Slater-Excerpt

“This is stupid!” Becca muttered, pacing back and forth across the small expanse of her foyer.  “Why?  Why did he ask me out for dinner tonight?”

She didn’t have an answer and before she could pull out her phone and text him to cancel, the doorbell rang. 

Becca stared at the door for a long moment, but when the bell rang again, she sighed and walked over to it.  Yanking it open, she glared up at the man, once again startled by his height and brawn. 

“This isn’t going to work,” she told him, forgetting the social niceties of a regular greeting. 

He lifted a dark eyebrow.  “Of course it will.  We’ll eat.  We’ll talk.  It’s a common enough practice.  It should work fine.”

Becca sighed.  “You know what I’m talking about!”

He stepped into her small, craftsman style house and closed the door.  Leaning his shoulders against the wood, he stared down at her.  “Tell me what isn’t going to work.”

“You,” she snapped. “Me!”  She waved her hand frantically between their bodies.  “We’re completely different people and we want different things out of life.”

“What do you think I want, Becca?” he asked gently, leaning a shoulder against the doorframe. 

She huffed again, crossing her arms over her stomach.  “You look like the kind of man who wants a one-night stand with whatever woman might cross his path.”

He looked stunned by her comment, then his features hardened.  “You’re wrong about that.”

“I am?”  She didn’t believe him. Not for a moment.  “How am I wrong?”

He moved closer, stepping into her space and she took a step backwards.  “First of all, I’m much more selective in my romantic partners.  I don’t pick up random women off the street.”

She made a disgusted sound.  “I don’t believe that you’ve ever had a romantic relationship.”  She took another step backwards. “I think that most of your relationships are purely sexual in nature.”  Becca lifted her eyes, daring him to contradict him.

“And secondly,” he continued, ignoring her accusation about his sex life, “I don’t want just one night with you.”

She backed up again, but he closed the distance. “Okay, so you want a sexual partner for the time that you and your team are here in Minnow.  What’s the difference?  A night?  A week?”

“A lifetime?” he offered.