Page 32 of Rogue's Path

“Really? That’s wild. Does it work?”

He nods.

“I’ll be right back. The two aspirins I took aren’t touching it.” The process is quicker than I expected. In just a few short minutes, I’m back at the table hooked to the pole, waiting for our food to arrive. “So, you’re a planner.”

“You could say that. Where did you get the bruise?”

Why even try to pretend last night didn’t happen? “In a bar fight.”

“And did the other guy walk away?”

I’m not sure. The biker looked ready to tear him from limb to limb before I lost the ability to see what was happening. “Probably not. It was a little chaotic in there.”

“But you had fun?”

Last night is going to provide me with an endless amount of material for my writing. But that wasn’t everything. “Yeah, I did. Time to pay up. What do you do?”

“Nothing illicit, like you seem to think.”

“If you tell me you’re an accountant or a banker, I’ll know you’re lying.”

“Not a banker. And I do way too much paperwork as it is, there’s no way I would spend my life at a desk staring at numbers.”

The waitress sets down two plates. One filled with crepes covered in lemon curd and the prettiest whipped cream I’ve seen in a while. The other is piled high with fluffy pancakes. I’m asimple girl when it comes to breakfast. You can’t beat pancakes and syrup. None of that fancy maple syrup either. Give me all the high fructose and chemically goodness. “So, you’re not a banker or an accountant. You said you aren’t a mercenary or a dictator, both of which look like they would be easy for you. You hate paperwork, but you do a lot of it. You dress like a CEO. Clearly, money isn’t an issue for you. So you aren’t just one of those guys that dress well to hook up with a woman but can’t make their bills.”

Taylor leans forward. “I love how your mind works.”

“Oh. Sorry. I tend to talk too much.”

“No, keep going. I want to see if you can figure it out.”

Can I? I love a good mystery. “You keep your body in peak physical condition, but you’re eating dessert for brunch, so you’re not one of those health gurus or bodybuilders. Owning a construction company would be a possibility…but that doesn’t feel right. Why? Hmm… You’re smiling at me and completely focused on me, but your eyes never stop moving. It’s got to be a habit. What jobs require complete situational awareness? The flawless short haircut would confirm that. Also, your posture…Does the military strap a sword to your spine for years to make it that straight?”

Taylor chuckles.

“Hmm… You’re not currently military, but I bet you were in it at one time. A common profession for elite ex-military is security. There’s no way you’re a rent-a-cop security guard in a mall or something like that. That leaves security for a big corporation or… a spy.” I tip my head as all the details sift through my brain. “Friends. You have friends. Spies don’t hang around in packs.” That only leaves one choice. “You run the security company. No, you own a security company, but you still work in the field. Am I close?” If I write a book about him, that’s definitely going to be his profession.

He leans back in his chair and stares at me thoughtfully. “Did you look me up?”

Huh? “Sure, between singing karaoke, dancing on a couple of bar tops, getting into a bar fight, and waking up hungover, I found time to cyberstalk a man who only told me his first name. Could I figure out who you really are given enough time? Definitely. But in the last 20 hours? No.”

“Do you want a job?”

“I thought this was a date.”

“It is. And since we started dating before I hired you, there shouldn’t be any problems.”

WOAH. “You thought about all of that while I went on my tangent?”

“I thought about a lot of things while you were talking.”

Oh!

OH!

This isn’t going the way I planned. Planned? Now you’re lying to yourself. The only plan you had was to make sure he told you what he did and not get murdered. “I already have a job.”

Taylor leans forward—Don’t think of him as Mr. Tall, Dark and Sexy, even if he’s scrumptious like that—steepling his hands together. “My company pays very well.”