It’d started with a few accidental touches as their legs brushed under the tiny table while they ate their salads. They both apologized, but when it happened again over soup, then again during the main course, she began to think maybe it wasn’t accidental at all. Not that she minded. Every time his pants-covered leg pressed up against her bare one, a warm tingle spiraled through her and settled in her tummy. That was when she realized she was the one initiating the contact, not Gage. In fact, he hadn’t moved at all.
She blushed, attempting to restrain herself from playing footsie as she pushed a piece of lightly breaded chicken around the creamy wine sauce it was smothered in while Gage told her why he’d become a cop after pulling a six-year hitch in the army. She didn’t quite succeed, mostly because she couldn’t bring herself to totally break contact with the solid form of his muscular thigh. But it was the best she could do given the limited space under the small table.
That was a lie, though. She didn’t stop because touching him felt too damn good. Hell, she couldn’t even remember the last time she’d been on a date. She hadn’t realized how much she missed it.
She pressed her leg more firmly against his inner thigh and rubbed her knee against his as he steered the conversation back around to her again. If it bothered him, she had no doubt he’d let her know.
But Gage didn’t even seem to notice. Or maybe he had noticed and simply didn’t want her to stop.
“It sounds like you spend a lot of time at the office,” Gage observed as he sipped his wine. “That’s gotta be hell on your social life.”
Her first instinct was to deny it and tell him she was getting busy every night. Not because she wanted to play hard to get, but because she didn’t want to seem like the pathetic workaholic she was. She caught herself, though. It wasn’t as if he was accusing her of being a loser, just busy.
She finished her chicken and set her knife and fork on her plate. “Pretty much. I spent most of my adult life getting to the top of my profession, and every minute since then working to stay there. It doesn’t leave much time for anything else.”
Gage smiled, and she could have sworn she felt his knee rub against hers. “Well, it’s not like I can say I’m much better. I’ve already admitted I spend a couple nights out of every week in the office doing paperwork, so you know my social life sucks.”
She let out a little snort of laughter. “We do make quite the pair, don’t we?”
He gave her one of those smoldering looks of his. “Yes, we do.”
His leg most definitely rubbed against hers, she was sure of it.
By the time dessert came out, she was starting to think Emile had turned up the heat in the restaurant. At least that would explain why she suddenly felt hot all over. Of course, the recent temperature spike might also have to do with the fact that she’d dropped her high heel off her right foot and begun casually running her toes up and down Gage’s lower leg.
Gage leaned back comfortably in his side of the booth, watching her with smoky eyes the whole time she did it. In between, he asked her little tidbits about her life. Like whether she’d ever thought about making the jump to New York or Washington, why journalists made more money than reporters, and whether she liked to cook or order takeout.
Carrying on a completely normal first-date conversation with an extremely attractive man while caressing his leg with her foot was probably the most erotic thing she’d ever done in a nonerotic setting. That the man just so happened to be the focus of her investigation also made it one of the crazier things she’d ever done. She was putting her story and her reputation at risk, and she couldn’t for the life of her say why. She couldn’t help it. There was something about Gage that brought out her inner seductress. The combination of physical perfection, charming personality, and vibrant masculinity did it for her. It was all she could do not to sit in his lap and kiss the hell out of him. Damn, if she could figure out how to bottle whatever it was about him that was so alluring, she’d quit her job and start a new line of men’s body spray—one that actually worked, unlike those silly commercials she saw all the time.
It took every ounce of self-control she possessed to keep her foot to those parts of his leg below the knee. The way he was leaning back it was almost as if he was inviting her to run her toes up a little higher. But she knew that if she let herself start to wander, she wasn’t likely to stop until she got to his crotch. And that would be totally going too far. The thought alone was enough to make her whole body tremble.
Mac pulled her gaze away from Gage to see what kind of dessert Emile had selected for them—chocolate soufflé, of course. She dipped her spoon into the center and tasted it. She sighed, unable to help herself.