Kevin had already sent the booking details of the restaurant to the office by the time I arrived at work the next morning. We’d been to it a few of times, celebrating new investors, or big clients. It wasn’t exactly the kind of place you could go for a date, because your date would automatically assume you were going to propose, or some shit like that. It was that pricey. But I’m not surprised Kevin had picked it out for his daughter’s birthday.

She was special.

I had asked my assistant to bring down one of my nicer suits for the event and it hung in the executive suite for me. As I changed into my suit, there was a fluttering in my stomach that hadn’t been there when I had organized my date with Victoria.

Butterflies in a goddamn adult male. What the fuck?

I shouldn’t have been getting anything close to this excited, but something about Madison, about the way she spoke to me, the way she challenged me. I couldn’t get her out of my mind.

If she only knew how firmly wedged she was into my brain she’d probably get a secret kick out of it. It had occurred to me that this whole lets-seduce-Quinn game was her trying out her feminine wiles. Seeing how potent she could be. For all I knew her plan was simply to see if she could get me hung up on her. Well, if that was the plan it sure worked.

I was so hung up, right now, even the idea of hanging out with another woman was unthinkable.

I saw another side to her last night, and now I was even more interested and intrigued than before. I had accused her of acting like a brat toward Victoria, which she had, but I was convinced she had been acting out in front of Victoria for my attention. And when I really thought about it, I had to admit she had never behaved as if she was entitled to any special treatment from her father or me.

She could so easily have twisted my arm, backed me into the corner of having to play nice and manipulate me into taking her out to celebrate her birthday, but she never said a word. If her father hadn’t called, there was a good chance the topic would never have come up at all.

She would have gone through the whole day lounging around alone in my empty house, and waiting for me to get back, so we could have another lousy argument. Hell, she was probably coming on to me just because she was lonely. The problem was I wasn’t made of stone. I wanted to make sure she had a good birthday. I just had to keep it out of my mind that this wasn’t a date, and everything would be fine.

I shot my cuffs, and made my way out. I caught the looks from some of female staff who were packing up their desks for the day. One of them gave a long, low whistle. They were all happily married, and it was all in jest. The other women laughed and I grinned at them.

“Hot date, huh?” Sally, one of the secretaries, called out.

“Nope,” I said, and sailed out of the building. I was doing Kevin a favor, that was all.

My driver, Benjamin, was waiting in the parking lot. I slipped into the backseat of the car and closed the door.

Benjamin caught my eye in the rearview mirror. “You look very smart,” he remarked, his eyebrows raised as we pulled out. “Going somewhere nice?”

“Maxine’s,” I replied.

“Very nice,” he said, with a nod of approval.

I grinned at him. Even if the situation came packed with weird-ass sexual tension, at least, I still got to go to one of my favorite places in the city.

“Are we going straight there?”

“No, stop by the house first.” I lay back against the seat. “I’ve got to pick up my dinner companion.”

Benjamin had been with me for years and I could see him biting his tongue to keep from remarking on the fact that I had never allowed a woman to stay around at my place long enough to pick them up from there. That’s what I liked about him: he knew better than to open his mouth about anything that didn’t concern him.

We arrived a few minutes later, and I got out of the car, and went in.

“Madison,” I called from the hallway. It was a really weird feeling. Actually, it was years since I picked anyone up from their place, let alone mine. There was something oddly intimate and delicious about knowing she would be coming back here this evening.

“I’m coming down!” she sang in reply, her voice all kinds of light and airy.

I had never heard her sound so carefree before, and I had to admit it made my heart beat a little faster. I had tossed and turned all night long obsessing over what we had said to each other, and it was wonderful that like a child, or an innocent animal she could completely forgive and simply be happy for the moment. What a wonderful way to be.

She appeared at the top of the stairs a few minutes later, and damn, she was so beautiful, she made my heart ache. Her hair was loose and fell in shining waves around her breasts and arms. She wore a knee-length, black dress with thick straps that hugged her body snugly, and a pair of gold high heels that showed off her youthful calves as she made her way down the stairs.

I knew she had waited for me to arrive before coming down the stairs.

If there was anything Madison liked, it was making an entrance. She had been like that even when she was five years old. I gazed up at her. Yup, she had made herself the perfect opportunity to strut her stuff. My heart raced as she approached. She just looked…damn it…fuckable. All the resolve I had built up since last night vanished into nothing. I took a deep breath to regain my composure.

She winked at me. “You look wicked.”

I cleared my throat. “You don’t look too…bad yourself,” I responded, and hoped my voice was neutral enough for her not to jump to all the right conclusions. Oh, who was I kidding? She would have to be blind to have missed me gaping at her like a brain-dead zombie. Still that was the point of her daring outfit, after all.

I opened the front door for her with exaggerated flourish and she smiled at me, fluttering her lashes the way starlets from my grandmother’s time used to do. I laughed and so did she. I liked it when she laughed. I wanted to grab her and kiss her.

We walked to the car in silence. Gallantly, I opened the car door for her and she climbed in. I was happy as I made my way around the other side to join her.

“Ready to go?” Benjamin asked. His brown eyes twinkled.

“Yep,” I said, fixing my eyes on the road ahead of us. I did my best to keep my attention off Madison even though all I wanted to do was get Benjamin to roll up the partition so I could take her on the back seat. This was Kevin’s daughter. Kevin, my best friend and business partner. The dirty thoughts scampering through my brain were just that. Random thoughts.