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“So this is your second date?” Amelia asked, giving me a curious look.
“Third,” I said coolly.
Jessica, at the same time, said, “Second.”
Amelia’s eyebrows shot up.
“Lunch.” I gave Jessica a pointed look.
She shrugged. “Okay. If that was a date.”
What the hell did that mean? I paid for the meal and kissed her afterward. We talked about stuff that wasn’t work-related. That sounded like a date to me.
Jessica sipped her drink and made a low hum of appreciation under her breath which made my dick stir in interest. And Amelia watched the interaction with great interest.
Determined to distract my sister, I asked, “Are you and Mom still seeing a play together this weekend?”
“No.” She frowned and looked down at her drink. “Dad expects her to help host a campaign luncheon for a friend of his.”
“She hates those,” I muttered.
“Then ask him to leave her out of it,” Amelia said, giving me a direct look.
I started to respond but stopped before I actually said anything too personal, acutely aware of Jessica’s presence. And for the first time tonight, it wasn’t a good feeling.
As if she sensed a shift in the atmosphere, Jessica peered at me over the rim of her glass as she took another drink, then asked my sister, “Where’s the ladies’ room, Amelia?”
Amelia told her, and we watched as she disappeared into the crowd.
“She’s nice, Derrick,” Amelia said softly.
“Yes,” I agreed.
She turned to face me, a puzzled expression on her face. “I’m not sure why you’re dating her.”
“What’s that mean?” I took a swallow of my scotch and tried to pretend that I didn’t really care about what my sister thought.
“You don’tdate, Derrick,” Amelia pointed out the obvious. “You certainly don’t datenicewomen. The kind Mom would love to spend time with. The kind I’d like to consider a friend. You take a woman out to dinner or a play, then you fuck her, and it’s over.”
“Damn, Amelia,” I muttered. I knew I had the morals of an alley cat, but talking to my sister about sex wasn’t something I was comfortable with. “Can we not?”
“You remember what I said about how you treat women, Derrick?” She gave me a hard look. “This is part of it. Youusewomen. And Jessica? She’s…nice.”
“What if some women like just dinner and sex?” I asked, my voice harsh. Mostly because she wasn’t wrong.
“So that’s all this is?Thisis what she wanted to do before you go back to her place or yours for sex?” Amelia waited for my answer. When I didn’t give one, she sighed and tossed back the rest of her drink. “I’m going back to my friends. You should find yourfriend, so she doesn’t end up lost.”
Dammit.
When Jessica came out of the restroom, I was waiting for her. I took her hand. “Come on.”
“Where are we going?”
“To look around,” I said, leading her toward the elevators. “I can only tolerate my family for so long before I need air.”
She kept pace with me in silence until after we’d entered the elevator, but as the doors slid closed and we began our ascent, she said, “I like your sister. Your mom seems nice, too.”
“I don’t want to talk about my family,” I said. “I want to show you something.”