“You dare me?” I raise a brow. “What will happen if I do?”

“I’ll take you out to the car and suck your clit until you come all over my mouth,” he replies without looking up from his ice cream, as if he’s talking about the damn weather. “You’re sweeter than this ice cream.”

“God, Simon.” Hello, wet panties.

“I won’t warn you again,” he says and meets my gaze with his.

“Tell me about your parents.” I offer him an angelic smile and lick my spoon, changing the subject.

“Muriel and Charles Danbury,” he replies.

“Are you close to them?”

“Very,” he says. “They usually come with me to these seminars, but Mum recently had a knee surgery, and Dad is nursing her to health.”

“How long have they been married?” Finished with my ice cream, I set the cup aside and lean on the table, resting my chin in my fist and listening to the British in Simon’s voice.

“Thirty-three years.”

“They had you quickly.” I smile and watch the warm smile come to his face.

“And I was a handful. I was a sickly child.” He pushes his own cup away and leans on his elbows. “I had apnea issues as a baby, so I was in the hospital for three months.”

“You stopped breathing? That must have been terrifying!”

“I’m told it was.” He nods and reaches for my hand. “Mum was always a stay-at-home mother when I was little, so she stayed at the hospital full time with me and Dad came around his work schedule.”

“What does he do?”

“Aren’t you the curious one?” He grins at me and keeps talking. I love his voice. “He’s retired now, but he was a professor at university. After I went to high school, Mum went back to school as well to become a teacher, and she just retired last year from teaching primary school. She retired early so she could enjoy it with Dad.”

“That’s awesome,” I reply and rub the back of his hand with my thumb.

“Sometimes, when they join me on these trips, my dad will take one of the afternoon lecture sessions and teach it himself. He gets a kick out of it.”

“I think it’s wonderful that you include the people closest to you in your business.”

“There’s no one else I’d rather have with me,” he says. “They’re the ones I can trust implicitly.”

“I can understand that. I have a small staff at the store, and I’m finally confident in who I have working for me. But it was a process. I had girls steal from me, girls who were lazy, girls who couldn’t show up to work on time. A strong work ethic isn’t necessarily ingrained in everyone the way it was in me and my siblings.”

“No, it’s not,” he agrees with a smile. “And once you’ve been burned, you get very protective.”

“Trust is hard to replace once it’s gone,” I add. “It’s harder for Eli, Beau, and Van.”

“How so?”

“Well, the shipping business is much bigger than my shop, and they deal with betrayal all the time. Just a couple of years ago, Eli’s wife, Kate, was poisoned by a coworker.”

“No way,” he says, his blue eyes wide.

“It’s the truth. The coworker didn’t want to get caught embezzling funds, and she knew that Kate has a peanut allergy and fed them to her. It was horrible.”

“What is wrong with people?” he asks with a frown.

“You’re the expert. You tell me.”

“I’m no expert on sociopathic behavior,” he replies with a laugh. “But I can talk about self-esteem and flirting all day long.”

“And you do,” I say with a nod. “It’s not rough, listening to you speak.”

“I should hope not. Women invest a lot of time and money to do so.”

“The information is good. And the package it comes in is also good.”

“They do not come to see me just because they think I look good.”

I cock a brow and smile at his obvious discomfort.

“I believe it was Shelly who went home a week early when she discovered that this wasn’t a way to get in your pants.”

When I realize what I’ve said, I dissolve into giggles and Simon looks on with a wide grin.

“You’re funny.”

“It’s just ironic, is all.”

“Shelly had no chance in hell,” Simon says and kisses my hand. “And that doesn’t happen often. Some women do flirt, but on the whole, they’re just nice people who need help in certain areas of their life, and they come here seeking that help.”

“It’s a great thing that you do.” Now it’s my turn to kiss his hand. “When Van has had a chance to heal a bit, I’ll recommend she come.”

“If she’s anything like you, she’s stronger than you give her credit for.”

I sit back, surprised. “What a lovely compliment.”

“It’s the truth.”

I blink at him for a moment, then stand and throw our cups away. “Come on. Let’s go for a walk around the lake.”

“After dark?” he asks.

“Don’t worry. I’m strong. I’ll protect you.”

***

“We haven’t moved from this bed all day.”

“That’s not true,” Simon says and drags his large hand down my back to my ass, then grips it tightly. “We stared at the baby eagles for an hour this morning and I answered the door four times for room service.”