“Here’s breakfast. Drink up.”
I look at the glass of juice in his hand and then back to him. “No, thanks. It looks disgusting.”
“How do you know until you try it?”
“I don’t want to know.”
“Just take a sip. Quit being a baby.”
I c**k an eyebrow at him skeptically but he probably can’t see it behind the frames of my glasses. He continues holding the glass out and the look on his face is challenging. “Fine.”
I take juice and sniff it. It smells just like apples and spinach. I take a small sip. “Ugh. That’s awful.”
He laughs and takes the glass from me. “I don’t like it either, but I have to drink it.” He takes a large gulp and grimaces.
“If you don’t like it, why do you drink it?”
“Because my personal trainer tells me to. And I pay him a lot of money to make sure I’m playing at peak performance.”
“So, is that my only chance at breakfast? Or do you at least have some cereal I can beg?”
“Nope. I’m going to make us egg white omelets. Will that work?”
“Sounds delicious. Can I help?”
“I’m good. You can just perch over on that stool and watch me work. I’m a master in the kitchen.”
I smile as he dramatically cracks his knuckles before pulling the ingredients out of the fridge. It’s easy to get lulled back in by his charm and I have to caution myself that he may be hamming it up a bit so that I write a great article about him. I’ll need to clean off the rose color on my glasses to make sure that I truly see the real Linc Caldwell. And if he is hamming it up, he won’t be able to keep that act up the entire six weeks. I’ll catch the truth eventually.
“You look hot in those glasses, by the way.”
My eyes snap to his, looking for a lie in there. He’s staring at me with warm honesty and my heart stutters, like a race horse’s hooves on a muddy track. “Pardon me?”
“I said you look hot in those glasses. You look sexy-smart. A killer combination.”
“Don’t f**k around with me, Linc. I’m not falling for your lines.” I’m pissed at myself that his words affected me and I’m pissed at him for trying to affect me.
He shrugs his shoulders at me as he separates the eggs. “It’s not a line because I don’t expect anything in return. It’s the truth of what I’m thinking right now. I tend to say what’s on my mind.”
His compliment should warm me, particularly because I’m sure I look less than stellar right now. Instead, all I can think is that he probably uses similar lines on all the women he comes in contact with. Unfortunately, I tend to say what’s on my mind too.
“Did you say something sweet like that to the woman that gave you a b**w j*b Friday night?”
Linc looks up from the eggs and his eyes are hard. I swallow nervously.
“I told you that I did not get a b**w j*b from one of those women Friday night.” He steps around the counter and walks up to me, leaning his face down close to mine so he can look directly in my eyes. His voice is low and deliberate. “But I did f**k that woman you saw me with in my bedroom, and I f**ked her hard and more than once. That’s after I got her off with my hand. You remember that part, don’t you? Now, that’s the truth.”
He stares at me for just a few seconds then walks back to his eggs. But he’s not finished with me.
His voice is no less deliberate but the physical distance that is back between us makes the words sound colder. “And you can look at me all you want with contempt, but I don’t apologize for who I am. You have no right to judge me or my sex life. I will share this with you now, and then I’m done talking about it. I do not randomly hook up with a lot of women, but I do hook up with some. I’m a single guy. It’s what we do. But I’m safe, and I’m cautious as to who I’m with, and I’m damn selective. If you have a problem with that, fine...write about it. But don’t paint a picture of me that’s inaccurate.”
He finishes and stares at me to ensure that I am comprehending what he is saying. I’m stunned by his speech. I don’t know if it’s his words, or his tone of voice, or hell, maybe it’s the fact that he admitted to f**king that woman...hard, but for some reason I believe he is being completely transparent with me now. Linc isn’t trying to make me believe he’s a saint. He’s admitting to me that he’s not.
I’m starting to think I may have judged him too harshly. Reluctantly, I have to admit it’s becoming clear to me that the one woman who claimed she gave him a b**w j*b was lying. It’s also clear to me that the woman I saw him with probably had the time of her life and there’s a small part of me that wonders what it would be like to be on the receiving end of Linc Caldwell’s hands.
It’s now my turn for a bit of honesty...and humility.
“I’m sorry. It’s just...Friday night, you had asked me out, but then within a few hours of me turning you down, I was under the mistaken impression that you were sexually involved with two other women that same night. It made me think the worst of you.”
Linc doesn’t say anything at first, whisking the eggs with a fork. When he finishes, he sets the fork aside and looks at me. “Just so you know, had you accepted my dinner invitation, I would not have hooked up with that woman. I’m pretty singular in my pursuits. But that’s something we’ll never know, will we?”