Free Take Me, Cowboy by Maisey Yates

wouldn’t be fair if after last night he felt nothing at all. If he had been able to one-up her and then walk away as though nothing had happened.
    â€œIt doesn’t make me uncomfortable. It’s just unnecessary information. Now, talking about your needs is probably something you shouldn’t do with a guy, either.”
    â€œUnless I want him to fulfill those needs.”
    â€œYou said you wanted to date. You want the kind of date who can go to these functions with you, right?”
    â€œIt’s moot. You’re going with me.”
    â€œThis time. But be honest, don’t you want to be able to go out with guys who belong in places like that?”
    â€œI don’t know,” she said, feeling uncomfortable.
    Truth be told, she wasn’t all that comfortable thinking about her needs. Emotional, physical. Frankly, if it went beyond her need for a cheeseburger, she didn’t really know how to deal with it. She hadn’t dated in years. And she had been fine with that. But the truth of the matter was the only reason Mark and Daniel had managed to get to her when they had made this bet was that she was beginning to feel dissatisfied with her life.
    She was starting a new business. She was assuming a new position in the community. She didn’t just want to be Anna Brown, the girl from the wrong side of the tracks. She didn’t just want to be the tomboy mechanic for the rest of her life. She wanted...more. It had been fine, avoiding relationships all this time, but she was thirty now. She didn’t really want to be by herself. She didn’t want to be alone forever.
    Dear Lord, she was having an existential crisis.
    â€œFine,” she said, “it might be nice to have somebody to date.”
    Marriage, family—she had no idea how she felt when it came to those things. But a casual relationship... That might be nice. Yes. That might be nice.
    Last night, she had gone home and gotten under a blanket and watched an old movie. Sometimes, Chase watched old movies with her, but he did not get under the blankets with her. It would be nice to have a guy to be under the blanket with. Somebody to go home to. Or at least someone to call to come over when she couldn’t sleep. Someone she could talk to, make out with. Have sex with.
    â€œFine,” she said. “I will submit to your flirting lessons.”
    â€œAll the girls submit to me eventually,” he said, winking.
    Something about that made her stomach twist into a knot. “Talking about too much information...”
    â€œThere,” he said, “that was almost flirting.”
    She wrinkled her nose. “Was it?”
    â€œYes. We had a little bit of back and forth. There was some innuendo.”
    â€œI didn’t make innuendo on purpose,” she said.
    â€œNo. That’s the best kind. The kind you sort of walk into. It makes you feel a little dangerous. Like you might say the wrong thing. And if you go too far, they might walk away. But if you don’t go far enough, they might not know that you want them.”
    She let out a long, frustrated growl. “Dating is complicated. I hate it. Is it too late for me to become a nun?”
    â€œYou would have to convert,” he pointed out.
    â€œThat sounds like a lot of work, too.”
    â€œYou can be pleasant, Anna. You’re fun to talk to. So that’s all you have to do.”
    â€œNatural to me is walking up to a hot guy and saying, ‘Do you want to bone or what?’” As if she’d ever done that. As if she ever would. It was just...she didn’t really know how to go about getting a guy to hook up with her any other way. She was a direct kind of girl. And nothing between men and women seemed direct.
    â€œFine. Let’s try this,” he said, grabbing a chair and pulling it up to her workbench before taking a seat.
    She took hold of the back of the other folding chair in the space and moved it across