Page 2 of Don't Lie to Me
“I see. Someone new?” His voice was clipped, with maybe a hint of irritation, but I chose to ignore it, based on my thirty-second resolve of getting over my feelings for Jack. I couldn’t spend the rest of my life reading into words he said when Jack had never looked at me with anything except professional respect in his eyes.
“Macy set me up on a blind date.” I didn’t bother hiding my annoyance at the idea of blind dates. I loathed them. The only thing my date tomorrow night guaranteed was an attractive man to look at while enjoying a glass of wine in a restaurant that didn’t come with paper kids’ menus and crayons. Macy loved me too much to subject me to someone who didn’t meet her idea of handsome, and she had great taste. Her own fiancé, Tate, looked like he should appear on the cover of GQ Magazine.
“You’ll be safe.”
I halted at Jack’s words. They sounded like a rough command and while I could brush off the irritation earlier, this was definitely not a kind suggestion.
“What?” I turned and asked him.
“You’ll be safe. He’s a stranger, and you’re…” I froze as his hand reached out….to touch me? I wanted him to. Screw getting over the obsession with him. When Jack McMillan was within five feet of me I simply couldn’t think straight anymore.
And now I was imagining him touching, no, caressing my cheek softly out of concern for my safety. I needed a drink.
As if he saw the surprise and confusions swirling in my mind, his hand snapped to his front pocket and he took a step away from me.
“I’m what, Jack?”
“You’re a woman in the city and you need to be careful.” He sounded even bossier as his dark brown eyes pierced me. He also sounded irritated. I just didn’t understand why. Regardless, he didn’t need to be condescending, and it annoyed me that he thought I was some helpless woman alone in the big bad city.
I sucked in a small breath through my teeth letting my irritation show, and then put a lid on what I really wanted to snap at him. After all, he was still my employer. “Have a good weekend, Jack.”
I left the kitchen to go pick up Logan from the servant’s suite room before heading home. My room in Jack’s place was small, and it was an interior room so it lacked windows, but I was thankful for the space anyway. When Logan was a baby, Jack let me bring him to work since I worked alone almost all day long. It allowed me to stay with Logan most of the day, only needing daycare for longer nights or special events, and it had everything I needed – a small bed and an even smaller bathroom. Now we used it as Logan’s playroom on the days he came to work with me.
I stepped over a handful of Legos and told Logan to put them away while I got ready to go home. It only took a few minutes and we were ready to make the short drive back to Lincoln Park. I looked at the time on my phone on our way out to the entryway. It was almost six thirty, but our brief conversation put me a little bit behind than I wanted to be. Oh well, the only thing I had planned for tonight was a game of UNO with Logan that I promised earlier and a glass of wine.
Jack stood in the entryway when we reached it, his hand clasped firmly to the stairway banister. He smiled and bent down to give Logan a small hug that made my heart flutter. When he turned his eyes to me, he looked just as angry as he did when I left the kitchen.
“What do you know about this guy?” He demanded as he walked towards us, his hands clenched into fists at his side.
Why was he so angry?
I shook my head. “What’s gotten in to you? It’s a date – dinner, a drink - and that’s it.”
“Where is he taking you?”
In five years of working for him, Jack had never pulled the overprotective big brother card, and while I liked it – evidenced by the warmth in my lower stomach – I knew he wasn’t angry because he was jealous. I just didn’t know why he was doing this. The entire conversation was frustrating.
He frowned at me; growing impatient by my lack of response. I sighed. “Frenzio’s. Happy now?”
“No. I’m not happy about this.” He spit out the words with as much frustration as I felt inside of me and took two quick steps toward me leaving almost no space between us. I backed up a step so I could look at him.
Standing at his full height, he towered over my five foot seven inch frame. He was well over six feet tall. The top of my forehead didn’t come close to his chin and when he stood so close – which he had never done before – I had to crane my neck up to see him. He narrowed his eyes and ran a hand through his short, dark brown hair, somehow making it look even more perfect than it did before. He opened his mouth to say something and then shut it again, moving back and putting space between us. The entire conversation left me feeling baffled as we stood there watching each other.
“Mr. Jack, can I play your Playstation next time I come over?” Logan’s smile broke our silence and I watched Jack’s hardened eyes soften when he turned to him with a smile.
“Sure thing. Maybe I’ll get a new game for you to try.”
Logan’s smile stretched ear to ear. “Awesome. I want Paper Mario!”
“Logan….” I admonished him. “It’s rude to state what you want like that. Mr. Jack doesn’t have to buy you anything.”
He made a pouty face that made both Jack and me laugh; momentarily breaking the tension I could practically feel reverberating off him.
“Nonsense.” Jack squatted down in front of Logan again and gently rubbed his blonde curly locks. He may have been speaking to Logan, but his eyes never left mine. “If you don’t tell someone what you want, you’ll never get it.”
His words implied a double meaning, only I didn’t know what on earth he meant and his darkened black eyes left me feeling too unsettled to want to stay around any longer to try to figure it out.
I simply nodded my head in the direction of the kitchen while I reached for Logan’s hand. “Enjoy your dinner. I’ll see you Monday.”
