“You haven’t eaten your breakfast yet.”
When he saw that she was going to try to argue and convince him to take her again, he very reluctantly lifted her off his lap.
“I can see there’s only way to make sure you eat.” Instead of putting her on her seat, he yanked his pants back up, then turned her around so that she was sitting naked on his lap. He slid her plate over, forking up a bite of pancake. “Open up, princess.”
She shot him a surprised look over her shoulder, but when he slid his arms tighter around her waist, and growled, “Eat,” she let him feed her the pancake.
After a few more bites, she said, “I’ve never eaten breakfast naked before.” She shot him a naughty little grin. “I like it.”
He realized he hadn’t called her Nice in days, hadn’t even thought of her nickname. It still fit her in some ways, but in others...
“Me too.”
She all but purred in his lap and he knew if he didn’t do something soon to take their minds off of sex, he’d have her up on the kitchen counter in under thirty, her legs wrapped around his hips again as he drove into her.
Sure, her doctor had said that sex was fine. But there was no way the woman could have had any idea just how much sex he was talking about.
“Tell me when you decided to become a librarian.” She seemed startled by his personal question, her muscles stiffening on his lap as he rubbed his hand down her arm. “I remember you always had your nose in a book.”
“I’ve always loved books,” she said softly. “I love being around them. I love getting lost in a story, a world. I love that I can become anyone, that I can live any fantasy.”
The word fantasy should have filled the room with sexual tension again, but Jake had just realized what an idiot he was, just like she’d said the day before. He should have asked her anything else—about her family, or hobbies, or favorite food. Not books.
When she was in his arms he temporarily forgot the differences between them. That she’d gone to Stanford and he’d barely eked out a high school diploma from sweet-talking his female teachers into not flunking him.
Of course he wanted to know more about her. He couldn’t spend this much time with her and not want that. But hearing about her love of books only served to remind him of the unbridgeable gap between them.
“I can’t believe I’ve never asked you what your favorite book is.” She grinned at him. “I’ve asked pretty much everyone I’ve ever met.”
Jake moved her off his lap. “You probably need to get ready for work soon, don’t you?”
She frowned at his abrupt personality change. “In about an hour.”
Acting like he didn’t realize he was being a dick, he purposely turned his back on her and headed over to the pile of work he’d been sweating over before she woke up. “Let me know when you need me to drive you in.”
The loud scrape of the bar stool’s legs across the wood floor came a beat before Sophie said, “Is that really all this is to you? It’s okay to have great sex all the time, but whenever I try to talk to you about anything at all, even something as ridiculously easy as your favorite book, you get to walk away without answering? How can you even think of marrying me if we’re going to be strangers everywhere but in bed?” Hurt vibrated from her every word.
All he wanted was to make her happy…but he didn’t have the first clue how to do that.
“I refuse to have a life like that. What’s the point of going through the motions for a few more days when it isn’t going to change anything?”
She fled to the bedroom. Before she could slam the door on him, he shoved his shoulder inside and grabbed her hand. She’d been the one who just said she couldn’t stand the way he shut her out, but couldn’t she see that if she ran from him, if she closed off her heart to him, he’d be the one who'd end up utterly destroyed?
“Call the library. Tell them you’re taking the day off.”
She looked at him like he was certifiably insane. “What are you talking about? Why on earth would I do that?”
She tried to push out of his arms and he didn’t want to let her go, but he knew it would be worse if he didn’t. Damn it, he didn’t mean to keep bossing her around. He was supposed to be using these seven days to woo her, not give her even more reasons to stay the hell away from him. But desperation to keep her near clawed at him, made it hard for him to clear his mind so that he could do the right thing for once.
“I want to spend the day with you.”
Emotion flashed in her eyes and he prayed it was the renewal of hope, of the way she’d once felt about him. But all she said again was, “Why?”
“To give me the chance to prove to you that we’ve got more in common than sex.”
“Jake, I don’t think—”
He gritted his teeth and made himself say, “Agree to come and I won’t touch you again today.” Even though it was going to kill him not to. His chest clenched as he watched her consider his desperate request, and he knew he hadn’t yet said the one thing he needed to say. “Please.”
Chapter Seventeen
How had Jake known one of her favorite things to do was ride the cable cars?
Sophie couldn’t help but smile as wind rushed through her hair. A child walking hand in hand with her mother down the sidewalk waved, and Sophie waved back.
The fact that he wanted to spend the entire day with her was surprising enough. But she hadn’t expected him to head to Ghirardelli Square to buy two tickets for the most touristy thing in all of San Francisco...or to hold her hand the entire time.