If only there weren’t something…something…in his gaze that set off a herd of butterflies in my stomach so strong that I can barely eat a thing. Most of my dinner is pushed around my plate, untouched except for the gentle prodding of my fork, and I don’t bother with the pudding.
I won’t eat it.
Aaron asks for the bill, and Dayton squeezes my hand under the table. “I forgot to ask you earlier. Can you come to the cake tasting with me tomorrow? Someone double-booked himself.” Dayton’s eyes slide to Aaron.
“I didn’t double-book anything, sweetheart. I thought the tasting was at one o’clock, not four thirty.”
She makes a disapproving sound. Do I want to go to a cake tasting? No.
“Liv?”
“Can’t Tyler go?” I grind his name out.
“Photoshoot,” he replies with a twist of his lips.
“My shift starts at five thirty tomorrow,” I protest. “I can’t be late.”
“You won’t be. I promise.” She reassures me. “You’ll be back to White Stag in plenty of time.”
“White Stag?” Tyler interrupts. “You work behind a bar?”
I cut my eyes to him. “Yes. Believe it or not, sometimes taking your clothes off isn’t a great way to earn a living.”
“Word,” Dayton mutters.
Tyler blinks at me. “You don’t seem like a bar kind of girl.”
“And you don’t seem like an expensive-restaurant kind of guy, but you’re sitting in one.” I pull out my purse to pay my share of the bill, but Tyler beats me to it. “What are you doing?”
“I’m buying your dinner. What do you think I’m doing?”
I count out a few of his bills from the small dish and put them in front of him. “That would imply that this is a date.”
His lips tug up on one side. “It can be.”
“No, it can’t be.” I put my own money down. “Because no guy spends that much on dinner for a woman unless he’s expecting to get laid after, and I already made my position on that very, very clear.”
He raises his eyebrows and leans back in his chair. “So buy yourself dinner. That doesn’t mean there’s no chance of you getting laid tonight.”
I zip my purse up calmly and stand, pulling it over my shoulder. “Some women can take care of themselves. That’s why some clever bastard invented the vibrator.”
Dayton muffles her laugh with her hand, and I look at her, keeping a straight face.
“Thanks for the invitation to join you for dinner, but I have to get back. Angus will be going crazy.” I kiss her cheek. “Call me with the damn cake details, okay?”
“Of course. Thanks for accepting my dinner invitation.” She winks, and my lips twitch.
Sometimes, it’s hard to remember we’re not still in high school. That’s the great thing about a lifelong friendship – you never have to grow up around one another.
I say goodbye to Aaron, ignore Tyler, and make my way through the restaurant. I dig into my purse for my keys, berating myself for pointlessly zipping it up. Idiot. The host bids me goodbye, and I step onto the sidewalk, turning for the direction of the parking lot. Still digging for my keys. Fuck me, I need to buy a smaller purse.
I find my car in the parking lot and head toward it. My fingers brush the cold metal as I reach my car, but I’m grabbed and turned before I can get a grip on them.
“What the f**k!” I shriek, finding myself pinned against my car by another pair of hips and two strong hands.
“Shush,” Tyler whispers. “You’ll wake the dead.”
I glare at him. “There are no graveyards near here. And what part of ‘don’t touch me’ are you failing to understand?”
“The part in which you mean it, babe.” He grins lopsidedly. Don’t look at the dimple. Don’t look at the dimple. Don’t look at the… Oh, the dimple.
“Shall I try again? Don’t. Touch. Me,” I say, punctuating each word, making sure they’re perfectly clear.
He presses his hips against mine harder and my body betrays my words as my clit throbs. Slowly, he pushes one of his legs between mine, and I bite down on my bottom lip.
“Oh, that part. Still not believing you.” He releases one of my wrists and dives his hand into my hair. “It came to my attention during dinner that you’re rather mouthy.”
“I’m an independent woman. Being a sarcastic, mouthy bitch is an occupational hazard.”
His laugh is low, and the way it shakes his body makes his thigh rub against my core. I bite my lip again. Holy crap.
“Ah, yes. The independent woman.” Tyler drops his face and brushes a kiss against my jaw. “Vibrator and all.”
My cheeks flush. Why, oh why, did I have to mention the vibrator?
He kisses his way down my jaw, his fingers flexing at both my wrist and the back of my head.
“Tyler, get the f**k off of me.” Before I spontaneously combust because it’s getting damn hot out here.
“Mouthy,” he whispers.
He presses his lips to mine before I can do anything about it, and the action takes me totally by surprise. I gasp, opening my mouth, and he takes his opportunity. His tongue dives into my mouth and flicks against mine.
Against my better judgment, I kiss him back. It’s impossible not to when I’m pinned beneath him and he’s dominating my mouth so entirely. His thigh pressed against me is pushing the seam of my jeans against my clit, and like he knows, he shifts his leg.
He draws his tongue out of my mouth and kisses me normally with an odd mixture of force and softness. His lips are soft but his kiss is hard, and it makes for a heady combination that affects way more than just my f**king head.
“So it is possible to shut you up,” he murmurs, kissing the corner of my lips.
I drop my free hand from his shirt. “It’s possible, yes, but you won’t like what happens if you try it again.”
Tyler pulls back and cups my jaw. “Next time I try and shut you up, it won’t be with my mouth. It’ll be with my cock.”
He releases me as suddenly as he grabbed me. A smug grin spreads across his handsome face as he walks backward and pulls some keys from his pocket. My heart pounds threateningly in my chest, and everywhere he touched me, I’m tingling.
Tingling with excitement, loss, wanting, I don’t know.
“Still don’t want me to touch you?” he calls just before he climbs into his Mercedes.