“Careful there, Blood Rose,” the brick wall behind me purrs into my ear. “Wouldn’t want you to fall and hurt yourself now, would we?”
I open my mouth to speak, only nothing comes out, so I just settle for shaking my head. A low rumble of what I can assume is supposed to be a laugh vibrates against my back, causing ashiver to travel down my spine. Mr. Pretty clears his throat, breaking whatever trance I was in, so I step away from the wall toward the table. He growls at this movement, causing me to glance in his direction, and I gasp because I know those eyes. I saw them at the edge of the woods. He gives me a studdle shake of his head and, for reasons I am in no shape to scrutinize, I understand the command he is giving me.
Finding my wits about me, I step further away from him but to the right so that I’m not stepping nearer to Mr. Pretty. “I am so sorry I bumped into you. You can take a seat anywhere, and we’ll be right with you.”
He cocks an eyebrow. “No worries are all.”
When he finally lets me go and walks over to a table tucked into the corner, I can’t stop myself from following his every movement. He slides into the booth like a panther, gracefully and as if he owns the space, and is in complete control of everyone and everything. Movement to my left finally breaks the trance this man seems to hold over me.
Turning to Mr. Pretty, I blush so hard that I give the sun a run for its money. “Ummm, I am so sorry. It appears as if I’m losing my mind today.”
He is once again eyeing me like I’ve done him wrong in some way before he snarls low, “Maybe you would like to take care of your other customer first.”
I straighten my spine, glaring at the man over his shitty attitude before placing my professional mask in place. “I apologize for any inconvenience I have caused you. If you would like to give me your drink order, I can get that in right now. Since there seems to be a problem here, I will be happy to turn the rest of your service over to Mrs. Lottie to handle from there.”
The asshole finally seems to understand that he has fucked up. “Oh, no, no. I am so sorry if I have made you feel like you’ve done something wrong.” He seems to force himself to relax and return to the kind man I met on the trail. “I would like you to continue to be my server. I’m just having a shitty day and seem to be taking it out on you. Why don’t you let me take you out to make up for it?”
Giving my sweetest practiced smile, I respond, “How about that drink order first?”
His eyes flash for just a moment. “I’ll have a Coke with light ice.”
“Awesome, I’ll have that right out for you!” I chirp, barely holding the smile.
As I go to fix his drink, I can’t stop myself from eyeing the newcomer out of the corner of my eye. To my surprise, he has his phone out, looking at it and typing something. His eyes snap up to mine almost instantly, as if he can sense me watching him. The predatory look in his eyes makes me shiver.
I will not admit that it’s from want and not fear.
When I make it back behind the counter without incident, I sag at having a moment of reprieve. I steady myself and get back to work, refusing to let anyone mess up what I have here. Lottie took a big risk by letting me work for her, and the last thing I’m going to do is make her regret it. I make sure to add very little ice in Mr. Pretty’s Coke and grab a menu and silverware for the newcomer as I make my way back around the counter to them. I follow my gut and take the Coke over to the table first, then I’ll drop off the menu to the other.
He looks up at me with a wide smile when I place it there. “Thank you, sweetheart. You know I’m sorry for being an ass, right? Please let me make it up to you.”
I make the choice to ignore his questions. “Do you know what you would like to order?”
His smile slips just slightly before he answers me, “Yeah, I’ll have a burger with fries.”
“Anything special about it?” I question him.
“Oh yeah, just meat and cheese,” he tells me smugly.
“Alrighty, I’ll get that right in. I’ll be back to check on you in a few moments,” I fake-smile widely as I turn and leave, putting as much space between him and myself as possible. Before going to put his order in, I go over to the stranger that stirs something deep inside me. I refuse to look into myself and figure out whatever it is right now. When I make it to his table, he looks up at me with an intensity that makes me want to do exactly what he tells me to and make sure his gaze is always that intense while on me.
Four
Vito
A shadow falls over my table, and I slowly look up into the face of a nervous woman doing her best not to show me how nervous she is. I lay my phone down and lean back in the booth trying to make myself less intimidating. She slides a menu in front of me and sets a roll of silverware down to my right. My phone vibrates on the table, and she nearly jumps out of her skin.
“Hi, I’m Loretta, and I’ll be your server this afternoon.” She smiles cautiously. “I apologize once again for trying to knock you down a few minutes ago.”
“It would take a lot more than you to knock me down.” I try to ease her embarrassment.
“Well, that’s good to know,” she sasses back.
I definitely like that on her a lot more than the cautious, scared woman that walked over to me.
“Do you know what you would like to drink?” she questions as she rubs her hands down the front of her pants.
“Am I making you nervous?” Once again, liking that I’m causing her to be off-kilter.
