Stepping back, she smoothed her hands over the dark material of his lapel. She hadn’t thought to see him tonight, but now that he was here, standing before her, she had to fight to keep a silly, happy grin off her face.
“Want to hear my master plan?” Tarian asked.
“Enlighten me.”
He held up a brown paper bag. “Even people as dedicated as you need a lunch break. I thought I’d tempt you with some food and excellent company.”
“And I’ve pushed back your next appointment,” Mary threw in.
Melissa arched a brow at the designer sandwich bag sitting on her secretary’s desk. “Did you bribe Mary?”
“Shamelessly,” he agreed. “She was a wealth of information, not only about your schedule, but also on your favorite take out places.” He leaned close enough to whisper in her ear as he added, “She’s also promised not to turn around or let anyone near your office.”
“Has she?” Melissa purred. “I knew she was an invaluable hire.”
“Come on,” Tarian said as he caught her hand. He led her over to the small couch she couldn’t remember ever using. Lounging back on the beige upholstery, Tarian offered a delicious contrast in his tailored black suit. She was a sucker for an impeccable dresser, and Tarian was definitely a man who knew how to wear his clothes.
“What did you bring?” she asked as she sank down beside him.
“A sandwich for me and some blood for you.” He unpacked the bag onto the coffee table before them.
Melissa reached for the travel cup of blood and saw her favorite restaurant’s name blazed across the plastic.
“I must confess,” Tarian said as he unwrapped his sandwich, “I didn’t know there was a difference when it came to blood.”
“Every person has their own unique taste but you’re right, when it comes to bagged blood it’s all pretty much the same.”
“So why did Mary have me tracking down this particular brand?”
“In the past decade or so chefs have been experimenting with making feeding a little less monotonous for vampires.”
“It’d be a huge market,” he agreed.
She took a sip of the gently warmed blood and closed her eyes in pure delight. “They mix spices and flavors into the blood to give it a bit of oomph, and this just happens to be my favorite.”
Melissa opened her eyes to see her date staring at her with a lopsided smile. “I have to say,” he murmured, “that sight might just have been worth racing around the city.”
Heat warmed her cheeks as she looked down. “Well, I appreciate the effort.”
He shrugged as he ate. “This is a welcome break for me, too.”
“Plus you are scoring major brownie points.”
“A wise man plans ahead,” he teased.
“Are you planning to screw this up any time soon?”
His smile slipped a notch even as he shook his head. “Screwing things up with you is not an option I want to contemplate.”
She kicked off her Manolo Blahniks and tugged her legs up under her. The skirt of her royal blue business dress rode up, but she didn’t bother correcting the slip. Instead she enjoyed the way Tarian’s eyes locked on the flash of skin.
“You seem to be off to an excellent start,” she said, leaning closer.
“Sweetheart, you make a man want to put in some extra effort.”
She took a sip of her blood and refrained from commenting on all the men in her past that would dispute Tarian’s words.
“Be that as it may, no one has ever crashed my office before.”
“The idea of staring at my phone for hours on end when I could be staring at you was far too tempting an opportunity to pass up.”
“Fishing for a text, were we?”
He inclined his head. “I don’t even like this new cell phone trend and there I was, walking around with the damned thing in my pocket at all times.”
Melissa didn’t need to glance at her desk to know her own phone sat next to her keyboard, positioned so she would see it the second a text came in.
“The art of romance is no match for the generation of iPhones and cat videos,” she said.
His fingers twined through hers. “Exactly. What happened to the good old days of penned love letters and clandestine meetings?”
“When a simple touch could have your heart racing,” she purred, drawing the tips of her fingers along his palm.
“And a kiss could change everything.” He leaned forward and Melissa allowed him to push her backward into the couch.
“Are you sure you bribed Mary well enough to give us our privacy?” she asked, angling her head back toward the glass doors of her office.