Right?
The longer I stared at him with that smirk on his face, the more I saw the layer underneath. He was…nervous. Grant McDermott was nervous to be on a date with me.
“You’re doing great,” I reassured him. I couldn’t believe it, but so far, this was better than the dates I’d gone on with guys from Princeton.
“Grant!” an older man said as he walked up to our table. “So good to see you home again and with such a beautiful date.”
“It’s good to be back, Randy. This is my friend Aribel.”
“It is a true pleasure, Aribel.” The man took my hand in his, large and strong from use. He had kind eyes and a welcoming smile.
“Randy’s the owner,” Grant filled in for me.
“Oh, well, I love your restaurant.”
“Bah! You haven’t even tasted the food!” He glanced at Grant and laughed. “I like her.”
Grant seemed completely comfortable when his eyes shifted from Randy’s back to mine. “I like her, too.”
My cheeks heated, and I looked away from him. I couldn’t figure out how Grant made my stomach flip the way it did. I’d always been so logical, practical…and he threw those qualities out the window with only a smile.
“We’ll have the special and some water. Unless you want something else?” he asked me hesitantly.
“That sounds fine.”
Randy picked up the unopened menus from the table. “Don’t be a stranger, Grant,” he said before leaving.
“You’ve been incredibly accommodating tonight,” Grant said. “I keep waiting for a snarky comment.”
I shrugged. “Well, you haven’t made any ass**le sexual comments yet.”
“I could if you like.”
“Oh, yes, my dream in life is to be sexually objectified every chance I get.”
He cracked a smile. “There she is.”
“Does it ever get tiring?”
“What?” he asked, leaning in closer to me.
“The sexual objectification, the constant stream of girls. Don’t you ever just want more?”
“Babe, I’m usually getting more.”
“Ugh! Not what I meant,” I said, turning my face out to the ocean. “You’ve never been on a date before. From everything I’ve heard about you…you sleep with women and then never talk to them again.” I could feel the heat of his gaze on my face, and I forced myself to look at him. “Haven’t you ever thought there was more to a relationship than that?”
Grant stiffened at my question. There I had gone again. I couldn’t keep my mouth shut. I couldn’t keep myself from asking exactly what was on my mind. I was messing this thing up, whatever it was with Grant, before our first date had even come to a conclusion.
“To be perfectly honest, Ari, until you, I’d never given two shits about anyone that wasn’t family.”
Chapter 17: Grant
Ari and I left Duffie’s after we finished dinner, and she started walking back toward my truck. I hadn’t driven all the way down the shore just to get pizza. We were on my first date, so I was going to go all out.
I grabbed her hand and looped it with mine. “This way,” I said, taking a side entrance to the boardwalk.
Her dark blue eyes were wide and alert as she took in the scene before her. The sun was low on the horizon and reflecting against the water for miles.
“You ever been down the shore before?”
“Yes. My roommates took me last summer. Shelby and Gabi are from Atlantic City, so they showed us around—um…me and Cheyenne, that is.”
“Where are you from?”
“Boston.”
“Never been there.”
“Oh, you’d love it. My dad is a CEO at a bank downtown, so I—”
I straightened visibly at that word. CEO. Fuck me. Who the f**k am I to take out a girl whose father runs an entire bank?
“What?” she asked, noticing my discomfort.
“Nothing,” I covered quickly.
She knew I was lying.
“Well, you’d love Boston,” she finally said.
Silence lingered between us. I felt something crawl into my chest and spread out, like it was trying to fester through my whole body. I didn’t know what the f**k was wrong with me. I liked this girl. That has to be it. I was completely out of my element. I’d f**ked spoiled princesses whose parents had too much money. I hadn’t discriminated against who landed in my bed. But this…this felt f**king different.
“You have something on your mind,” she whispered finally.
“Yeah.” I drew her into me and kissed her hard on the mouth. Maybe I could drown out my own thoughts.
Her arms wrapped around my neck, and she wound her fingers through my hair. She shivered in my arms, and I wasn’t sure if it was from our kiss or the crisp air as winter rolled in on the boardwalk, but I just kissed her harder, more desperately. I didn’t care who her father was or how much money they had or how much better than me she probably was. She was kissing me back. Whether I deserved it or not, Ari wanted this, too.
As always, Ari pulled away first. Her dark blue eyes met mine, and she giggled against my lips. Since I’d known her, she had always worn such a stern expression with a particularly prominent scowl, so her giggle made me smile.
“Something funny, Princess?” I asked, pulling back to look at her.
She shook her head. “No. I’m just surprised I’m having a good time with you.”
“Ouch,” I said, bringing a hand to my wounded heart.
“Oh, no…I didn’t mean it…” She trailed off and bit her lip. “Sorry. I have a problem with spewing the first thing that comes to mind.”
“It’s not a problem,” I told her quickly.
Actually, I liked it. She knew I was an ass**le, and she had still gone on a date with me. I hadn’t given her any other option, but still…
“Well, I’m not one to sugarcoat,” Ari said.
“Me either. That’s why when I told you that I wanted you in my bed, I meant it.”
“Oh, I know you meant that.” Her cheeks turned a soft shade of pink. “But what I didn’t know was if all of this was just an excuse to get me there.”
Huh. As much as I wanted to f**k this girl, that hadn’t been in my game plan, not the way that she was thinking at least.
“And?” I finally asked. “What do you think?”
She took a few steps away from me and leaned her elbows against the railing of the boardwalk, facing out to the ocean. My body responded to the beautiful sight of her body pressed into the wooden railing and her tight little ass sticking out. She glanced over her shoulder and saw me checking her out.