Page 35 of Rebellious Hearts

“You have no idea,” I said. “I could take this cake to my room and make love to it.” I blushed the moment I said it. Elena and I said stuff like that all the time, but in front of Ben… he had a quizzical look as he studied me and took another bite of the cake.

“It’s good cake,” he said.

I chuckled. “Very eloquently said. Straight and to the point. I can see why you’re the one to spearhead the meetings.” I was teasing him, I knew, but I couldn’t help myself. Maybe it was the wine that had gotten to me despite limiting myself. Or maybe it was his terseness that just awoke something in me—I wanted to draw him out of his shell.

At the very least, I wanted him to crack a smile.

He rolled his eyes.

The servers brought strong coffee to go with the cake. The coffee was very dark, and it had a smokey scent.

“Have you ever had French roast coffee?” Ben asked.

I shook my head and reached for the sugar.

“You don’t want to do that just yet,” he said. “It has a very smokey, bittersweet taste that balances out the sweetness of the chocolate. Try it as is before you add sugar.”

“I always add sugar.”

“So, try something different.” His eyes filled with something I struggled to put my finger on. It was determination, or competition, or…something.

I lifted my cup and breathed in the scent of the coffee. I got a lot of smokiness and char, that was for sure.

When I sipped it, it had a strong, bittersweet taste. It wasn’t quite to my liking but Ben wasn’t wrong about it countering the sweetness of the chocolate cake. Not that I ever had a problem with decadence.

When I swallowed the coffee, I pulled a face.

“It has a burned aftertaste.”

“It should,” Ben said. “The dark roasting process caramelizes the sugar in the beans. You should be getting hints of dark chocolate, caramel, maybe some spice.”

I didn’t get any of that. “You really know your coffee.”

Ben nodded. “It’s an art not a lot of people appreciate. Coffee can be paired with a lot of different things in the same way people pair wine.”

It was nice to see Ben like this—talking about something that interested him. Not only was he crawling out of his shell and talking to me like I was a human being, he came alive when he talked about something he cared about. His eyes became brighter, turning almost to the color of honey, and his face lit up.

His phone pinged, and when he glanced at the screen, his face clouded over again.

“It’s Alex. Asking about the meeting.” He turned his phone over. “I’ll reply to that later. He doesn’t need to know right now that I didn’t get the deal.”

“What do you mean, ‘you didn’t get the deal’? Richie said he was going to think about it.”

“That usually means no,” Ben pointed out, and all that brightness, the spark, the passion was gone. “I’ve been in this business long enough to know that when people say theyneedtime to thinkthey’re just taking the time to think of a way to let me down easy.”

I shook my head. “I don’t think that was what he was trying to do. I mean, I had a look at your proposal and it’s financially sound for the long run. You did it all right and not investing in the project would be stupid.”

Richard Thompson had been the kind of polished rich guy who looked like he moved in the same circles as Ben, with his immaculate haircut, his graying beard and the suit that fit him like a glove. If he was the kind of person to dress like that, to live like that, then he would be the kind of person toinvestlike that, too.

Ben blinked at me, surprised. “Are you serious?”

“Yeah, why wouldn’t I be? I’m as invested in this project as you are.”

Ben only studied my face, his expression unreadable again. It was unnerving how quickly he could slip back behind that mask of his and hide everything he was thinking. It was such a well-practiced mask, he wore it with ease. That made me think that he never had a chance to just be himself.

That was sad.

“This project is as good for my name as it is for yours,” I elaborated. “We both have a lot riding on this, you know. I could get a raise, and I know that this kind of development will stick with a Blackwood name for decades, if not generations.”