“Yale?” he asked, looking at my class ring with amusement and then laying my hand back on the table. So, I picked up his hand and held it up for my own examination. It had seemed casually sexy when he had done it. I, on the other hand, was squinting, which made it look like I was giving him an appraisal. After two beers and two shots of tequila, I was lucky I could still see straight.
“You went to Harvard?”
“Go Crimson,” he said, giving me a cocky grin. I put his hand down, afraid that if I didn’t, I would yank him across the table and kiss him stupid for daring to be that sexy.
“The Bulldogs are ahead by ten games now you know.” Way to be charming, Gabrielle. Maybe you should arm wrestle him too.
“That's just because Harvard's busy attracting world class scholars.”
“You mean the ones who couldn’t get into Yale?”
“I’ve heard that anyone could get into Yale.”
“What?” I smacked him on the arm. Oh shit! I had just drunkenly hit a freaking prosecutor. I slouched down in my seat a little hoping to look less drunk and disorderly… and violent. He seemed to be highly amused though.
“Did everyone see that? She just assaulted an assistant district attorney,” he said with a grin.
“She’s a naughty girl. I think she needs to be punished,” Mark said.
“Make sure you cuff her first,” Adam said with a smirk. “I hear she’s dangerous.”
“I’m not afraid of a little danger and I like naughty girls,” Braden said with a suggestive smile. He was openly flirting with me at close range. My heart felt like it was trying to escape my body through my throat and it occurred to me that it might be too late for a cardiologist. I forced myself to act cool and calm though. I held his eye contact and gave him a saucy smile. To that extent the tequila was actually quite helpful.
“You want to cuff me, you’ll have to catch me first.” I was getting pretty cocky over there myself, which was pretty impressive considering I was on the verge of having a nervous breakdown.
“Uh oh. I think we just hit foreplay,” Adam said and I wondered what exactly would happen if I actually lost consciousness. Would someone try to revive me or would people just step over me on the way to the bar?
“We seem to have a rivalry, folks. I think we should see how Harvard matches up with Yale in beer trivia,” Mark said, pulling out his phone.
“What is this, a frat party?” Jess asked.
“If it were a frat party we would play strip beer trivia,” Adam explained. I could tell that Adam missed his fraternity days.
“Here you go, plenty of trivia online,” Mark said. “And hey, there's sex trivia too. Hmm. The Harvard-Yale Beer Sex Trivia Challenge. I like the sound of that.”
“How about a little wager that Harvard can take Yale?” Braden smiled. The look he was giving me was getting hotter by the minute. You know how flames have that blue part? Well, that’s what his eyes looked like. I felt like I was about to spontaneously combust.
“You want me to wager Yale's honor on Beer Trivia?”
“Beer Sex Trivia,” Adam corrected.
“I’ll respect Yale’s honor,” Braden replied, taking a swig of his beer. “Loser takes the winner out to dinner. That’s what you wanted, right?” Out of the corner of my eye I saw Adam and Mark exchange knowing looks. Jesus in a sidecar! He was going for it!
“Maybe,” I said hesitantly. This was only his opening offer — he was agreeing to one date.
“Oh yeah, Harvard's definitely going to take Yale.” Adam smirked, watching us like he was watching two samurais circling each other. Or possibly like he was watching p**n .
“Harvard's going down,” Jess shot back, and I could hear barely suppressed excitement in her voice. She just couldn’t wait to see what was going to happen next.
“Sounds like Yale will too, judging by our opening conversation,” Adam retorted suggestively.
“Okay, forget the games,” Braden said, sitting back and looking at me like he was ready to rumble. “You and I have been facing each other in court for six months and we’ve negotiated plenty of agreements. So, let’s negotiate.” The gloves were coming off. Bring it baby.
“Why don’t you make me an offer, counselor?” I was hoping it would be an offer that involved getting naked at some point. I wanted to take off more than gloves. My chances of that were probably pretty good with Mr. Private Misbehavior over there.
I sat up straight with my shoulders back and my chin up. I may have had one f**kinormous crush on this guy, but I could be one tough broad when I needed to be. Hothouse flowers didn’t allow themselves to be locked into ten by ten concrete rooms with guys who had “Blood Killa” tattooed on their knuckles.
“If I understand your position correctly you want more than a one nighter with a meal plan.”
I shot Mark a deadly look. Big mouth.
“It was funny!” he said defensively.
“I’m stealing that line, by the way,” Adam informed me.
“That’s correct.”
“I’ll take you out to dinner tomorrow and you can choose where we go and what we do. Everything we do. I won’t even try to touch you unless you ask me to. Nicely.”
“Keep talking.”
“We could also go out next Friday and you could choose again then if you wanted, although, there should be an implicit understanding that if we were hitting it off there might be some private misbehavior on the agenda. I’m not saying that I expect to hook up with you. I’m just saying that you should expect me to try. ”
“Is that it?” I was playing hardball. I probably would have accepted it but I had a feeling he would offer more.
“You could also come over and join us for game night on Sunday at my place.” I raised an eyebrow. Game night? “And I have a fundraiser for my family’s charitable foundation that I have to attend next Saturday night. There would be dinner and dancing involved if you would want to come with me to that. So, that’s four dates in two weekends and I’m not even anticipating any really good misbehavior until the third one. I think that’s more than fair.”
“Hold on,” Jess broke in. “Game night counts as a date? As in she can come over and watch the Phillies, eat pizza and drink beer with you and your buddies here?”
“What, that’s not romantic enough for you?” Braden joked. “I’m sorry, but that’s what I had scheduled already and I don’t plan to blow off my friends or my obligations. I also don’t plan to drag this out for a month. If we want to keep doing this, we should figure it out quickly. Besides, she gets to choose what we do on two nights.”