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A few minutes later, Wade pulled up in front of a restaurant I’d only seen in magazines in waiting rooms. It was a tiny, posh place, up on a hill overlooking the business district. Dimly lit inside by candlelight, I walked into what felt like a very expensive cave.
Hunter greeted me at the door. He was in a dark blue suit, and looked incredible. I felt dizzy with the intensity of everything happening. I had to be dreaming. This couldn’t be real.
“Come,” Hunter said. “Our table is waiting.”
“This place…” I began, at a loss for words.
“I know,” he said. “The lighting could be better. But the steak is to die for.”
I laughed, and he grinned again, flashing that smile that made me weak in my knees. As he held out the chair for me, I sat down rather heavier than I intended, if only because I didn’t think I could keep my weight up any longer.
“Before we order anything,” he said, “I want to know, did they take care of you like I asked?”
“You can’t tell?” I asked, shocked.
He shook his head. “I see the most beautiful woman on the planet. What she’s wearing doesn’t matter. I just want her to feel as beautiful as I see her.”
My lips stretched into a smile again. I could barely contain myself anymore. He was so charming. So giving. And in that suit, so, so stupidly hot.
“Yes,” I said. “They took very good care of me.”
“Great,” he said. “Now it’s my turn.”
“Your turn?”
“To take care of you.” He grinned. “Let’s start with a drink.”
ChapterTwenty-Three
Julia
Wooed.
That was a word, right?
If it wasn’t, I was making it up. But it had to be a word already. Whether Webster agreed or not, it was a word. I had certainly heard it before.
Whatever, the point was, I waswooed.
It was a silly thing to think, and certainly not something I ever saw myself thinking about any experience in my life, but here I was. Wearing a dress worth thousands of dollars, a couple more thousand dollars’ worth of jewelry, and a pair of heels that cost more than my entire wardrobe would have if I hadn’t bought them on clearance or on sales. Here I was, wearing all that, sitting across from the most handsome man on the planet, eating steak that was so good it made me completely rethink steak as a meal. How did I never have a steak even remotely close to this good? How was that possible?
How was any of this possible?
Maybe it was the drinks getting to my head. I only had one glass of the champagne in the car, but the cocktails that seemed to be replenishing themselves on the table were doing a damn fine job of keeping me at a level of buzzed I normally missed the window of with customers at the bar. I always tipped them just too far into drunkenness. But the waitstaff here must be in cahoots with the bar, and someone must be taking a breathalyzer when I wasn’t noticing it. Because no matter how many drinks I had in me by now, I was still only feeling tipsy.
Tipsy andincrediblysexed up.
Part of it was the alcohol, I had to admit that. I wasn’t immune to feeling frisky after a few drinks, like anyone. But most of it was Hunter. The way he was so carefree with his laughter tonight. How open and honest he seemed. How clearly in control of his surroundings he was. How the waitstaff fawned on us, bent over backwards to make sure we were seen to and taken care of. Even among all these other hobnobs, we were the hobnobiest.
A few dirty looks were being shot my way from across the restaurant. I could feel them burning into the back of my skull, and when I glanced around at them, they didn’t hide their disdain. I could sense some of them had been hunting Hunter for a while. Or maybe even had been out with him once and not gotten him to laugh like he was now. They were jealous. And I loved it.
For once in my life, I was the girl everyone was jealous of. Me. Little ol’ Jules. Apple of her father’s eye, and too skinny and athletic for the boys in high school. But now, I was on a date with a man who was not only the most intensely interesting human being I had ever met, he was also the most successful. And insanely rich.
I chided myself for that last thought. I didn’t care about his money. If he was the exact same person, but heavily in debt and trying to start up a company, I felt like I’d feel the same way about him. The fact that he could quite literally wine and dine me at the fanciest restaurant I’d ever been allowed to step foot in was purely extra.
I decided I wasn’t going to take any of those looks seriously or let them bother me. They could stare all they wanted. They could envy me. Tonight was a perfect night, and even if he told me it was all over tomorrow, I was going to enjoy this for what it was.
And that meant more than dinner.
