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“I think you have me mistaken, chérie. I’m not doing this to get you into bed at all.”
“No?”
“No.”
“Then why are you doing it?”
When he didn’t respond fast enough Claudia went on. “Did you not hope the evening would end with a night cap?”
“Not necessarily—”
“Do you not want to feel yourself thrusting into me like when we were in Puerto Rico? Have you not had thoughts about us and wanted to revisit the pleasure we both experienced with one another?”
Jaden was slow with his words when he spoke.
“That is not the purpose of this date.”
Claudia peered at him. Why else would he be engaging her if not to get back in her bed?
“You don’t have to lie to me, Jaden, its fine. Let’s just skip the ‘date’. Claudia said it like it was fictional. “And go straight to a hotel. I won’t feel slighted, I promise.”
Claudia rose to her feet and Jaden reached forward, his hand covering hers. “Please,” he said, “sit.”
They considered each other for a long drawn out moment before Claudia sat slowly in her seat.
“Is there a problem?” she asked.
Disconcerted, Jaden spoke. “Is that how you want things to be between us, Claudia?”
Claudia wouldn’t dare tell him her dreams of them together in a budding relationship; of them making love and having babies; of them as husband and wife. Silly thoughts like that permeated her mind daily, but they were only for her.
“What else is there?”
The waitress bounced back to their table, interrupting their awkward conversation.
“Are you ready to order?”
“Yes,” Claudia said. “I’ll have whatever he’s having.” She looked to him expectantly. But Jaden was still trying to figure her out.
“We’ll have your shrimp and parmesan steak entrée.”
“Anything to drink?”
“Water for me,” Claudia injected.
“Water for us both,” Jaden confirmed.
“Right away,” the waitress said.
“I apologize if I’ve come off as if all I want from you is sex. You need to know, what we had in Puerto Rico wasn’t just sex. The connection we share is eternal. It goes beyond something so fleeting as mindless sex. I want to know you, Claudia, in every way imaginable.”
Claudia was stomped. Although she heard his words, they rattled around her brain loosely, and she was having a hard time trying to understand his meaning. If the sudden squeeze of her brows was any indicator of this, he didn’t say. Instead, he let her mull it over.
Jaden was not a man to play tedious games. He’d been raised by a firm but loving father, and although he was young when his mother passed, whenever his father would reference his mother, Jaden could sense the love they shared. Never would he contemplate mistreating women. It would be an embarrassment to the Rose name and his integrity.
“I see,” Claudia said finally.
“Do you?”