“He did. Like a real asshole.”

“Definitely,” he says behind a chuckle. “That’s a shame. Some men aren’t suited to handle a woman keeping it real with them. Men always act like they want a woman with a high sex drive who will do all the things they see in videos, but when they actually get a woman with a high sex drive, they can’t handle it. It takes a certain personality type to do the things I do … the things I write about. Most men want a dominant personality, but they don’t actually have it, and it’s always easy to spot the fakes.”

“I agree with that, but you’re not one of the fakes. Not only is it in your books, written in the most amazing detail, but I could tell at the meet and greet.”

“What do you mean?’

“When I said your books made me feel like I should be into BDSM, I saw how that piqued your interest. I think that’s the moment you really became interested in me. Isn’t that right?”

Nas lifts his drink and takes another sip, this one bigger than the last. “Yes and no,” he answers. “Like I said before, I noticed you before I ever came down the escalator. You stood out to me like a star in the blackness of space, and seeing you shine that bright is what made me interested in you. Mentioning BDSM was just the icing on the cake for me. Being with you tonight and talking to you like this is like getting another cake on top of the one I already had. You’re like having my cake and eating it, too, because you’re not treating me like I’m a celebrity. You’re not asking me about other authors, or how much money I made off my last book. You’re genuine and leaving a helluva first impression.”

“There you go again, trying to make me fall for you on the first date.”

“The only place I’d want you to fall for me is to your knees.”

Yes! Force me to my knees. Put me in my fucking place.

I freeze. We both do, and while I stare at him wild-eyed, Nas is as composed as ever. A smile pulls at the side of his mouth without him giving way to it, and while I struggle to collect words in my head, I’m distracted by our waiter coming to the table to ask if we want dessert. Nas has a conversation with the man that sounds like it’s happening under water to me, and before I know it, the waiter is gone and Nas is speaking to me like everything is normal.

“When you were reading scenes in The Patient, did you identify with Ava’s submissiveness?” he asks, leaning back with all the swagger in the world.