Page 172 of The Moment You Know

Unfortunately, she wouldn’t know until she did it which meant Paige was just going to have to do it.

With a deep breath, she knocked on the door, which opened right away, scaring the crap out of her. “Jesus Christ—”

“I was beginning to think you were going to stand there all night,” David said and when she blinked at him, he grinned. “I’ve been watching you through the peephole for the past five minutes. It’s been very entertaining.”

Paige felt her face bloom with heat as he stepped back and motioned her to come inside. After taking her purse and hanging it on one of several hooks by the door, he helped her out of her fitted, dark brown blazer and hung that up as well. Because she’d come straight from work, she was still dressed professionally in low heeled boots, dark, skinny dress jeans, and a long-sleeved, white button-down shirt with black polka dots, worn untucked under a brown, tweed vest.

“Who knew a tweed vest could be so sexy,” David murmured, taking a moment to admire how the tight vest outlined her curves very nicely, before taking her hand and leading her into the kitchen where the smell of something delicious filled the air.

The table was already set with plates and silverware, and he had her sit down while he grabbed a pair of pot holders and removed a steaming casserole dish from the oven. As he was leaning over and otherwise occupied, Paige took the opportunity to check out his butt. Oddly enough, just looking at it seemed to do more to relieve her anxiety than her breathing exercises, and she decided for future episodes of anxiety, she might cue up a mental picture of his butt crushing it in those cargo pants, instead.

“Paige?”

She quickly looked up, immensely grateful to see that he was busy with the contents in the casserole dish and wasn’t aware of what she’d been doing. “What?”

“I asked how your day was,” he repeated, as he picked up the large dish and brought it over to the table.

“Oh.” Shit, she hadn’t even heard him. “Um … it was crap.”

He sat down in the chair next to her. “How can that be? You agreed to use me for sex, so your day should’ve been stellar, from that alone.”

Smiling at his assessment, Paige countered with, “How was your day?”

He took her plate and started spooning what she could now see was baked fettuccine Alfredo, with chicken and broccoli mixed in. “It was stellar. I found out I’m going to be used for sex and it doesn’t get much better than that.” Then, as if something had just occurred to him, he tilted his head. “Although I did have to wait seven days for that bit of good news.”

She made a face as she took her loaded plate, which felt like it weighed five pounds; he must have thought she hadn’t eaten in a few days.

“There’s that look again,” he mused.

“My I’m aggravated as fuck look? Yeah, and it’s all for you.”

He grinned and began filling up his own plate. When he was done, they both picked up their forks and started eating.

“So, how does this work?” she wanted to know.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, do I start using you for sex right away?” she clarified, even though she figured he knew what she was talking about. And as soon as the words were out of her mouth, Paige’s eyes widened as she considered the possibility that he might’ve been planning on having sex tonight and if that was the case, she probably shouldn’t eat five pounds of food beforehand. Not to mention, she probably should’ve gone home and showered first … and maybe shaved her legs.

“Well, I’ve never done this before,” David replied blandly, “so I don’t really have a plan—”

“Hold up,” she interrupted, not caring that her mouth was half-full. “Are you saying you got us into this situation and you don’t have a plan for going forward?”

“You didn’t let me finish,” he chastised her. “I don’t really have a plan, other than to let things happen organically.”

“What does that mean?”

“We go out. Like we did on our divorce anniversary.”

“Oh. Really?”

He nodded and then pointed his fork at her. “You know, it just occurred to me that a side benefit to this arrangement might be the improvement of your bowling game.”

She shook her head. “That’s so not funny.”

David laughed, the low rumble making her shiver a little. “Actually, what seems like a more plausible side benefit would be more victory dinners for me, and I’m totally on board with that.”

Paige speared a piece of broccoli, imagining it was him. “Jerk.”

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