I knew I should nip this, whatever it was, in the bud before it even started, but I couldn’t bring myself to actually do it.
“Natalie,” I answered softly.
“Natalie,” he repeated, his eyes lazily sliding down my body and back up again before he continued. “I’m Jax.”
Jax. I should have guessed he had a hot guy name. Although, I doubted he’d be any less attractive if his name had been Harold.
The waitress, who’d only been by my table to take my order, then drop off my latte and sandwich, made a beeline towards us as soon as she noticed Jax sitting across from me. The flip of her hair over her shoulder and sway of her hips were clearly for his benefit.
“What can I get you?” she asked breathily, bending forward to give him a clear view of her cleavage.
“Black, dark roast coffee for me,” he told her without looking up. “You want a refill, Natalie?”
Her crestfallen expression made me laugh, considering she’d had the nerve to try to flirt with a guy who very well could have been my boyfriend for all she knew. “No thanks. Just the check please. I need to head back to the office.”
“Then I guess I’ll take mine to go since my reason for staying will be gone.”
The waitress sighed in disappointment and moved away. I waited until she was far enough away not to hear our conversation before asking the obvious question. “How could I be the reason you’d stay when you don’t even know me?”
“My plan was to grab a quick cup of coffee to go, but it flew out the window the second I spotted you sitting here.”
I would have found myself flattered except his answer came way too easily for him. “Why do I get the feeling you’re entirely too smooth for my own good?”
“It comes in handy in my line of work, but I promise I’ll be good to you.”
As a lawyer, I was adept at using words to my advantage, but I had a feeling I was in over my head with this guy. Between his good looks, deep voice, and charisma, I was finding it hard to concentrate on what I wanted to say. “What is your line of work, exactly? Sales? Advertising?”
“Have dinner with me tomorrow, and I’ll tell you.” His mouth said dinner, but his tone and eyes told me he wanted more than just a meal.
“I can’t.” Or, at least, I shouldn’t since I still had boxes to unpack and prep work to do if I was going to be ready for an early morning deposition the next day.
The waitress chose that moment to set his to-go cup of coffee on the table in front of him, along with his check. I couldn’t help but notice her name and phone number in red ink at the bottom. It was another reason not to go out to dinner with him since I had a feeling this kind of thing wasn’t unusual for him.
I flipped mine over and there was only the amount due circled in red. Before I’d had the chance to read the numbers, my check was yanked out of my hand, slapped on top of his, and handed back to the waitress along with a twenty-dollar bill.
“Keep the change,” he told her, making it clear to both of us that he had no interest in pocketing the ticket with her phone number on it. The move was well played, and I found myself relaxing a little—right up until the moment his dark eyes latched on to mine again and refused to let me go. “I’m not going to take no for an answer.”
His confidence was starting to grow on me, but that didn’t mean I was going to make it easy for him. “What if I’m married?”
His hand slid across the table, snagging mine, and he rubbed his thumb across my fingers. “No ring. It was the first thing I checked.”
“Boyfriend?”
He flipped my hand over and laced his fingers through mine. “I have a feeling you’re not the type of woman who would have looked at me the way you did if you were committed to someone else.”
The heat from his hand seared into my palm like a bolt of electricity. “And if I was?”
“For the first time in my life, I’m not sure that would be enough to keep me away from a woman. Not when it’s you.”
Holy shit, there went my panties, right along with my desire to say no to dinner with Jax.
“Dinner. Just dinner.” The reminder was for myself as much as it was him.
“Six o’clock?”
I thought of the stack of papers on my desk, along with the work I’d brought to lunch with me. Tomorrow’s work load wouldn’t be any better. “Can you do seven instead?”
He smiled, and I almost laughed at the triumphant gleam in his dark eyes. “Tell me where and when, and I’ll be there to pick you up.”
“I’ll meet you at the restaurant,” I corrected, pulling my hand from his and gathering up my paperwork to shove it into my briefcase.