His Games, Her Rules

The hostess receives us by the door with a big smile on her pale face. She recognizes Dominique before he can introduce himself.

“Your table is right this way, Sir.” She leads us down to the corner of the restaurant that’s a little secluded from the rest of the restaurant.

The tables here are few, with one couple already occupying the table at the far end. The hostess pushes a door open and steps through. Dominique leads me through, with his hand on my lower back. His palm on my back sends tingles to my feet and my heartbeat accelerates.

“Where’s she taking us?”

“To our table,” Dominique replies as he looks down at me, with an unfamiliar glint in his eyes.

We climb through a flight of stairs as the hostess opens a door and the evening breeze hits my face. We’re on the rooftop where there are at least five beautiful tents. Underneath the tents are two white chairs and a table with a tablecloth over the tables. There is warm lighting hanging off the tents, with candles on the table.

In four words, this place is romantic.

The hostess leads us to the table at the end not too far from the glass barricades.

“I’ll get your waiter for this evening.” And then she leaves.

I’m stunned by this breathtaking view. There are just two couples here and there’s a moderate space between our table and theirs. Dominique pulls out a chair for me and I sit down. He sits down opposite me, with his unwavering attention on me.

“Are you okay?”

“Yes,” I give him an honest reply. “This isn’t what I was expecting,” I say as I glance around.

There’s a bar at the corner, with just one bartender there. A romantic song is playing at a low volume, probably to put couples in the mood.

“Is this too much?” He asks as he looks at me.

“Truthfully, yes. This is oddly romantic, Dominique.”

“I wasn’t joking when I said you deserve more.”

I’m left speechless for the third time tonight as I look away from him. I don’t trust myself around him and I have a feeling if he continues to stare at me like that, we would do something both of us may actually enjoy.

“Do you always take your one-night stands on dates?” I ask, bringing my gaze back to him.

“No.”Copyright Nôv/el/Dra/ma.Org.

“So what are we doing here then? Because the last time I checked I was your one-night stand.”

Dominique leans back, a blank stare on his face as he exhales. “I want you, Robyn. I don’t know how often you want me to tell you this.”

“No, you don’t. You just want to have sex with me for the second time because you couldn’t get enough.”

“And you don’t want to have sex with me?” He raises a perfect brow as he asks. “Come on, Robyn, I think it’s time you tell the truth for once.”

I roll my eyes. “What truth?”

Dominique opens his mouth to reply but our waiter for the evening appears by our side with a bottle of red wine and two glasses. He sets the bottle of wine and glasses on the table as he pours us a good quantity.

“What would you like to have? Are you guys ready to order yet?”

Without taking his eyes off of me, Dominique says to the waiter, “Can you come back in a few minutes? We’re yet to go through the menu.”

The waiter nods and turns to leave. I pick up the menu and go through it just to avoid Dominique’s heated gaze.

“I want you to pretend we’ve never fucked each other and try to relax,” Dominique says as I glare at him from above the menu. “You’ve gone on dates before, right?”

“Yes. What does it have to do with why we are here?”

“You wanna know why I asked you out on a date?”

“Please enlighten me,” I say as I set the menu down.

Dominique watches me for a second, his eyes lingering on my lips as he speaks. “I have a proposition for you.”

“What?”

“You keep telling me you don’t want to have anything to do with me again because we’ve had sex before, which I understand. And I am willing to respect your wishes.”

What’s going on now?

Dominique can see the surprised look on my face as he continues to speak.

“I want us to play a game. We could even skip dinner and get right to it.”

“What game?”

“Any game of your choice.”

“And what’s the catch here?”

“We will play any game of your choice, whatever you want. If you win, I promise you I’m gonna stay away.”

Just like that? When has Dominique Gray ever backed down so easily?

“And what if you win?”

Dominique stalls, a little smirk playing on his lips as he looks me in the eye. “My sister is getting married next Saturday in Santa Monica, California. If you lose and I win, you’ll accompany me to Santa Monica as my pretend girlfriend.”