I’ve given them no reason to believe I’ll ever be in a serious relationship. And they’ve never pushed me in that direction. If I’m happy on my own, then they’re happy for me. And I guess if they ever see me being happy with someone else, they’ll be happy about that too.”
“That’s good then. Takes the pressure off.”
“Yeah. I don’t have the same kind of family pressure you do. Of course if you just tell your family to shove off and mind their own business, you wouldn’t have it either.”
He gave her a disapproving head shake.
“What’s that for?”
“I’m not going to tell my family to shove off.”
“I didn’t mean in a nasty way. Just a firm way to get them off your back. I still don’t know why you don’t give it a try.”
There was a long pause before he admitted softly, “I have given it a try.”
“You have?”
“Yes. A few years ago. I tried to put my foot down.”