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“Oh, you just happened to see it?”
“Let’s just say that she left her computer unlocked, and while she went to the kitchen, I checked her computer for bugs.”
I narrowed my eyes at him. “You knew I was coming,” I accused.
“I had a feeling you might attend. I wasn’t sure, but I decided to check. I saw your name there, and I took the chance you might actually show up. So, I purchased a table for eight.”
“Where are your other six guests if I’m one?”
“In my imagination, I guess.”
“These aren’t real people?” I asked, waving my hand at the place cards around the table.
“No.”
“Why?”
“I wanted to have a place where you and I could talk and be alone.”
“Don’t you think that would be so obvious, and people will start talking?”
He shrugged. “I don’t really care. No one pays attention to what happens at these things. Everyone’s too busy getting drunk and sneaking around with such and such’s husband or wife.”
He said that so nonchalantly, and I wondered how much experience he had with affairs like this one. I used to attend this ball all the time with Elijah, but I was so wrapped up in my husband that I didn’t pay anything else much attention.
“Okay, I’ll bite.”
“Please don’t,” he replied with a smirk.
I realized my snafu instantly, and I blushed. “Why did you want my attention?”
“Why else would a man want a woman’s attention, Giselle?”
“There are many reasons, Casimir. He wants to tell her that he likes her perfume and wants to buy a bottle for his wife. He wants her opinion on a piece of lingerie he’s buying for his girlfriend. He wants to ask her the best recipe for pound cake. Or maybe he just wants to have sex with her.”
Casimir narrowed his gaze, and the heat that emanated from it caused my body to erupt with desire. I crossed my legs and uncrossed them repeatedly before I calmed down.
“I’m not a man who’s into playing games, so let me make it plain for you. I want your attention because I want you, Giselle. All of you. I want to inhale your scent and have it coat every part of my being. I want to see you in the most beautiful piece of lingerie ever made by a man. I want to feed you from my fingers until you’re sucking them clean, and my dick aches from the feel of your tongue on my fingers. And after all that’s done, then I want you in my bed, crying out underneath me, calling my name, and begging me for more. Does that fit your theory of perfume, lingerie, recipes, and sex?”
I literally held my breath. I couldn’t believe that Casimir had said those things to me. Sure, he kissed me at the nightclub. Yes, I knew he was attracted to me, as was I to him. But the words he had just spoken to me left me wanting to rush to the bathroom to check to see if my panties had disintegrated. Every inch of my body was on fire with need for this man.
A waiter passed by at that moment, and Casimir reached out and grabbed a drink from his tray. He handed it to me, and our fingers touched as I took the drink from his hand.
“Did I make it plain enough for you?”
I gulped the wine just as he stated, “Slow down.”
I set the wine aside, rested my elbow on the table, and propped my head against the tips of my fingers. I ran my finger around the rim of my glass and replied, “Yes. You most certainly made your intentions known.”
“Good,” he replied.
Casimir reached across the table and grabbed my fingers. They were still wet with wine, and I briefly wondered if he were about to suck the droplets of wine from my finger pads. Sensing what I must have been thinking, Casimir chuckled and then further explained. “But that’s not all that I want from you.”
I lifted my gaze to him, and my eyebrows dipped in confusion.
“I want to see you blush and get embarrassed at my words a thousand more times like you did just then. I want to see you walk through the door at the end of the workday after you’ve helped someone put their life in order, and you’re wearing that triumphant boss bitch smile. I want to see you on your knees in prayer. I want to see your hair tied up in a scarf, and you’re makeup free while you’re singing and dancing as you clean the house. I want to see you asleep at night with your face resting on my chest and your hands resting underneath your face. I want to see you let down every guard and every defense in my presence because you trust me to be everything that you need and then some.”
“Wow. You’ve thought about this a lot, huh?” I asked as I laughed nervously.