THE waitress advised them to choose only one main course with a side dish of vegetables to share since they were ordering two separate entrées. The helpings were large and they would surely want to leave room for dessert.
‘Definitely,’ Laura agreed. ‘I have to try the sesame ice cream with candied popcorn and chocolate.’
‘And I want the Dessert Cocktail,’ Jake said with relish. ‘Sounds wonderful—caramelized pear, London gin, lillet blanc and crème de cacao shaken and served with the chocolate, sesame and cashew bark.’
It sounded very James Bond to Laura who couldn’t help grinning over the thought. Jake might not be 007 but he was certainly tall, dark, handsome and dangerous, especially to any peace of mind. Somehow peace of mind wasn’t rating highly at the moment. A thrilling buzz was running through her veins and she was now determined on milking maximum enjoyment out of the night, throwing caution and the Machiavellian shadow of her father to the winds.
‘That’s a big smile,’ Jake commented, his eyes simmering sexily.
‘Loving the idea of having a piece of your dessert,’ she tossed back, knowing she wanted a piece of him, too.
‘Food, glorious food!’ he quoted from the musical Oliver, half singing the words and making her laugh.
‘We have to decide on which one of our main courses to go for now,’ she reminded him.
‘We’ll go with your choice—the stir-fried pork, bacon, smoked tofu, garlic shoots, garlic chives and chilli oil—and I’ll pick the vegetable dish.’
‘Which will be?’
‘Stir-fried wild bamboo pith, snow peas and quail eggs with ginger and garlic.’
‘We’ll probably end up with garlic breath.’
‘We can try washing it away with wine.’
He ordered an expensive bottle of sauvignon blanc.
The waitress departed, having assured them of prompt service.
Laura heaved a satisfied sigh as she sat back and relaxed, happy to enjoy the ambience of the restaurant and the company of the man she was with.
‘How was your week?’ she asked.
He gave her a very sensual smile. ‘All the better for ending here with you. How was yours?’
‘Annoying.’
He raised a quizzical eyebrow.
She made a rueful grimace. ‘I couldn’t get you out of my head.’
He laughed. ‘I’m glad the problem wasn’t entirely mine. The question is whether to feed the fever or starve it?’
‘I’m all for feeding tonight.’
‘So am I.’
His eyes said he wanted to eat her all up and Laura couldn’t deny she wanted to taste him again, too, but she wasn’t ready to commit herself to becoming lovers on such short acquaintance.
‘I meant here at the restaurant, Jake. I don’t really know you, do I?’ She eyed him seriously. ‘My father obviously likes you very much, which isn’t a great recommendation. I think from your visit last Sunday, you can draw a fairly clear picture of my life, but I don’t have one of yours, apart from your mentioning that your mother has passed away. What about the rest of your family?
He shrugged. ‘Both my parents died when I was eighteen. I was their only child. I’ve been on my own ever since. My life is not complicated by having to manage relationships, Laura. As I saw you doing last Sunday.’
‘You move to your own beat,’ she said wryly.
‘Yes.’
‘No live-in girlfriends along the way to here and now?’
He shook his head. ‘I haven’t met anyone I wanted to be with every day.’
She nodded, extremely wary of the live-in situation herself. ‘It’s a big ask, day in, day out. I can’t see myself even wanting to try it.’
He smiled, eyes twinkling with understanding. ‘You wish to be a free spirit.’
‘I’ve seen my mother compromise too much,’ she shot at him.
‘Not all men are like your father, Laura,’ he said seriously. ‘My parents’ marriage was very happy. I grew up in a loving home. I wish I still had it.’
She felt a stab of envy, though his loss triggered sympathy, as well. ‘You were lucky to have what you did, Jake, but I guess missing that home life leaves you feeling very lonely.’
His eyelids dropped to half-mast, narrowing the flash of dangerous glitter. Some powerful emotion was coursing through him, belied by the offhand tone he used in his reply. ‘It’s been ten years, Laura. I’ve learnt to live with being alone.’
She didn’t think so. She sensed anger in him at the loss, a deep abiding anger, so intense there was an edge of savagery to it. The image of a lone wolf endlessly prowling for some measure of satisfaction leapt into her mind.
Had he been looking for it in the career he had chosen? The bankruptcy business was centred on loss and he’d spoken almost passionately about the trauma of it and wanting to help when she’d taken him out to the garden last week. It had surprised her at the time. The conviction started to grow in her that he was not like her father. Not at all like him.
Which made the pleasure she could share with him much more acceptable.
‘The self-sufficient man,’ she said, smiling.
‘Who doesn’t want to be alone tonight.’
His smile was definitely wolfish, exciting her with the wild thought of howling at the moon together, mating on top of a mountain under the stars. Ridiculous since they were in the middle of a city, but the female animal inside her was strongly aroused, wanting to explore intimate possibilities with Jake Freedman.
The waitress returned with the bottle of wine and filled their glasses for them. Jake lifted his in a toast. ‘To learning a lot more about each other.’
Laura nodded agreement. ‘I’ll drink to that.’
She clicked her glass to his and they both sipped the wine.
‘I heard you tell Eddie that you worked out at a gym. Do you go often?’
‘Usually after work. It’s a good way of winding down.’
And every woman in the place would be eyeing him off, Laura thought, wondering if he also used the gym for casual pick-ups. She couldn’t imagine him not having a very active sex life. Which, she strongly suspected, he kept completely separate from his work life.
‘You said last Sunday you didn’t want to want me, Jake,’ she reminded him. ‘Is that because it’s difficult to avoid it touching on your career with me being my father’s daughter?’
He made an ironic grimace. ‘I think it’s a complication we’d both prefer not to have.’ He leaned forward, his dark riveting eyes shooting a blaze of purpose at her. ‘Let’s shut the door on it. Just do what we want to do together, regardless of other issues. Are you brave enough to go down that road with me, Laura? Strong enough to make the choice for yourself?’
The challenge propelled her pulse into overdrive. Brave? Strong? She wanted to belief that of herself, but was it really true? She’d always shied clear of intimate entanglements, afraid of how they might affect her. The couple of sexual experiments she’d allowed herself had been more out of curiosity—a desire for knowledge—than a wish for a closer, more possessive attachment.
Jake Freedman tapped something far more primal in her