When Lust Turns to Love

Chapter 6

Hannah Towers' POV

Indeed, it’s the perverted devil I was thinking about a while ago. The corners of his mouth lifts subtly in a small smile as he hands me back my pack of facial wipes.

“I think you need a hand.” He declares and proceeds to take the paper bag out of my hands.

“N-No, it’s okay, Mr. Royce. I can handle this.” I protest but in vain. He already had my bag of groceries in his arms. He starts walking ahead of me so I am left with no choice but to follow him.

I look at his back in front of me. He is wearing a simple grey shirt paired with black jeans but he still manages to stand out. He already seems so out of place in this part of the mall. Why is he even here? Does he do his own shopping? Suddenly, he stops and I hurriedly walk to his side.

He glances at me. “Where would you like to eat?”

“What?”

“I said−”

I interrupt him while stammering. “I-I mean… Are you saying that…uh, you mean…oh damn.” I let out a sigh scolding myself for stammering but he just stares at me amusingly.

“Yes, I mean we should have lunch together. I bet you haven’t eaten yet.” He replies casually.

“But Mr. Royce−”

“I thought I already said you should call me Justin.”

Yes, surely he did during our third meet up. It’s just that I am not used to calling him by his first name but since he insists, I might as well obey him.

“Uhm, okay, Justin, having lunches together was definitely not part of the deal.” I almost whispered the last words, fearing that someone might hear us even though I doubt they would discern what kind of deal I am talking about.

“I know.” He replies and throws me a small smile. “But I won’t touch you. We’ll just have lunch and I’ll pay you for your time.”

“Why would you do that?” I ask, suddenly suspicious of his offer.

“Because I want to and I can.” He simply answers and Mark appears out of nowhere and Justin hands him my bag of groceries.

“Take this to the car and be on standby. We’ll just have lunch.” He orders Mark while I stand uncomfortably not believing that I’ll be having lunch with Justin today. Our deal was clearly s****l and what he just said doesn’t make any sense. What if he has other motives?

Mark obediently takes my bag of groceries and Justin whisks me off in search of a suitable place for lunch.

Not long after, we enter a simple but elegant-looking diner and a blond waiter with a tight blouse and short skirt greets us before gladly walking us to a table.

I awkwardly sit and Justin does the same, sitting across me. The waitress is unnecessarily standing so close to Justin and looking down dreamily at him as she waits for our order. I wouldn’t do that if I were her, I already know what kind of man he is. I roll my eyes but Justin is not even looking up at her.

“What do you want to eat, Hannah?” Justin asks me instead, ignoring the overwhelming presence of the waitress beside him.

“Uhm, I would like some baked mac with extra cheese, chicken fried steak, crispy fried potatoes and a bowl of vegetable salad.”

I glance at Justin after my orders and he is looking at me with a smile playing on his lips.

I frown at him. “What?”

“Are you that hungry?” he grins at me.

I almost fell off my chair as I couldn’t believe he is smiling and grinning at me like a care-free teenager. Usually, he has a stoic face that could make anyone uncomfortable including me.

“Was that too much?” I worriedly ask and nervously laugh.

He puts up a hand. “No, no, I mean, I can’t believe you could eat that much and still looks so damn sexy.”

His compliment made me roll my eyes again. If I wasn’t that sexy, would he have offered me that deal?

I laugh bitterly and glance at the waiter still looking down at Justin with dreamy eyes. Oh, poor lady. You’re staring at a jerk.

Just then, Justin looks up at the waitress and says his order. I watch the waitress' reaction and oh boy, she looks like she’s riding a firework about to explode in the broad dark sky. I notice how she's purposely writing down Justin's orders in a slow manner. She smiles widely at Justin before trotting off her butt away.

“So, why this…this sudden lunch?” I ask him curiously. I thought I could have the day off by myself but I can’t believe I am having lunch with him right now.

He shrugs his shoulders. “Nothing. I was just passing by when I saw you. And I thought we could have some lunch together since it’s already close to lunchtime.”

I narrow my eyes at him. “What’s the catch?”

“What? You don’t believe me?”

I gulp nervously. Maybe he is brewing some plan in his mind and in the future, he will be using this harmless lunch together to make me do something.

“Oh, Hannah. I promise, this is just a simple lunch. No other agendas.” He regards me with his eyes and I could almost see his sincerity.

Maybe, I’m over reacting. Give the man a chance, Hannah. “Okay. Fine. Just… just lunch.”

A few moments later, our food arrives and I forget my doubts at the sight of the delicious savory dishes before me. I even clasped my hands in delight at the sight of my favorite baked mac.

I murmur my prayer of thanks before attacking the food eagerly. We started eating our own food quietly when he suddenly spoke.

“So Hannah, can you tell me about yourself?”

I furrow my eyebrows at his question. “So you took me out to lunch to interrogate me?”

“I wouldn’t call this interrogating. It’s more of…uh…getting to know each other.” He gulps down his food and he seems to be anxious like he has never done this before. Or maybe I’m just imagining it.

“You stalked me on our first meeting so, I assume you already know everything about me.” I take another spoonful of my pasta.

He stops eating and fumbles with his necktie before leaning forward putting his elbows on the table. “I want to hear it from you.”

“There’s nothing much that you don’t know. You already did your search on me so that’s all.”

He eyes me intently expecting me to speak further but I keep quiet so he picks his utensils and resumes eating.

“How often do you teach?” he asks after a moment.

I sigh, he’s really weird today. He’s now asking questions about my teaching. He's trying to have a conversation with me right now at which I am shocked about since he never attempted to converse with me before or after sleeping with me.

“Thrice every week. So that my students would have time for other things.” I reply while licking my lips for the sauce all over it.

He puts down his spoon and reaches for his glass of water. “What do you teach them?”

“Geometry and Physics.”

“Really? You teach those subjects?” He looks at me wide-eyed in disbelief.

“Uh-huh” Because he asked for it, I went on talking about how Geometry and Physics became my favorites even if almost half of the world despises these two subjects. He would also counteract and give off his own rants of how he really hates numbers and the alphabets with them.

“It annoys the hell out of me. I could never get how people would love working with numbers added with x and y and z and whatnot.” He rolls his eyes and for that moment he looks so cute and I never thought that a rich bastard like him would hate numbers given that numbers and figures are what he is making with all the money he earns.

“Doesn’t it get boring dealing with all that numbers and symbols you could never understand why they are even there in the first place?” he adds and I laugh lightly at his complaints.

My smile suddenly drops as I realize I just chuckled in front of him as if we are already comfortable with each other.

I look at him and he is already staring at me with an unknown emotion playing in his blue eyes.

“You look even more beautiful when you laugh.” He leans forward. “I would like to see more of you laughing wholeheartedly.”

I press my lips together not knowing what to say. Seeing how uncomfortable I became, he pulls back putting a significant distance between us.

I clear my throat. “It doesn't ever get boring when you're doing the things you are passionate about. When the process of understanding them makes you feel happy, you know you are in the right track of doing what you really love.”

He looks at me in amazement. “Oh, that was an incredible way of putting it up, Hannah. You're really interesting.”

“What?” I want to make sure I heard it right.

But he just smiles and shakes his head. He signals for the bill and he paid before we head out.