Free Red Hots by Yvette Hines

her eyes.
    “You
insist on calling me Kindle when I prefer Kin. It’s only three letters, not so
hard to use. Everyone else can manage it.” She snapped open her menu, as if
that concluded the discussion.
    “I’m
not one of your work associates. Neither am I like everyone else, which if you
have not noticed, I’m more than willing to demonstrate to you.”
    That
got her eyes to rise from her menu to him. “I’m not even going to ask in what
way.”
    He
gave her a small smile. As private as he was about his lifestyle, there were
many things he could execute with her and no one in the restaurant would be the
wiser to his actions.
    Even
if she didn’t know that, she wasn’t willing to call his bluff as she had done
with the time.
    “A
wise woman. Have you found something to your liking, Kindle?”
    Her
gaze lowered to his pale blue dress shirt and rose to meet his eyes once more
then shied away to her menu again. “Everything looks good. I’ve only eaten here
one other time.”
    “I’ve
been here at least a dozen times. You can’t go wrong with anything you order.”
He drank some of his water.
    She
looked at him. “It makes sense now why you haven’t looked at your menu.”
    “Are
you ready to order?” The waitress stood beside their table with a small pad in
one hand and a pen in the other.
    He
allowed Kindle to order first.
    “I’ll
have the pan seared sea scallops, please.”
    The
waitress jotted Kindle’s request on her pad. “And you, sir?”
    “Your
five pepper tuna steak. We’ll have a bottle of your Bonterra organic
brought out with dinner if you will, please.”
    “Absolutely.
An excellent choice, sir, it will complement the seafood very well.” With a
smile, she took the menus and left.
    They
sat there for a moment just staring at each other. Kindle was the first to drop
her gaze as she reached for her water.
    “You
look very nice tonight, Kindle. Chic. Professional.”
    “Thank
you.” She took a tiny sip of water.
    He
realized she was using it more as a prop than to actually quench her thirst.
    “I
would have thought you’d go a little more after-five attire.”
    She
looked down at her apparel then at him. “This is my casual look.”
    “I
highly doubt it.” He was transfixed by her face. Her creamy complexion was
accented by her narrow brows, round eyes that turned up slightly on the outside
corners and her mouth. A thick, wide mouth that was fuller on the bottom than
the top. The corners lifted naturally as if she were made to smile more than
she did. She had yet to smile for him and he ached to see it and see pleasure
reflected in her eyes. “However, I understand why you’ve chosen to garb
yourself in such a way.”
    “Garb
myself. You sound as if I put on armor.” Her laughter was hollow as she sipped
her water again.
    He
leaned forward slightly. “Didn’t you? Business armor, something you were
comfortable with. Anything to set this evening in a professional atmosphere.”
    “Well
we are here to discuss your offer. So what we are conducting is—”
    “Personal.
No, way around that, Kindle.” He sat back.
    She
took a bigger drink, this time appearing as if she did need it to fortify
herself, and then set her half empty glass down.
    “Emmalee,
who you know as Lolli I believe, told me that you and your brother own the
candy shop.”
    He
gave her a small smile at the change of subject. “Yes. For five years now.”
    “I
wouldn’t think that nostalgic candy would be a profitable business.” Her
comment was a put down, but also held curiosity.
    “Amazingly
it is. However, most of our customers come for the hand-crafted chocolate and
other specialty candies offered,” he said. He couldn’t help but notice that
Kindle appeared a little more relaxed with the benign discussion about Decadent
Treats. That was the only reason he was allowing her to stretch it out. He
wanted, no needed her to be comfortable with him if what he was going to
propose between them would