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After the “gentleman” comment, Jesse had gone from excited to aware, and the darkening of his usually light eyes was a good indicator that he was thinking about something other than the fact we were sitting in a quaint coffee shop. The exact reaction I’d hoped to stir. The only way this was going to work was if Jesse trusted me. And the best way to gain that trust was to make myself the exact thing he wanted. The exact thing he needed.
I reached for a menu, and made sure to pass him one. The gentleman act really wasn’t my style, but for today’s purpose it would do the trick nicely. As Jesse reached for it, I made sure to brush his fingers, and when his eyes met mine, I said, “You’re going to be trouble for me, Jesse Clark.”
A tinge of red bloomed on his cheeks, and when I released the menu and sat back, I watched him swallow a gulp of air. Nerves…they made a person that much more enticing.
“Uh, why do you say that?”
I arched an eyebrow at him and flipped open my menu. “Because of the way you keep looking at me.”
Jesse immediately lowered his eyes to what was in his hands, and I let out a low laugh, wanting his attention back on me, and as I suspected, he was helpless to resist. That inquisitive gaze once again found mine. Come on, ask me.
“And…umm, how am I looking at you?”
Bingo. “Like you have questions you want answers to,” I said, and lowered my menu to the table so I could lean over it. “Like you’re intrigued but not sure if you should be.”
Jesse blinked several times, and then moistened his lips with the tip of his tongue, and I lowered my eyes to follow its path.
“Oh God,” he muttered, and when I returned my focus back to him, Jesse hurriedly said, “I’ve never met anyone like you.”
No, you haven’t. I moved back to my side of the table to give him some space to breathe, and once again picked up my menu, even though I already knew what I wanted. “I know.”
“I mean, you’re Salvatore Wolfe. I guess I do have a lot of questions, but…” He paused and shook his head. “I just can’t seem to think of one right this second.”
“How about we start with a very basic one.”
Jesse’s eyes roved all over my face and then down to my hands as he said, “Okay…”
I could tell he was waiting for something outlandish. Perhaps a command or order after all that he’d learned from his phone call the other night at the laundromat. But that wasn’t about to happen just yet, because the best rewards came to those who had patience—and I had it in spades. “What are you going to have today?” When Jesse’s head came up and he was staring across the table at me once more, I pointed to the menu. “Anything catch your eye?”
“I, uh, haven’t actually looked yet,” he said, and then a soft laugh rumbled out of him. “What about you?”
I made a show of giving him a thorough once-over. “Oh, something’s caught my eye, all right. Ever since I saw him walk into my club last weekend.”
As Jesse’s mouth fell open, I knew he was making the correlation between the Wolfe’s Den and me, and I made sure to hold his attention even when the waitress stopped beside us.
“Good afternoon, Mr. Wolfe. What can I get for you both today?”
I narrowed my eyes at the stunned man opposite me and then decided to help him out. “Actually, could you give us a few more minutes, Beth? Jesse here is still trying to decide.”
She turned to Jesse and aimed a smile his way, and he managed to shake himself out of whatever fog he’d just been in to return it.
“Thank you,” he replied, ever the polite young man.
“Sure thing. Just grab me when you’re ready,” she said, and gave me the same smile before turning and walking away, leaving the two of us alone again.
I waited for what I figured would be one, two, three—
“You saw me at your club that night?”
Seconds.
I nodded, and Jesse slumped back into the booth and shook his head.
“That’s just… This is just… Wait, I was kicked out of your club.”
And there it was, my cue. It was time to see how Jesse would react to my kind of play. “You were, yes. Like I said, you caught my eye, and I wasn’t able to do anything about it that night, so I took you out of others’…sights.”
His eyes went huge, and his mouth opened and then shut again before he quickly sat forward and rested his arms on the table. “You took me out of others’ sights? What does that even mean?”
