He brows dipped. “Don’t what?”

“Try to make me feel better. Give me a boost or whatever. Because, seriously, I don’t need your pity.”

He laughed. This sharp bark of a thing that echoed through the empty parking lot. “Pity? Are you kidding?”

Her teeth clamped together, anger rising. “You—”

But he moved so fast it made the rest snag in her throat. Both of his hands landed on the car behind her, caging her in and bringing his face close to hers. “Ready for completely and wholeheartedly inappropriate?”

He wasn’t touching her anywhere but he may as well have pressed his entire body against her for the way her blood went hot. She couldn’t speak. Couldn’t move. All she could see were those dark eyes and inhale the scent of him, spicy food and man.

“I reeled myself in tonight. I asked you to dinner for selfish reasons. But once we were there and got to talking, I had a crisis of conscience. You’re working with me. You’ve been through hell this week. You didn’t need me complicating that. I forced myself to play by the rules. I made myself be good.” He leaned close to her ear, his breath coasting along her neck. “But don’t think for one second that I didn’t want to talk you into my bed tonight, that I didn’t want to show you that side of myself you saw in the hallway, and that I haven’t been thinking exactly how good it would feel to have you beneath me.”

All ability to breathe ceased inside her, her body going still as stone and melty as lava.

“So you can accuse me of a lot of things, Cora. Crossing lines. Being selfish. Acting inappropriately. Because I’m doing all of those things right now. But one thing you can’t accuse me of is pity.” He pushed off the car, freeing her from the invisible hold, and took a step back. “I’ll see you on Monday. And if you decide not to show up anymore because of this, I’ll make sure you’re paid through the next two weeks.”

He turned and strode toward his car, leaving her standing there trembling and breathing hard and… way too turned on.

She wet her lips, a surge of bravery welling in her. “You never told me your breaking-the-law story.”

The words rang through the distance between them, and she thought he might keep walking, but he stopped and turned around. “We’ll need to schedule a seven-course meal to get through all of that.”

“That long of a list, huh?”

His mouth kicked up at the corner. All bad boy and charm. “Yep, you game?”

She swallowed past the dryness in her throat, knowing what he was asking was about way more than a dinner. She was so damn far off the reservation. “I might be…”

His gaze heated, slid over her with open appreciation. “It’s a date, then. Goodnight, hallway girl.”