“That’ll be our food,” I said, walking to the door.

I quickly paid and brought the food to the kitchen, where Charlie had taken a seat at my small table. I pushed the newspaper and several books to the side.

“Sorry for the mess.”

“No worries. Looks like my place.” Then she reddened. “I didn’t mean… My place is nothing like this. It’s tiny, and—”

“Charlie, it’s okay. I know what you meant.” I pulled containers of food out from the bag.

“Is there anything I can do?” she asked.

“Nope.” I stood and brought some paper plates and plastic utensils to the table. “Not too classy, huh?”

“Classy enough. No dishes to do. Of course, not a friend to the environment.”

“These are all recyclable.”

“Oh. Good.”

I handed her a plate of food. “I hope you like it.”

She inhaled. “It smells divine, and as you can tell from my stomach’s behavior earlier, I’m famished.”

I smiled. Listening to her tummy growl while I was painting her had given her a human side that actually helped me. I’d been thinking of her as this ethereal creature, something above humanity, because of her dazzling silver eyes.

As I looked at her now, I couldn’t process how she didn’t see her own beauty, which was why I’d wanted her to describe mine.

If she could see mine and put it into words, maybe she could begin to see her own. She’d called me amazing-looking, and while it was a huge compliment and warmed me—a lot—she hadn’t actually done what I’d asked.

“Go ahead and eat,” I said. “Later you can tell me what it is about me that pleases your senses.”

She stared at me then. Stared hard. “There’s nothing about you that doesn’t please my senses—if you’re talking about the five senses, I mean.”

“Why are you limiting it to the five senses?”

She reddened. “Well, you were kind of rude when I got here.”

“It was nine at night.”

“I know.”

“Maybe you were rude for showing up at a virtual stranger’s house at that hour.”

I berated myself inwardly. Why was I reverting to asshole mode? I was attracted to this woman. I liked her. I’d just fucked her, for God’s sake.

She huffed. “It’s New York!”

“So?”

She put down her plastic fork and shook her head. “You know, I’m starving, but I’m not going to sit here and take this shit from you. I can’t believe I let you fuck me. This is not who I am.”

I had to fix this. Quickly. God, I sucked with women.

I searched frantically inside my brain for the perfect words to say, but all I could come up with was, “Don’t go.”

“Why shouldn’t I?