“That’s one way to put it.” I flushed, realizing that we were starting to cross a line here. Paul wasn’t my pal. He was a client. And he wasn’t a full client yet. He hadn’t signed a contract or anything. “I apologize. I don’t mean to imply that Reggie needs anything. He’s got a solid reputation because he works so hard.”
“Don’t worry, Taylor.” Paul took my hand in a loose clasp on the table, his expression light, flirtatious. “I know what you meant.”
His touch didn’t move me in the least. He had large, warm hands, but somehow they were too soft. They didn’t feel quite right holding mine. I could still remember Ryder’s big, roughly calloused hands touching me, which was wrong. Totally wrong. Ryder was a great big user and manipulator. I would convince myself of this. Soon.
“So what did you mean about Frank and Reggie? I don’t know Frank at all. This was my first time meeting him.”
“I’ve known him for about ten years now. He’s changed teams a few times, if you know what I mean. I wouldn’t share that with Reggie, though.”
“You mean he’s had girlfriends?”
“Yeah. His last partner, at least, was female. Interesting woman. Frank brought her to dinner at my father’s house a few times. Not sure what happened to her. She seems to have gone underground. Linda something. She owned an investment firm. Somehow inherited after her husband died. Something like that.”
Paul took a sip of water from his glass on the table. “Maybe her company became a casualty of the financial meltdown, because it did go bankrupt, as I remember. Anyway, just before that happened, Frank stopped seeing her.” He shook his head with a cynical smirk. “She broke his heart. Started seeing another guy with more money. Something like that. Anyway, I’m glad to see him happy. He’s a good guy.”
The waiter returned and Paul dropped my hand to fix his coffee. Resisting the urge to wipe my palm on my dress—his hand had felt a little clammy to me—I put some cream and sugar in mine and took a sip, meeting his gaze over the rim of my cup.
“So Reggie isn’t Frank’s first guy?”
“I don’t think so. I was younger at the time and less savvy, but he may have brought a guy over he was into. But—” he gave me his charming smile, his eyes creasing at the corners as he looked over my face softly, “—I don’t feel like talking about Frank right now.”
“I know it’s none of my business. I just find people so interesting.” I gave Paul a small shrug, as if to show I couldn’t help being curious, hoping it didn’t seem strange that I was asking so many questions.
“I want to talk about you going out with me for dinner or drinks.” He was trying to hold my gaze, but I looked down at my cookie and broke a piece off as I thought about the best way to refuse.
“Paul...”
“Don’t say no.” His voice came out gently. Again, I immediately recognized that his voice wasn’t as deep or gravelly as Ryder’s and wanted to kick myself, or Ryder.
“We’re going to have a working relationship, not a romantic one.”
“That’s not a good reason. I’ll go with another company and ask you out again.”
“I am not part of the deal,” I said firmly. “You need to decide what you’re going to do, and regardless, I’m not going out with you.”