Crazy About Love: An All About Love Novel by Cassie Mae Read Free Book Online Page B

blowing over. I really hate eating outside.
    Rian doesn’t seem cold or uncomfortable. She could be
bored
. I thought we were killing it for a minute there. I mean, I wasn’t feeling fireworks exactly, but at least there were smiles, a back-and-forth,
conversation
.
    This is what I like about Theresa. Because when there isn’t conversation, she’d still be talking, even if it was to herself. I don’t like silence. And this silence is going to murder me slowly, painfully, leaving me dead with an awkward look on my face.
    “Why’d you bid on me?” I blurt out, punctuating the aching silence. Her eyes blink down to mine and she stops playing with her straw.
    “You’re cute.”
    “Lie,” I say with a small laugh, running a thumb over the label on my beer bottle. I may be cute—unfortunately I’ve been told “cute” over “sexy” more times than not—but no one would spend four grand on cute.
    “Truth.” She pauses, but at least keeps her eyes on me. “But maybe not the
entire
truth.”
    “What’s the entire truth?”
    “Have you ever stripped before?” she asks.
    I chuckle. “Aren’t you supposed to answer my question first?”
    “Because I could tell that you deal with stage fright.”
    My eyebrows rise. “Is it that obvious?”
    She shakes her head. “Only to people paying attention. You were all over the place, which was great, but once the bid got really high, you focused on one woman.” She looks down at the table. “A woman, I might add, who wasn’t putting a single dime on you.”
    Theresa’s wide eyes, obvious flush, and amused shock flash through my mind. The enraptured look she gave me would’ve snagged the attention of any bachelor up there.
    “Could you blame me?” I tell Rian honestly, shaking my head at the table.
    “Not at all.” The corner of her mouth tilts upward. “Of course you danced for her. You
enjoyed
the attention.”
    “And that’s an attractive quality?”
    “Yes,” she says without missing a beat. “I think you enjoyed the attention so much because you don’t get a lot of it. And that’s a damn shame.”
    I actually look down at my body to see if I am literally transparent—if I have all my issues laid out for everyone to see.
    “You are one hell of a good guesser.”
    She grins as the waiter plops our food in front of us. She’s ordered a gooey-looking something for me to try. When the waiter leaves we swap plates, even though my mouth’s watering just from the smell of the steak.
    “What is this?” I ask, poking at it with my fork.
    “Seafood risotto.” She looks at it longingly. “I get at least one bite.”
    “If you reciprocate.” I push my fork at her steak, and her arm hits mine as she reaches for the gooey rice. We each take our one bite, and I let the meat sit in my mouth for a bit, hoping I can make
every
bite of my food taste like this one.
    “Okay, it’s not bad,” she says after her first taste of the steak.
    “Bullshit,” I say. “It’s the best thing at this place.”
    She rolls her eyes but takes another bite. Something that feels a lot like victory bubbles up in my chest.
    But the risotto isn’t that bad either.
    —
    We eat for a few seconds—or minutes; who the hell knows—in silence. The coughing bush behind her rustles. A clink of her fork sends my eyes up to meet hers, and I realize she is staring right at me. Maybe through me.
    “Why are you a bachelor?” she asks.
    “Huh?”
    “You’re in your late twenties, right? No serious girlfriend or prospects?”
    “Unfortunately.”
    “Truth.” She sets her fork down and locks her fingers under her chin. “So…why not?”
    “Haven’t met the right girl, I guess.”
    “Bullshit.” She shakes her head. “Really, you should stop with the lies, because you’re no good at them.”
    I didn’t even know I was lying. But I am. It’s not that I haven’t met the right girl; it’s because I’m still hung up on one.
    “You sure you want the truth?” I ask.