Page 11 of Something Just Like This

“Just dinner. Alone. An opportunity to talk outside the office and chill. How does that sound?”

“I don’t know,” she finally said. “I’d still rather you sleep on it and decide later. Your primitive male self doesn’t need to be threatened by me replacing you with someone else right now. Let’s just say there’s no other man in my life, and I’m sure it will continue that way.”

He hated the tinge of sadness in her voice, the touch of loneliness she desperately tried to hide. He recognized it because he battled it every day and every night and still hadn’t been able to make peace with his solitary existence the way he’d hoped. “If that will make you feel better, why don’t we both think about it. We’ll set dinner for Thursday night, and if either of us changes our mind, we’ll never mention this again. Deal?”

He had to offer her an escape clause. It was the right thing, even though the idea of her running away broke something inside him. Slowly, she nodded. “Deal. Except you have the school board hearing on Thursday.”

“Friday.”

“You’re meeting with the governor and then attending the senator’s fundraiser.”

“Saturday. And if you come up with something else I’m supposed to be doing, cancel it.”

She wrinkled her nose. “We could do it late, around nine p.m. That’s all you can manage. I double-booked you.”

“I’ll take it.”

Negotiating with his schedule for a dinner date was ridiculous, but there was no other woman who could make it seem so damn sexy. Her clean scent hit his nostrils and made him dizzy.

“I should look at those spreadsheets,” she said a bit shyly, shifting in her seat.

He realized he’d pushed enough and needed to back off and let her breathe. “Of course.”

He brought up the necessary Excel files, turning the laptop around so they could both see the screen. “I spoke with the senator tonight, and he mentioned there may be too many funds earmarked for the Back to Home program.”

She dragged her chair a few inches closer so she could view the laptop. He studied her as she morphed into work-mode, her nose pinched beneath her glasses as her gaze flickered across the screen, taking in the endless columns of figures. “That program is your baby,” she said shortly. “We’re at the minimum budget to run it properly.”

“I agree. But I’m still getting pushback, and we’re low on funding for the libraries at this point.”

“But stats on the homeless this quarter were way down. We need all those funds to keep the program successful.”

“Tell that to the librarians who need to keep up with technology. They need a computer system upgrade, and it’s going to cost. It’ll be on Harry’s desk to work his magic, but I wanted your opinion first.”

Budgets were thorny, and it’d only get worse when he got bumped to governor. Running a state was more complicated than running a city, but he felt up to the task and had decent skills in the art of compromise. Too bad other politicians didn’t. God knew it would make the country a better place if they did. “I’ll have to cut a layer of cost somehow, but I don’t want to backtrack at this point.”

Her glossy, naked nail tapped against her lip, and then she reached for his keyboard, clicking madly through the tabs and programs as if seeing something he didn’t. “You can’t cut shelter security,” she murmured, “or the foundation will crumble. But we earmarked for a ton of admin. If we don’t hire those two new positions and switch them to volunteers, we may be able to handle the squeeze.”

“Mary said those positions were needed.”

“They are, but if we switch them to give college credit as an internship instead of pay, it could still work.”

He leaned back, considering. Once again, she was able to move boxes around and see a different picture. It was a talent he relied on every day in order to do the best job possible. There was no way he could lose her.

Damnit.

He studied the nape of her neck, the vulnerable, smooth flesh practically begging for his lips. He wondered what would happen if he leaned forward and pressed his mouth there or ran his tongue slowly down the length of her spine, relishing every shudder and shiver. But if he made a move too soon, before she was ready, he might lose her completely. “An internship may not give Mary what she needs.”

“It’s a competitive market. I’m sure we can vet the correct volunteers who want to do a kick-ass job and impress the mayoral office.”

She was right. The odds were in their favor. “That’s a brilliant idea, Alyssa. Thank you.”

“You’re welcome. I’m sure Harry would’ve come up with the same solution.”

Jonathan doubted it, but he was used to her aversion to gushing compliments on the job.

A short silence settled between them, filled with all the things spoken and unspoken over the past hour. He was about to tell her how much he admired her, that she was the type of woman deserving of a man who was worthy. That he was honored she’d chosen to accompany him for dinner. But she quickly stood up and made her announcement. “I should be going.”

He scrambled back, feeling overly awkward and not at all like a man who ran one of the most powerful cities in the US. “Yes, of course. Thanks again for helping me out. Tim will get you home safe.”