“It’s good and hot.”Poor choice of words.“Say one more ridiculous thing and it’ll be in your lap.” Yeah, I’m striking out left and right. He needs to go.
“I’ve got a proposition for you. Have lunch with me and let’s take a little walk. Needs to be away from listenin’ ears, if you catch my meaning.”
I stirred my soup, scooping out a gaping mouthful and gently blowing on it. “I’m intrigued.”
“Really?”
“No.”I stuck the spoon in my mouth, taking my time pulling it out and hoping it drove him insane. I shouldn’t be the only uncomfortable one at this table.
“Come on, pet. Don’t be like that. I’d never hurt you, I swear.”
“But you’d delete someone, try to set me up, blackmail me and stalk my every move? Seems legit.”
His tattooed fingers drummed on the table, and I looked down at the chess piece. “I’m sorry, okay? For what it’s worth, I came back to make it up to you. What can I do to make you comfortable…other than disappear?”
I took another bite of my lunch. “You could answer some questions for me. That’d be a good start. You seem to know plenty about me without my fucking consent.” Des popped back up to the table, setting his milkshake down and—dude…he has more whipped cream than me? What the fuck kind of backstabbery is this?
“Thanks, love.” She dipped out and he tugged his straw towards that mouth, his lip ring teetering around it…afterhe made a show of flicking his tongue over it.This bastard.“That’s fair. Whadd’ya wanna know?”
“Are you in a mob?” His turn to choke on his milkshake.
“Um…I thought that was pretty obvious, but…yes.”
I shoveled another spoonful into my mouth, flipping the spoon over and dragging it down my bottom lip. He watched me like a predator. Hungry. Perplexed. I kinda like it. “What about your tattoo? Your buddy in the chair the other night had a pawn. Yours is a knight. Is that some kinda representation of rank?”
“It is.” His eyes stayed glued to my mouth.
“So…? I’m assuming you’re pretty high on the totem pole, then?”
Now he seemed uncomfortable. He took a couple long sips from his straw and swiped a fingertip through his whipped cream, eyeing me while he sucked it off his finger…slowly. He’s playing the game now, and I can’t even figure out which one of us is winning. “I am.”
I pulled a knee up, hoping to create some kind of barrier between us, because if I’m being honest? I wanna tear his ass apart, limb from limb…in two completely different ways. I can’t explain it, and I can’thelpit. And it’s pissing me off. “Okay. So, what’d you do with the um…gift…since I didn’t take it with me when I left?”
He swallowed down what was in his mouth and rubbed the back of his neck. Also tattooed. Actually, I don’t think I see much on him thatisn’ttattooed. This isn’t helping at all. “I um…let him get closely acquainted with my shower curtain. Then with the side yard.”
“Your backyard? Seriously?”
He huffed and lowered his head. “I did it wrong, didn’t I?”
“An amateur in every sense of the word.”
He turned his body towards me and worked on his milkshake while I finished off my soup. “So, what would you have done?”
“Not sure. Usually depends on my schedule. The curtain was a nice touch, though.”
“Isn’t that what you use?” I shot my face towards him.
“You don’t miss a damn thing, do you?” He just grinned and shook his head.
“What’d ya do with the other four?”
I looked around and bit down on my lip, lowering my voice. “I um…made them into fertilizer and gave our roses some‘oomph’…” His mouth dropped open in a smile and his eyes got wide while he lowered his milkshake.
“No shit? That’s kinda hot.”
“Not as hot as they got, I assure you. I tried to tell you. My clients are safe. You’re the one making shit difficult.”
“I feel slightly bad about that. Finish up and I’ll tell you how we’re gonna fix it.”
