Page 44 of No Strings Attached
“So. Why burgers? Why not pull out all the billionaire stops and take me somewhere that serves entrees with gold leaf?”
“Because you don’t strike me as the gold-leaf type. You’d see right through it. Plus, I like this place. I used to come here often growing up.”
“You brought dates here before?”
A slow smile tugs at my mouth. “No. You’re the first.”
“Not even as a teenager?”
“Nope.”
Her eyes narrow a little, trying to decide whether I’m serious.
I am. I’ve never wanted to bring anyone to my favourite places… until her.
There’s a beat of silence between us—comfortable, surprisingly so—until our order is called. I get up, grab our tray, and set it down between us.
“Okay.” I unwrap her burger and hand it over like it’s sacred. “Moment of truth.”
Amira lifts it, inspecting it as a jeweler would with a rare diamond. “Smells amazing.”
“Tastes even better.”
She takes a bite and actually moans. “Holy shit. Okay, you win.”
I laugh. “You’re easy to please.”
She shoots me a look. “Only when it comes to food.”
My eyes drift to her mouth, to the way she licks a spot of sauce from her thumb. I shift in my seat, trying not to make it obvious how fast my brain just flipped out of casual mode.
Focus, Hen.
I clear my throat, reach for my drink, and take a long sip, trying to cool the fire she’s fanning without even knowing it. I need to switch topics quickly before I end up sitting here harder than the goddamn picnic bench.
Tonight is not about sex, even though my body is more than happy to go five rounds if she gives me the green light.
Tonight is about getting toknowAmira.
The part of her I haven’t tasted. The one behind the guarded smiles and the sharp comebacks. The woman whose laugh catches me off guard, whose silence somehow says more than most people’s words.
Even if her body calls to me like a sailor to the rocks.
Yeah. I’ve got it bad.
Fuck.
I swore I wouldn’t let this happen again. After everything that went down with Celia, I promised myself I was done with relationships.
Amira is pulling me in, slowly unraveling every reason I had to keep my distance. She isn’t just changing my mind—she’s shifting everything I thought I knew about what I wanted.
And that scares the hell out of me.
I take another bite of my burger, chew, then set it down, my appetite fading. My focus is all over the place.
I shake out my thoughts and glance at Amira again. “So, why events?”
“You mean… Why did I choose this career?”
