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My eyes roll.
He continues the ridiculousness. “I’m intrigued to learn about a wolf shifter who’s… what did it say?” He flips it over and reads the back. “even wilder as a man than he is as a wolf.” His gaze bounces back to me with his eyebrows up. “Let me ask you a question. Does the knotting reference mean what I think it means?”
My face burns scarlet. “Oh my God. Yes. Yes, it does.” I bury my face behind my hands in absolute mortification.
Derek laughs. And even his laugh is sexy. “I begrudge everybody their literary choices.”
When I peek between my fingers, I see his expression has changed. The laughter is gone. Not even a smile remains. I think he’s looking at my engagement ring.
I’m sure he’s about to make an excuse to leave at the visual reminder of what I’ve already proclaimed, that I’m engaged, but instead, he lifts his spoon and dips it into his soup bowl. “So, tell me about you and what you do for a living, Chloe.” He spoons some into his mouth and his face mirrors what everyone’s does when they get their first mouthful of soup here.
“I’m an account manager for a marketing company.”
“You don’t work in one of my family’s office buildings, right?”
“Pardon?” I ask.
He shakes his head. “I know your friend works in the building my nightclub Downtown is in.”
“She works for a law firm on the eighth floor. How’d you know?”
“She’s a regular. Slipped me her number once.”
I blink in surprise.
“Never considered using it,” he adds.
I stare at him and say nothing.
“Your marketing company is where?” he prompts.
“I telecommute. They don’t have a bricks and mortar location. The team is sprinkled throughout North America, the UK, Australia.”
“Ah. My father isn’t too happy the work-from-home trend is picking up steam. He has a number of commercial real estate holdings.”
“Is the current trend making him evaluate what he uses his buildings for?”
“Yes, in fact. He’s selling his largest one in Cleveland to be repurposed for low-income housing. He’s having one of the buildings here converted to condominiums as leases run out. Something I’m not thrilled with.”
“Why is that?”
“My siblings and I have suites on the top floor. Means we’ll have neighbors.”
I laugh. “Not a fan of neighbors that aren’t your family members?”
He wrinkles his nose. “Not a fan of neighbors, period, particularly my family.”
I nod. “Small family so I can’t relate. Big family?”
“Too big,” he says, spooning up more soup.
“I always imagined living in a place where you could see but not hear your next-door neighbors. Like my parents. All the homes on their street have one acre lots, they’re old homes with character, from back before developers put people on postage-stamp sized lots with all the houses exactly the same. Still close enough to say hello to people, though. To look out for one another. For kids to grow up playing together on a street. For neighbors to look in on one another if someone’s alone or elderly, you know?”
“Hm,” he murmurs, “Tell me about your digs here in Columbus. Not like your folks’ place, I take it.”
“Oh, uh, my fiancé and I just bought a townhome together. Not really my style. Kind of too modern and small, only a little patio for a yard. Front porch not big enough to put a nice swing on. No room for all the fruit trees out back like I’d wanted, but it was for practical reasons.” I shrug.
“I see,” he says, and takes another spoonful of his soup.
