This chapter is dedicated to rosecrystal26 for being the first to add this book to their reading list! Thank you!

Song: One Direction- What makes you beautiful

As I stood there between the cold metal sink biting into my back and Kyle pressing ever so closely to my front, I was suddenly reminded of a phrase- it was the worst of times, it was the best of times. I wanted him to kiss me but at the same time, I didn't want it. A tale of two feelings. As with all things Kyle-related, I was confused.

Kyle Clarkson- Master of the art of Confuddlement.

"I want to kiss you so badly," he whispered, trailing his lips lightly down my neck, "But only if you want me to." A low moan escaped from my lips and I closed my eyes. At this point if he asked me to donate both of my kidneys I would do it without hesitation. And probably throw in a pair of lungs for good measure.

Thankfully, his phone rang and he made a frustrated sound before he pulled away from me and answered it. I took huge gulps of air, relieved while he spoke on the phone. I made my way out of the kitchen to give him privacy and stood outside on the porch. He joined me there a couple of minutes later.

"I have to go but it's a yes on the house," he said after staring at me for a couple of minutes. Oh so we weren't talking about our moment in the kitchen then. Okay, I'll bite.

"Great. I'll give you the papers when we get back to the office and you can look over them and send them back once you've signed," I said.

"How about you give them to me when we have dinner tonight?"

"I wasn't aware we had dinner plans," I said cocking an eyebrow.

"You did say you're- and I quote - all mine," he said smiling mischievously.

"I meant for the day," I defended.

"Well the day hasn't ended. Have lunch with me then."

"I have plans," I lied.

He frowned. "With who?"

"Laura."

"Your best friend?" he guessed and I nodded.

"Can I come?"

"No!" I practically yelled.

"Why?"

"Because...because you're incapable of decent conversation," I spluttered.

"I promise I'll only talk about how beautiful you are," he said grinning.

"No!"

"Or I'll talk about how your heart raced when I touched you." He stroked my cheek lightly with his thumb when he said this.

I gulped and shifted away from him. "No." It was weaker than my previous protests.

"Or how you drove me crazy with that sexy moan you made when my lips were on your neck," he said in a sultry voice, moving towards me.

Oh boy.

"Kyle!" I yelled frustrated and he actually stopped. "Just...No."

"Okay, Beautiful," he said, "Let me take you back to the office." I locked up the house and followed him to the car. He opened my door for me as always and then we were on our way.

"So that's what it takes to finally get you to say my name," he remarked as he drove, "I'm kind of disappointed. I was hoping the first time you said it would be when you're screaming it in ecstasy."

My jaw dropped and my face turned fifty shades of ketchup.

"I'm just messing with you, Beautiful. You should see your face right now," he said laughing.

I didn't say anything, I couldn't, but that didn't faze Kyle.

"So what did you say about dinner tonight?"

"No," I said curtly.

"I'll make you a deal then. I won't say or do anything inappropriate if you have dinner with me."

I eyed him suspiciously. "Why should I believe you'll hold up your end? You seem physically incapable of decent conversation or acts."

"You'll just have to trust me," he chuckled. Those words again. I grit my teeth.

"You're already compelled to go out with me due to our one week deal so really I'm just sweetening the pot by adding the clause of good behaviour," he argued.

"Fine. But let's have rules. If you do or say anything vaguely inappropriate, the deal is off," I said firmly.

"Deal," he said, "But just so we're clear, define inappropriate for me."

"No touching, no kissing, no hinting at kissing, no talking about sex or sex-related issues," I rattled off.

"That's quite a list," Kyle said smiling. I looked at him expectantly. "Okay, I won't do any of those things as long as you'll go out with me whenever I ask, for the rest of our one week."

"Yeah sure whatever," I said.

"That was too easy. What's the catch?" he asked as he parked the car.

"Oh, no catch. I just know you won't make it through one date of decent conversation so this deal will be over before it even starts," I said smiling triumphantly as I got out of his car.

***

When I got home in the evening I showered and dressed in dark blue jeans and a white button-down blouse as per Kyle's vague-instructions to dress casually. I had reluctantly given Kyle my home address so he could pick me up for our dinner date. He arrived at exactly 7.30 p.m and we went down to his car.

"So are you finally going to tell me where we're going?" I asked him.

"No. It's a surprise," he said with a smile, "It's a bit of a long drive though."

"Are we going out of Pinehive?" I asked surprised.

"Not telling," he said.

"Okay then Mr Mystery," I said as I watched the scenery floating past as we drove on, "Where are you from anyway?" I asked turning in my seat to face him.

"San Pedrello," Kyle replied.

San Pedrello was literally on the other side of the continent. From what I'd heard of it, it's a big state with several smaller cities within and it was said to have the best of everything. The best land, the best resources, the best business and market, the best clubs and the best people. That explained Kyle's drop dead gorgeous looks. Pinehive by comparison was a small, boring town with little to no activity especially on a social aspect. I couldn't for the life of me imagine why he would want to buy a house here let alone live in it when he had a home in San Pedrello.

"Why on earth would you want to move here when there's San Pedrello?" I asked him.

"I guess I just need a fresh start in a new place," he shrugged.

"You don't come to Pinehive for a fresh start. It's literally the place where people come to retire and die in peace," I argued.

He laughed. "But I thought you loved it here?"

"Oh I do! But I'm a hermit and Pinehive is as hermity as cities can get so it's perfect for me but you seem like the outgoing type. Pinehive is definitely not for you."

"You'd be surprised. I can be pretty hermity when I want to be," he said.

"You said something about your family the other day. Are they also relocating with you?" I asked.

"Not yet. My parents are happy in San Ped so I think they'll only come for an occasional visit. My brother and sister are a little skeptical about the move so they came with me to check out the place I would choose. I'm hoping they'll join me permanently one day," he replied.

"Why do you need the fresh start anyway? Running away from your past indiscretions?" I joked.

"Something like that," he said with a tight smile, "We're here."

I squinted in the darkness trying to make out where here was. A huge banner loomed over us, marked with the words 'Cover to Bite.' A picture of a chef holding a plate piled high with books was under the words.

"What is this place?" I asked him confused as he opened my door for me.

"You'll see when we go in," Kyle said smiling mysteriously.

The exterior of the building gave no clues as to what was in the building. Kyle opened the door for me and I stepped in and looked around. I almost had a heart attack when I saw what was inside. The building was divided into several compartments marked with a huge banner. Each compartment had several smaller cubicles with a table set for two in each cubicle and a book shelf. The flags that marked the compartments had authors' names and pictures of the books that they had written. The place was some sort of library combined with a restaurant. I stood in awe just taking in everything.

"I'm sorry I didn't know your favorite book when I made the reservation so I booked us a cubicle in the Stephenie Meyer compartment. She's the one that wrote that book you told me about the other day, right?" Kyle said. I just nodded in response and followed behind him as a waitress led us to our cubicle. We passed J.K Rowling's compartment with the Harry Potter series pictures and Caroline Keene's compartment with her Nancy Drew series. When we got to our cubicle, Kyle pulled out the chair for me and I sat and stared at the book shelf lined with the Twilight Saga books among her other works. A screen was set in one wall of the cubicle where, as the waitress explained, we could watch movie adaptations of the books that had movies.

"I think I just died and went to Heaven," I said when she had left after giving us menus, "How did I not know about this place?"

"Well you are a hermit," Kyle said smiling. I stood and pulled out one of the books from the shelf, Twilight, the first book in the Twilight Saga series and also my favourite. I retreated back to my chair and leafed through the delicate pages.

"It's nice to see you like this. Smiling and happy," Kyle commented.

"Books make me happy," I said, "This place is amazing. Thank you." I smiled at him and he smiled back. The waitress came back and took our order. I decided to get something other than fries for a change and got a cheese, potato and sausage casserole and Kyle ordered a beef and broccoli stir fry.

"So are we allowed to take the books home with us?" I asked him when our food had arrived.

"Only if you're a member. Otherwise you read the books here and leave them. Same goes for the DVDs," he replied.

"How do I become a member?" I asked excitedly.

"It's basically filling in a form with your details then paying a joining fee of approximately $1000 and after that it's monthly subscriptions of $500."

"Wow, that's a lot of money," I exclaimed. All hopes of becoming a member immediately flew out the window.

"It's worth it though for an establishment like this," Kyle replied. He fished a folded paper out of his pocket and handed it to me.

"What's this? Some more flowers?" I asked.

"Open it," he said smiling. I opened it to reveal a list of questions. I scanned through the list and burst out laughing.

"Really?" I asked him.

"It's a standard test I give to profile people and determine what kind of music would suit them," he said assuming a business like posture. He was mimicking me on our first meeting when I gave him my test.

"How did your last three relationships end?" I read from his list.

"That tells me if you were the heart-breaker or the heartbroken and if so, which songs would best suit you. For example if you were heartbroken there's a whole album of Taylor Swift songs that you would totally be able to relate to and if you were the heart-breaker I know the perfect Taio Cruz song that would suit you," he winked at me.

"Okay then. Profile away," I said handing him back the paper.

"First question. What do you like to do on a weekend?"

"I like cleaning on Saturday's. Like a thorough sweep of my whole apartment and I move things around and re-decorate then at the end of the day I curl up on the couch and watch re-runs of tv shows. Sunday is my lazy day. I go to church, buy a truck load of junk food and lie in bed with my food and a book," I answered.

"Interesting," he said scribbling something down.

"No way! You're actually taking notes too?" I laughed.

"This is serious business," he chided me and I tried to keep a straight face as he went through his list. By the time he asked the last question we done with dinner.

"Can you dance?"

"A three-legged goat would beat me in a dance-off, hooves down," I scoffed. Kyle burst out laughing until he was almost crying. "It's not that funny," I complained.

"It's friggin' hilarious," he said, still laughing.

"Can you dance?" I asked him.

"I try," he shrugged. He folded up the paper and put it in his pocket along with the notes he'd been making.

"Aren't you going to let me see those?" I asked.

"No."

"Why not?"

"You never showed me the notes you made on the test you gave me so it's only fair," he replied smugly.

"I'll show you mine if you show me yours," I said in a singsong voice.

He looked amused. "When you have yours we'll trade."

"Okay."

"We should be heading back. I don't want to keep you out too long since you've got work tomorrow," he said.

Wow. How thoughtful of him but I really wanted to look around at the other compartments in the restaurant.

"We'll come back on a weekend and you can go through all the shelves," he smiled as if he'd read my mind.

"You don't have to do that for me. I'm sure this..." I started to protest.

He placed his hand over mine. "I want to." He removed his hand almost immediately and mine felt strangely cold without it. He pulled out my chair for me and we exited the restaurant and got into his car.

Five minutes later, I was still struck dumb by the brief contact we had shared. He finally spoke, breaking the silence in the car.

"What's your ringtone?"

"Just a normal telephone ring. Why?" I eyed him curiously.

"Like a landline?" he asked.

"Yeah."

"No way," he laughed.

"What's so funny?" He didn't answer me and instead took his phone and dialed. I heard my phone ring in my pocket and realized he was calling me. He burst out laughing when he heard it ring.

"What the hell is so funny?" I asked irritated now. He caught the tone of my voice and stopped laughing.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to upset you," he said glancing at me.

"Whatever," I said. He gave me a pained look but didn't say anything else.

"I'm going to play a song by a group called One Direction. Please listen to the lyrics?" he pleaded. I gave a non-committal groan but I craned my ear to catch every word when the song began. I had to admit, the lyrics were beautiful.

When we got to Pinehive he stopped at some shops and asked to grab a couple of things quickly. I waited in his car, head lying back and eyes closed. Kyle came back in a few minutes later and placed something on my lap. My eyes popped open and I looked down and saw a grocery bag with five Styrofoam containers.

"What's this?" I asked him.

"An apology," he replied, starting up the car. I opened the first container; it was filled to the brim with French fries. Same applied for the other four. I stared at him puzzled.

"I noticed you like them so I thought they'd make an acceptable apology," he said grinning sheepishly. My heart literally melted.

"Apology accepted," I smiled at him, "But one container would have been enough."

"Sorry," he grimaced, "I may have gone a little overboard."

He carried the bag up to my apartment and held it for me while I unlocked the door. Once I opened the door he handed it over.

"I guess it's goodnight Beautiful," he said flashing me a smile.

"Thank you for the lovely dinner," I smiled back.

"Thank you for having dinner with me." He smiled again and looked at me expectantly.

"What? Hoping to get invited for a 'night cap'?" I teased, "If you think getting me french fries earned you some frolicking in..."

"Actually, you were supposed to give me some papers," he cut in before I could finish my sentence.

I stared at him blankly.

"For the house?" he elaborated

I turned red. "Oh of course. The papers," I laughed nervously as I grabbed them and shoved them at him.

"See you tomorrow Beautiful," he said, lips twitching as he fought the urge to laugh. I mumbled a hasty goodbye, closed the door and slid down onto the floor covering my face from embarrassment.

***