Intense Love

Park. He and Derek are childhood friends, but they don't see each other as much because Hunter travels around the country for months on end on these projects. Mr. Dark, Tall, Handsome and Sexy seemed proud of his resume. I smiled at him with fake sweetness. "I used to love that park. I'm glad you increased the neighborhood's carbon footprint through the roof and destroyed some of our environment."

"You're a tree-hugger, aren't you?" Anna must be right. We'd kill each other if we were a couple." "Hmmm... I'll have cheesecake. Are you thirsty? I'm dying of thirst. Yeah." Anna was pretty wasted. "We haven't even had dinner yet," I reminded her. "So what? Let's have dessert. Come on!" Licking her lips, she walked back into the restaurant without us. Hunter laughed. "It was nice meeting you, Natalia. And if things don't work out with Adam, who's annoying as hell, I'm in room 315 at the hotel." He winked and leaned in to whisper in my ear. "We could even kill each other... I've always wanted to die in bed." "Are these chairs taken?" Adam and I were finishing our dessert when Hunter walked over and pointed to two chairs across from us. The couple who had been sitting there had left a few minutes earlier. "Yes," I lied. But Adam was kind enough to correct me: "Actually, Eric and Kim were sitting there. They just said goodbye, remember, Nat?" A wide, arrogant smile spread across Hunter's face. He pulled out a chair for the girl, his wedding date, and sat right in front of me. "This is Cassie. She's a tech goddess, a Caltech graduate. Do you know Adam, Cassie?" Adam looked very interested: "We had a quick chat this afternoon."

But I didn't know you worked in tech. I graduated from MIT. I work with Derek at Clique, programming robots." Adam and Cassie's conversation took off. Neither of them noticed the grimace I made at the nerd cupid. I leaned forward, smiling, and said through my teeth, "I know what you're doing." Hunter leaned back in his chair with a smug grin that went from ear to ear. "I don't know what you're talking about." "It won't work." "You say so. But I'll be here if you need a backup." I drank the rest of my coffee and adjusted the front of my dress to show just the right amount of cleavage. Then I picked up the napkin on the table and discreetly dropped it on the floor. As I raised my fork to my mouth, I accidentally dropped a piece of cheesecake into my cleavage. Hunter watched the whole scene with interest. Leaning over, I touched Adam's bicep. "Do you have a napkin?"

They must have taken mine when they cleared the table, and I just made a mess of it." Like the gentleman he was, Adam excused himself from Cassie and turned to give me his attention. When his eyes dropped to the cheesecake in my cleavage, I knew instantly that I had won. I smiled triumphantly as the nerd helped me clean up my cleavage. Hunter's scowl felt like a victory. To be honest, I had already decided during dinner that I wasn't going to sleep with Adam-I needed to feel some degree of physical attraction for a man, even if it was just for one night. But I did enjoy teasing Hunter. "My hand gets sore when I'm tired," I told Adam. "And I'm still on New York time. I think I'll head back to the hotel." "I'll come with you," he replied immediately. Who was Cassie again? Laughs. But Hunter wasn't one to give in easily-I could tell that for him. He stood up. "I have a car. I can give you both a ride. Are you ready to go, Cass?" The four of us are staying at the Carlisle, I guess?"