Chapter 76: No Reason for Rules
- RAYA -
Dex and I spend an insanely divine time kissing next to his motorcycle as the sun finally sets behind us. Everything about the way he kisses me is familiar while also being thrilling and new, and God I wish I could just rip his clothes off right here and see that beautifully sculpted body, run my hands along it, appreciate the bare power that I feel being held back like I’m too fragile or precious to risk breaking.
I could honestly kiss him forever. We don’t even need to do anything more. We can just kiss—as long as he keeps making these promises with the passionate plunge of his tongue and the soft growls that I can feel awakening something in my bones, I’ll be happy.
I’m just wondering how in the hell this perfect, sexy man is mine right now. How have I gotten this lucky? At first, the dreams had me believing I was losing my mind, but now I have him. He’s here. I manifested him in my sleep.
A plane begins its descent close by, and Dex growls one final time before chuckling and pulling away to point out where the aircraft is approaching. I turn to watch it come closer, its lights blinking against the fallen night, and Dex holds me from behind, watching over my shoulder.
He called me ’my love,’ I think to myself, grinning as the plane touches down. And I felt it—I felt the words like they were right, like they were made only for me.
"Are you hungry?" He turns into my neck and asks the question against my skin. "You didn’t really eat lunch, and now it’s late."
"I am pretty hungry," I admit, turning to face him again.
"Hop on. I’ll take you somewhere," he pats the seat and helps me up.
"Like this?" I exclaim, looking down at what I’m wearing.
"Raya, I wish you realized how beautiful you look right now. I’m not lying." His gaze is soft and sincere.
Dex climbs on and starts the motorcycle, and the wind quickly picks up as we slice through the night again, headed towards the city this time. The brightest lights are still in the distance when we pull into the parking lot of a diner that looks like it’s straight out of the fifties.
Inside, it’s more unexpected and quirky. Rather than the red booths and black and white checked floors I would have expected to see, the tables and chairs are mismatched with most painted yellow or mint green. There are old vintage prints on the walls, and the walls are a happy muted yellow.
"This is cute," I say quietly as we walk through and find a table.
A waitress with curly red hair and a ruffled pink apron comes over to hand us menus and offer us coffee.
Dex has the expression where his eyebrows tilt inward and up like he’s waiting—like he’s offering something and waiting—and he does it now as he waits for me to decide what I want to drink.
"Just water for me please," I tell her.
"Iced tea. Thank you," he smiles at the waitress and then props open the menu when she goes on her way.
"My friends and I used to come to a place similar to this. It was a tradition after we’d see a movie in the theater, we would get pie afterward and talk about it."
"I believe they have pie," Dex grins, searching the menu.
"I think I got enough sugar today with the strawberry croissants. I need some meat," I half growl and then my eyes go wide at the feral sound, and I pull the big bifold menu up so it blocks my face and the warmth that immediately rushes to my cheeks. Dex chuckles on the other side.
"They have meat. Their burgers are amazing."
The waitress brings our drinks, and we order burgers and fries—my fries with melted cheese over top at the waitress’ suggestion.
"I know the owner of this place," Dex says as we wait for our food. "Father and I used to come here on Saturday mornings."
"I bet you know a lot of people."
"I know a few," he shrugs with a crooked smile. "That’s one of the most valuable things to have—a network of people even if they’re mostly acquaintances. He was always drilling that into me. Show interest in people’s work and their daily lives, even if you can only invest attention or some friendly conversation. You never know when that relationship will be useful. You may be able to help them today only to be repaid several times over later on."
"He seems like a wise businessman."
"Yeah, I don’t really know how I’m supposed to fill those shoes. Lawson was always the one being groomed for that role, or at least I thought so. Looking back, I’m not so sure. Father hinted to me a few times that he’d like to see me running the company, but I thought it was just him trying to get me back here. And I resisted it."
Dex’s eyes unfocus as he gazes off into the distance, caught by a memory. And then he rakes a hand over his face.
"I lost time with him. I should have been here," he says, resting his chin in his hand. "Now I’m supposed to be focusing on the business rather than being by his side right now when he needs it the most."
"Why did he have to go away for testing?" I ask gently. This is delicate ground, and I want to make sure I tread carefully.
"He’s being seen by the best right now," Dex’s brows pinch together. "And my father is very stubborn and very proud when it comes to things like this. I doubt he wants us to see him weak."
"When are you supposed to hear more?"
"I think he said we should expect to hear something tomorrow. If I don’t hear from him first, I’m going to call him. It’s possible he already knows more and he’s not sharing yet." His eyes lift to mine. "But let’s talk about something else. Tomorrow—the meeting with Liz. Are you excited?"
"Nervous excited," I smile. "Yes."
"You two will love each other. She is very sweet and easy to talk to, and with the way you get to talking about things you’re enthusiastic about, you’ll do great. You’ll win her over without a problem. I’m sure of it." Those dimples appear behind his beard with the smile he gives me.
"Thanks for setting it up."
"There is really no reason for rules, is there?" He chuckles. "I only have one, and you keep breaking it."
When the food comes, the burgers are way bigger than I imagined, and Dex is clearly amused by my reaction. I pick up the burger with both hands and stare at it. How is this supposed to fit in my mouth?
"I’ve never been intimidated by a burger before," I say and then watch as Dex has no problem taking a bite. He hums and wipes his mouth with a napkin, nodding his approval since his mouth is too full to describe it.
While I’m still trying to figure out how to approach this thing, Dex stifles his laugh. I finally take a bite and have a mouth full of food when he starts talking again.
"I was thinking... since you’re going to be meeting with Liz in the main house tomorrow, you should probably just stay the night again. There’s no need to have to walk all the way from the guest house in the morning if you don’t need to. It’s really chilly in the morning. Have you noticed? And the laptop is already at the main house. No reason to carry that back and forth," he says with a wry smile.
Of course, I’m chewing as he says all this and can’t even laugh much less respond, but that doesn’t stop the attempted laughter from making it much harder to chew. I end up covering my mouth and giggling until I can finally swallow.
"Wow, those are good reasons," I giggle and wipe my mouth. "I was kind of thinking the same thing."
"Yeah?" His eyebrows shoot up.
"Yeah," I nod. "Plus, we might have nightmares again."
"True," he adds. "We wouldn’t want to have nightmares alone."
"Definitely not," I smirk and dip a cheese fry in ranch dressing. "Thank you for offering. That’s very kind of you."
"And there she goes breaking the rule again."
"If you don’t want me to break your stupid rule then stop being so nice to me," I laugh.
"It’s a stupid rule?" His eyebrows shoot up again.
"Yes, how am I not supposed to say thank you when you do things like set me up with a client and take me on a motorcycle ride and buy me meals and offer to have me stay the night?"
"I’m pretty sure I’m going to be benefiting from most of those as well," he smirks, taking one of my fries with the cheese and trying it. "Ketchup. Ketchup would be good with these."
"Yeah right. Have you tried it with ranch?"
"No way."
"You’re missing out. I’m serious. You should try it."
"Have you ever dipped your fries into a chocolate shake?"
"What?" I chuckle. "No."
"I’ll try ranch if you try this," he winks and waves the waitress over. "One chocolate shake please."
