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Friend. No, he had never called Rogue a friend. A fantasy. A temptation. The one thing he couldn’t have and wanted more than his next breath. They were more than friends.
They weren’t lovers. He couldn’t allow himself to step that close to her.
“Enough. ” He stared back at her as Tabitha moved closer.
Lucinda sighed. Shane made that odd choking sound again as Zeke sliced his gaze to him. His son had his head down, his lips tight, but if Zeke wasn’t mistaken, that tight line threatened to turn to a smile. When Shane knew what the hell Lucinda was up to, and Zeke didn’t, it was time to worry.
But a part of him was fairly certain he knew exactly what Lucinda was up to. No one had seen a mark on Rogue’s neck before his visit last night, now, this morning, it was there, and obviously it had been seen by one of Lucinda’s gossip buddies.
He was going to have to be more careful with Rogue’s silken skin, he thought. It was tender, so damned sweet, and obviously he wasn’t nearly as careful with her as he had been with lovers in the past. Because Zeke knew better than to leave a mark. He knew better than to leave any proof that he had spent the night with a woman, that any woman held his attention. Especially considering the fact that Lucinda butted her nose into so much as the hint that Zeke could be involved with anyone.
She believed the only way he was going to be happy would be if he remarried. Despite her own unmarried state, Lucinda wasn’t happy unless everyone around her was enjoying connubial bliss.
As his father had once said, after Lucinda’s husband’s death, she had become damned strange. Fun. But strange as hell.
Silence filled the table as the waiter set water before them and Tabitha handed them their menus with her cheery little spiel on the chef’s specials. She took their drink orders, then moved away with a promise to return shortly for their dinner orders.
“She’s a pretty little girl, Shane,” Lucinda piped up. “You could do worse. ”
“No, I couldn’t,” Shane muttered. “She’s older than I am. ”
“So?”
“I have a girlfriend,” Shane argued.
“So?” Lucinda pressed again.
Shane looked to Zeke with that inborn desperate plea of a son to his father to save him from drowning. Zeke stared back at him silently. The little brat had left him floundering on his own beneath Lucinda’s less-than-gentle regard. Zeke would be damned if he’d save his kid now. Let him see how it felt.
“His girlfriend is barely seventeen, Zeke. Tell Shane that’s too young. ”
“That’s too young, Shane. ” Zeke wished Tabitha would get back with the whisky he’d ordered.
“Is not,” Shane stated with a long-suffering sigh. “It’s just two years. It could be worse. ”
Zeke stared back at him.
Lucinda tilted her head quizzically. “How could it be worse, dear?”
Shane’s lips twitched. “It could be eleven years. ”
FIVE
He should stay away.
Zeke parked his pickup at the back of the bar, wondering why he bothered. There was no way to hide the vehicle, and everyone that knew him knew what he drove off-hours.
He shouldn’t be here.
Flexing his hands, he reminded himself that he was just here to check up on her, make sure everything was okay. Her Harley was still at the restaurant. She’d hired a cab to return home after closing rather than calling him.
Striding to the back door he hit the intercom button and waited.
He could have gone through the front and right up her stairs, but damn if he wanted to listen to more of Lucinda’s questions tomorrow.
The locks on the door clicked, a second later the panel was pulled open and Rogue stood before him, still dressed in that short, checkered skirt and heels, and the thin camisole she had worn under the long-sleeved blouse earlier.
“What do you want, Zeke?” she asked, her voice low, wary.
