“It’s Monday,” I declared.

“Yeah,” he prompted.

“Monday night is Castle night,” I told him, and his head jerked.

“It’s what night?”

“Castle night.”

“What the fuck is that?” he asked.

“It’s a TV show,” I answered, and he blinked. I hurried on. “If we do a late dinner, we might not be home in time to watch it.”

He stared at me.

“Though, we can DVR it before we go, which would work,” I allowed grudgingly. “But I usually try to watch it as it airs.”

He kept staring at me.

Then he queried slowly, “We’ve had our first date delayed for over a year—so long we’re actually living together and committed to each other before we actually have it— and you want to delay another night for a TV show?”

“It’s Castle,” I explained simply, because no way was I going to explain why I really didn’t want to miss it.

“Is it that good?” he asked.

It was. But mostly it had Nathan Fillion. That was, it had tall, funny, talented, good-looking (did I mention funny? And tall?) Nathan Fillion.

My celebrity crush.

Do you feel me? No way I was going to share that.

I just said, “Yes.”

“Can you wait to watch it until tomorrow?” he asked.

I might be working a pole tomorrow.

I totally didn’t share that.

“Sure,” I said and took another bite of donut.

Ren studied me.

I swallowed, washed donut back with coffee and threw him a smile to throw him off track.

This failed.

“Are there any other TV shows you feel this way about?”

“Um…” I started, because there were.

Luckily most of them were cancelled, but unfortunately my collection of series DVDs had been incinerated in an apartment bomb.

I decided to answer, “The most important one is Castle.”

This was true. Mostly because that was the only one still airing that had Nathan Fillion in it.

I made a mental note to hit a computer and order Firefly from Amazon and ate my last bite of donut.

“Maybe I should ask you twenty questions,” he suggested on a mutter, balling up the donut bag and tossing it in a bin behind his desk.

“Shoot,” I invited.

He looked at me. “Tonight. Sexy dress. Heels. Champagne. And twenty questions.”

“You got it, babe,” I murmured then licked Bavarian cream residue from my fingers.

I finished this then found myself plastered against Ren where he went about tasting Bavarian cream on my tongue.

He tasted of cinnamon twist.

It was an awesome combination.

He lifted his head and whispered, “Let’s go see your new office.”

“Righteous,” I whispered back.

He gave me a squeeze then let me go, but grabbed my hand. We carried our coffees out of his office, down the hall and into reception.

However, he stopped us there, somewhat close to Dawn’s desk.

With a bright smile pinned on her lips, she looked up at him. “Anything you need, Ren?”

“We’re goin’ across the hall to check out Ally’s space.”

“Right,” she chirped.

“And one more thing,” he started, and she tipped her head to the side, eyes avoiding mine but glued to Ren, all ears.

Bitch.

“I’m livin’ with Ally, so obviously I will not take kindly to you bein’ rude to the woman who shares my home,” Ren stated. Her face froze and my body jerked in surprise. His hand tightened in mine and he kept going. “But just to say, no matter who walks through those doors, rudeness will not be tolerated. You can take that as a verbal warning. Next time, it’ll be written. Do you understand me?”

Her face was getting red, from embarrassment or anger, I had no clue.

I also didn’t care.

Inside my head, I was doing cartwheels while outside I was struggling with gloating.