I knock again, but unlike last time I’m not quite so forceful. I need her to believe that I’m just a delivery guy with dinner.
“At last, that took—oh, fuck. No, no, no,” she chants as I jamb my foot in the door at exactly the moment she realises it’s me.
“It seems I owe you dinner, and look what I have here,” I say, lifting the bag of what smells suspiciously like Chinese.
“No. You’re not welcome in here.” She stands tall in front of me, which in itself is amusing because she can’t be more than five foot four to my six foot two. She squares her shoulders and sets her jaw ready for a fight.
“We can either do this here for all the neighbours to hear, or we can do it in there. The choice is yours, doll.” It’s the term I used in our messages, and I like to think that her cheeks flushed just like they are now every time she read it.
She holds her ground for a few seconds before eventually conceding and stepping back, allowing me to enter.
The flat itself is incredible. It’s obvious the building’s been converted from its previous use, and whoever’s completed the work has done a great job of keeping some of the original features.
The moment she takes a step in front of me, though, all thoughts of the building we’re currently inside leave my mind as my eyes lock onto her arse, swaying as she walks. It seems I lucked out with this one. If she’s even half the person she came across as on the internet, I may have found exactly what I was looking for without too much effort—especially with that little banging body.
“You’re not staying,” she states, turning on me. Her eyes are still hard, her shoulders pulled tight.
She looks fucking hot.
My heart rate increases just looking at her, all pent up and ready to fight.
“Aw, come on, doll. There’s too much in here for you to eat alone.” She glances down at the bag of food that’s still in my hand before looking back to the door.
When she opens her mouth, I’m convinced she’ll be sending me on my way, but much to my surprise, it’s the opposite.
“Fine. But only because if you leave that here then there’s a good chance I’ll eat the lot.”
“And we wouldn’t want to ruin these curves now, would we?” I take a step towards her, allowing my eyes to drop down her body. She’s wearing a pair of fitted joggers and a loose cut off sweatshirt, showing off her smooth stomach and the incredible curve of her waist.
She sucks in a breath as I get closer, and it tells me everything I need to know. She feels this crazy thing between us just like I do.
“Am I interrupting a yoga class or something?” I say, looking back to her outfit.
“Um… no. Just a long day, and I need to be comfortable.” At no point does she meet my eyes, and it pisses me off.
Reaching out, I touch my finger gently to her chin and tilt her face towards mine.
“I’m sorry. I’m really fucking sorry. I—”
“Don’t want to hear it. Let’s eat, and then you can leave, knowing that you helped me out by not allowing me to be a fat pig. That’s all this is. I don’t care why you did what you did, or why you turned up here. But nothing is going to happen.” Her eyes hold mine before narrowing as if she’s trying to make me believe her.
“Okay, fine. Fine,” I say putting my hands up in surrender. My voice is totally insincere, and if she believes it then she might not be as intelligent as I think she is.
She takes the bag from my hand before rounding the kitchen island and lifting her glass of wine to her lips. She swallows an insanely large amount before turning and getting out some plates. I smile to myself. I’m totally getting to her right now.
“Drink?” she asks politely.
“Sure. Whatever you’ve got will be great.”
I help carry everything to the table and laugh when she sets herself down a fresh glass of wine and me a pint of water.
“Wow, thanks.”
“Trust me, it’s more than you deserve.”
I can’t really argue, so I don’t. Instead I watch her as she pulls the tops off the takeout containers and fills her plate, leaving me to have what’s left. I’m not going to complain, it’s better than the crap I would have probably got for myself tonight. Plus, it’s free.
“So…” I say, desperate to break the heavy silence surrounding us. “This place is nice.”
“It’s not mine.” Her voice is cold, and even though I don’t really know her, I know it’s not her usual tone.
“So Biff lives here alone?”
“Yeah.”
I blow out a breath. “I work with Biff,” I say, hoping to fill in some blanks she might have.
“Great.”
“Danni.” I sigh. “Just give me a chance.”
“You had one. You fucked it.”
“I know, but—”
“No. You don’t get any buts. You eat up and then leave. If I was interested in hearing you out, then I’d have stayed that night.”
“I had no idea you’d be here. That you knew Biff,” I admit.
“I know. If I thought you were stalking me then you most definitely wouldn’t be sitting there right now.”
“So you’d get fat to keep a stalker away,” I quip.
“Stop it.”
“Stop what?”
“Stop trying to be funny. Stop trying to be the person you pretended to be online.”
“That’s just the thing though, I am—”
“Nope. La la la. Not listening.” Danni pushes her empty plate away, grabs her wine, and stands from the table.
Rushing to join her, I stand and cut off her journey towards the sofas behind me.
“I have every intention of making you.”
“Carter, get out of my way. If that’s even really your name,” she mutters as I allow her to step around me. It feels so strange that this is only the second time we’re met in person, yet I feel like I know her better than many others in my life already. It’s unnerving.
“It is. I am Carter James Wright. Everything you know about me aside from my picture and my job is true. Everything. The person you got to know is me.”
“Not good enough. You still lied. You still tricked me.”
“I know, but…” I trail off, expecting her to cut me off again. “Fuck, Danni. What do you want from me? I’m sorry. It was a stupid thing to do but—”
“But what?” she shouts, slamming her empty glass down on the coffee table and taking an angry step forward.
“But I can’t regret it.” Her brows draw together with confusion. “I can’t regret it, because I met you.” She opens her mouth to argue again, her eyes burning with fire so I know she’s not suddenly going to soften—and to be honest, a part of me doesn’t want her to. I like the fire. It’s almost like a challenge for me to try to put it out. “This is me, Danni.” I reach behind my head and pull my shirt off, dropping it to the floor beside my feet so she can see me in all my tattooed glory. Her eyes immediately drop from mine to take in my exposed torso. I’ve no idea if she’s aware of the move or not, but the second she sees me, she sucks her bottom lip into her mouth.