“And we work in the same building, so how about I come by sometimes, and say hi, and you don’t call security, or hell, our boss, to get me to stay away?”
That got me a rueful smile and another nod.
“And you let me walk you up to your hotel room. We can cuddle for a few hours, no funny business.” I smiled. She’d say no, but it would be sassy and cute, so I tried anyway.
She rolled her eyes, a corner of her pretty mouth kicking up. “Not happening.”
“Well, I had to try.”
Our cheeseburgers arrived, and we ate. The burger must have been good, because she ate the whole thing, wasting lots of her allotted calories on it.
I finished mine too, but I couldn’t have said if it tasted good. I was too distracted, too focused on her, to notice I was even eating until the food was gone. I’d inhaled the thing, the fries too.
She shook her head at me, still working on hers. “Must be nice to get to eat however much of whatever you want and still have a perfect body.”
I grinned at her, the word body making me think of nothing but what mine could do to hers. “I do spend two to three hours in the gym every day. Weights and calories go hand in hand.” I flexed my arms a bit, loving the way it drew her eyes and made them glaze over. Only with Danika could workout talk become foreplay.
I ordered a milkshake after she finished her burger. She declined dessert, though she eyed mine up hungrily when it arrived.
It was banana, not the real banana flavor, but the fake banana flavor.
I knew that was her favorite kind of shake. I’d only ordered it to stall and draw the night out longer but when I saw the chance to torment her, I took it happily.
I took a long drink, moaning appreciatively, like it was the best shake I’d ever had, though I barely tasted it.
“Want a drink?”
She shook her head stubbornly.
“One drink won’t affect your diet.”
I slid it her way, and she tried it. Apparently, it did taste good, because she just kept drinking, and as she always said, she didn’t waste calories on sub-par food.
She finished the whole thing, then blamed me for letting her have it. “Now I have to hit the gym extra hard tomorrow.”
“I could always give you another workout tonight.” Even if we were in friend mode for the moment, what could it hurt to flirt?
Of course, if she’d taken me up on it, nothing on earth could have kept me from following through.
Unfortunately she didn’t. Instead, she glared.
I ordered cherry pie a la mode, just to keep dragging the night out, then proceeded to go on and on about how much I loved to eat pie.
Just to make her laugh.
And it did. And her laugh made me happy, as it always had.
Next I ordered coffee, and she had a cup as well.
I was stuffed, but I ordered an omelet next.
She’d caught on by then, folding her arms across her chest. “I’m tired. I need to get to bed, sometime tonight.”
“You want me to go to bed undernourished? Let me finish this last thing, and then I’ll take you back.”
I finished the entire omelet, and all of the sides that came with it, dragging it out to the last.
“You flying or driving back to Vegas?” I asked her, as I finally took her back to her hotel.
“I have a flight in the morning. Early.”
I nodded. I’d driven, as this trip had been a last minute impulse; I’d learned about the show the morning prior. Also, I liked to drive. If I thought I had a chance in hell, I’d have put some real effort into getting her to drive with me.
“Well, I drive in the morning. Let me know if you miss your flight, or just want to sleep in, you can come with.”
She didn’t respond. I hadn’t thought she would.
I walked her in and got a room there myself.
I tossed and turned all night, obsessed with the fact that she was under the same roof, somewhere.
CHAPTER TWELVE
DANIKA
I’d bought a house the year prior, less than two months after I’d moved back to Las Vegas.
It was an odd move, because I’d never even considered buying a place before. I’d been a pretty happy renter.
But I made good money, and I’d just started looking at houses, with a mind to planting some roots. Very quickly, I’d found a cute little place in Seven Hills. The commute wasn’t bad into work. The traffic was a dream, compared to what I’d gotten used to in Los Angeles, and my location gave me a few route options, if I hit it at the wrong times.
It was a quiet area, and for the most part, my neighbors kept to themselves.
The lady next door had what seemed like thirty cats, but that didn’t bother me. I didn’t have pets, but I loved pets, so I found myself buying cat food, and putting it on my back porch, shamelessly feeding the felines so they’d like me.
I traveled too much to have my own pets, so I just borrowed a few sometimes.
There was an orange tabby and a blue point Himalayan I was particularly fond of, and those ones even got to come into my house.
I had a promising future as a lonely cat lady.
I’d been back in town for two days and still hadn’t had any contact with Tristan. I’d gotten right back into work, and I knew Tristan’d had his show the last two nights.
Some days I enjoyed the peaceful solitude of my little house in Seven Hills. Some days there was nothing I loved more than coming home from work, putting on a pair of sweats, collecting my furry friends, and curling up with a good book, shutting out the world, getting lost in fantasyland. Nothing beat an absorbing book in terms of distraction.
I wasn’t feeling that need for solitude so much that night. I wasn’t in the mood for reading or borrowing cats.
In fact, I felt so lonely that I found myself doing something I almost never did.
Logging onto Facebook.
It was my personal account, so there wasn’t much going on. I had two friend requests, but only one of them had my heart racing. I clicked confirm on both before I could talk myself out of it.
Less than two minutes later, a little red number one appeared above my message box, and breathless, I clicked on it.
Tristan had left me a short message.
Tristan Vega: Thanks for accepting my friend request. I promise to try my hardest to refrain from sending you too many dick pics.
That surprised a laugh out of me, and then a smile that just wouldn’t go away.