The Research Project

Chapter Thirteen

Lainey watched as Byron took another piece of capsicum from the plate and crunched it.

"That was really good," Lainey said beside him where she sat on the floor.

"What the tacos or the eating dinner naked bit?" Byron asked.

"Both. I didn't know you could cook."

"I can't. Mrs. Nobuko prepares all my food."

"Your housekeeper?" Lainey remembered.

"Yes. However, I can make a Margarita."

"You sure can and you're more than welcome to make me another," she said, holding out her glass and waving it in the air.

"Anything to get you drunk," he said rising gracefully from the floor in his living room where they had set up their dinner picnic style.

He moved over to his bar in the corner and mixed everything together in the cocktail shaker again. Lainey watched in fascination as his muscles moved, bunching up as he shook the canister, his abs crunching together whenever he bent over. She was in heaven right now watching him. She couldn't believe she hated him only a week ago. Now he was making her Margaritas after spending the morning meeting her mum. She may just have had a stupid grin on his face when he suddenly caught her eye.

"Everything okay?" he asked.

"Perfect," she replied, elongating the first syllable like she was a purring cat. Jeez, she was already drunk after one cocktail.

He raised an eyebrow at her, poured the cocktails into their glasses and carried them over to her, placing them on the coffee table. He sat down beside her on the floor again, then lifted her cocktail and handed it to her. Lainey sipped at it, licking her lips in approval.

"So," Byron began. "You seem to be quite good at conjuring up fantasies about sex."

"Maybe in my books."

"In real life, too."

"I've always been shy when it comes to sex. I'm better at fantasy than real life. You were right that day we had staff drinks."

"What do you mean?"

"When you said to Theo my book was probably written by some sexually repressed ice queen whose only outlet was writing about it in her books, that actually wasn't too far from the truth."

"Well if that's the truth, then I haven't seen any evidence of it."

"My ex didn't think so." Damn, this cocktail was like a truth serum. She took another sip.

"What do you mean?"

Lainey sighed. "One of the reasons he broke up with me was because he thought I was boring in bed."

Byron gaped for a second. "Well slap me with butter and call me boring. I like boring sex with you." He paused, taking another sip of his own cocktail. "And in case you missed it, I don't think sex is boring with you. I think your ex was quite possibly insane."

"No, he had a point. We spent our weekends in my apartment while I worked on my writing. I was writing about sex rather than living it out with him."

"Well if he'd known about your writing like I did maybe he could've helped you out with it."

"I don't think he would've been up for it, not like you."

Byron seemed to be pondering her words. "You know, sometimes people are just incompatible."