“I think I’m going to need something stronger than coffee,” he muttered but drove us to a small cafe nearby anyway.
When we took our seats at the cocktail-type table on the sidewalk, he ordered an extra-large coffee for himself, while I got a tea. “Okay, let’s get this over with.”
I rolled my eyes at him again, just like I had the previous day when he’d said the same thing. “Are you really going to be like this all the time?”
Chest rising as he took in a deep breath through his nostrils, he held it for a second before shaking his head. “No, but not because I’ve suddenly changed my mind. You’re helping me, so I probably shouldn’t be a dick about it.”
“Imagine that, you not being a d-word about something,” I teased, even though he’d never really been that way to me. I had seen him in action with that driver, so I knew he definitely had it in him, but all our interactions had been pleasant enough.
Cyrus wrinkled his nose, his eyes narrowed, and his brow rose in confused disbelief. “A d-word?”
It wasn’t the first time I’d gotten a reaction like that when people realized I honestly never cursed. “I don’t like cursing, so I don’t do it.”
“A dick is a body part, not just a curse word,” he said, his expression remaining unchanged. “And also, you don’t curse?”
He said it in a way that made me think he couldn’t quite bring himself to believe it.
I caught his gaze and held it firmly. “No, I don’t. A few words have slipped through once or twice, but as a rule, I don’t use any cuss words.”
He grunted. “How the fuck does that work? And why?”
“I’m off-beat and quirky,” I said as if that explained everything. When Cyrus didn’t look away and gave his eyebrows another quick lift, I sighed. “I just don’t like it. I don’t feel like I need to curse to express myself, so I don’t.”
“Never?” he asked like he really couldn’t believe it.
I shook my head. “Like I said, I’ve had some slips here and there, but it’s been a long time.”
“Not even when you’re so pissed off that you can’t see straight?” A wicked gleam flashed in his eyes as his lips curved into a smirk. “Or when you need someone to fuck you harder so badly that you feel like you might die if they don’t?”
A flush crept onto my cheeks, but contrary to what most people assumed when they either found out or realized I didn’t curse, I wasn’t a complete innocent. “No, not even then. I don’t get that angry very often, and when I have, I’ve found there are other ways to express what I’m feeling. As for the other thing, harder is a word all by itself. It doesn’t need to be accompanied by the other one to get the point across.”
His eyes widened momentarily while I spoke, making it obvious he hadn’t been expecting me to address that last part. His smirk grew when I did. “If no one’s been able to make you say fuck in the heat of the moment, they haven’t been doing it right.”
“Heat of the moment as in an argument or sex?”
“Both.” He leaned back in his chair, but his gaze stayed glued to mine. “When done right, both have the capacity to make you lose your damn mind.”
I swore I saw a hint of heat breaking through the amusement dancing in his green eyes, but when I blinked, it was gone.
Even if I had imagined it, it took my mind to a place it definitely shouldn’t have been at just past ten in the morning. In public. Surrounded by throngs of people in the cafe or dashing past us on the sidewalk.
I cleared my throat and shoved the dirty thoughts from my mind. The cool yet confident way he talked about sex made it clear he thought he was good at it, and wondering about whether he was right was only going to reduce me to a puddle of lust right there on the oil-stained concrete beneath my feet.
“Okay, so now you know something about me.” I licked my lips and tried to distract myself from the dull ache building between my legs, even as I fought to keep the lid on that box of dirty thoughts. “Tell me something about you.”
“What do you want to know?” He spread his arms to his sides, seemingly not at all as affected by just talking about sex as I was. Then again, it probably hasn’t been anywhere near over a year for him.
“Why are you so against weddings?” I asked, giving voice to the first question that popped into my head. It was something I’d been curious about since he’d first let on that he shared April’s view of the institution of marriage.
His entire demeanor changed in the space of a heartbeat. Something shuttered in his eyes and he tensed, stilling almost completely before he blew out a breath and offered me a watered-down version of his smirk from before.
“Wow. I wasn’t expecting you to go right for the balls, but okay.” He paused when the waiter came back to our table to deliver the drinks. Then he reached for the sugar and stirred it in before looking back at me. “I’ve been married before.”
Whatever I’d been expecting him to say, it wasn’t that. My jaw nearly hit the ground, and for the first time in forever, I was just this side of speechless. “What?”
He chuckled at my reaction, but the sound was humorless. “I know, right? But yeah, I was. I met a girl, fell in love, and did what I thought I had to do.”
“And then?” My ears were ringing a little. “I honestly can’t picture this really happening, or you doing anything you didn’t absolutely want to be doing.”
“Firstly, we’re sitting here because we have to plan something I absolutely do not want to be planning, but secondly, I wanted to do it.”
“What happened?”
Cyrus snorted. “We got divorced. It turned out it wasn’t really me she wanted. It was the money she thought I was going to make. Within a week of us separating, she met someone else. Another guy doing stuff in the tech world that she thought might pay off, and that time, it did. The dude was an up-and-coming entrepreneur when she met him, and on the day he reached the top, she married him. Literally the same day he sold his website. Marched him right down to city hall and put a ring on it, so to speak.”
I knew I had to look like an idiot, but I just couldn’t stop gaping at him. “Are you serious?”
He nodded. “As a fucking billion-dollar deal to a broke kid. Which I was at the time, by the way. I had no money, and when it started looking like it was going to stay that way, she ditched me.”
“That sucks.” I whistled under my breath. “No wonder you’re not exactly a supporter of the institution. Your ex-wife is a prime example of someone who did it for the wrong reasons instead of the right ones.”
“Like I said, there are no right reasons. What about you? I’m guessing you’ve never made the walk down the aisle if you’re still so optimistic about it.”
“I never made it that far, no. I was about to get married once, or so I thought. Unfortunately, the guy I was seeing turned out to be married already.”
He arched a brow, lowering his chin closer to his chest. “And yet you still believe in marriage and people doing it for the right reasons?”
“Yeah, I do.” I knew I was going to look insane, but I smiled. “My parents were very much in love right up until the death part of ‘til death do us part. Their example of what a marriage should be like is one I would very much like to follow someday.”