“What a nice place,” the female two seats down commented. “I’m so glad Krusk decided to bring us here.” She finished her thought with a finger pointed in the direction of the male I was currently staring at.
His mouth curved into a wide smile, his fangs flashing on his handsome face and a pair of dimples creasing the area of his cheeks nearest his tusks.
Fuck. Just when I thought he couldn’t get any more handsome.
Dimples had always been a weakness of mine. And here they were, completing his perfect face in the perfect way.
Why is this happening to me?
“And what’s your name?” the female asked, since it now appeared as though I was incapable of having a polite conversation.
“Emma,” I rasped, before clearing my throat. I yanked my gaze away from the brown eyes of the male that were banked with a heat I couldn’t understand. Focusing on her—and ofcourseshe was beautiful, with a short crop of curls, a mischievous smile and a twinkle in her eyes. “My name’s Emma, and I’ll be your server today.”
“Emma,” the male next to me purred, while the female plucked the menus from his hands and passed them around. “That’s a beautiful name.” His words were low and hushed, as though he’d meant them only for me.
Heat rushed to my cheeks and I cleared my throat, looking anywhere but at him.
“Thank you,” I responded, before pulling my pad and pen from my apron. It gave me something to focus on other than him. “Is there anything you’d like to start with? Any drinks you’d like?” I was focusing on the rest of the table now and they were all leaning back with satisfied smiles as they watched us.
“What would you recommend?” one of the males asked, his menu still closed in front of him, amusement clear in his voice.
“Well we have an amazing selection of vegan drinks. Alcoholic and non-alcoholic,” I added, and one of the males tilted his head.
“Vegan?” he asked, looking around the table. “What’s that?”
My eyebrows swept up and I blinked at him. “Food and drink that’s made without any animal products… Youdoknow that this is a vegan restaurant, right?” I asked, only just realizing that this was a table filled withorcs. Theleastvegan species on the planet.
All eyes turned to Krusk, glares lasered in on where he was sitting with his chin on his fist grinning at me. “And what do you recommend, Zemar? I’ll eat anything you tell me to.”
Did he… What the hell had he just called me?
The eye-rolls around the table as menus snapped shut were huge. “Please bring us one of everything on the menu,” the other male sighed, collecting the menus and handing them back to me. “And we’ll have two of your best bottles of wine. Red, please. And some milk, if you have it, for when the little one wakes up.” Then he added in a lower mutter, “Since it seems like I won’t be having any steak anytime soon.” The female ran her hand in a soothing gesture over the back of his, but she was still smiling at me.
“It seems as though Krusk wasn’t really focused on thefoodwhen he picked this place,” she told me with a wink, and I nodded before turning and scurrying away to the order station. I tried not to focus on the intense stare ofKruskas I entered the staggering amount of food onto the screen.
If this was the kind of money that they could toss around on a daily basis, then he wassignificantlyout of my league. I shoved that thought away. It didn’tmatterif he was in my league or not. He was just a customer.
It was difficult not to look at him, my fingers shaking as I tapped away. The rest of the members of the table were chatting,laughing and joking. I could tell that a few of these were aimed at Krusk, but he never got distracted. I was the center of his focus and it was intimidating.
Even as I moved on to other tables, smiling and laughing with them as they ordered, I felt the burn of awareness low in my stomach that he was still looking at me—that I had his full, undivided attention. I almost stumbled again as I made my way back to his table with the bottles of wine.
Whoever the hell is listening up there, please give me the strength to make it through this debacle.
I forced the same uber-polite smile on my face that I had before, offering the cork to the male who had ordered, but he smiled and shook his head, gesturing toward Krusk instead. “I’m sure it’ll be more useful to have Krusk decide,” he insisted and I felt my jaw ache as I gritted my teeth.
What the hell is happening here? Is this some sort of game? Some sort of bet?
My smile tightened but I turned to Krusk anyway. “Here you go, sir,” I said, and he shook his head.
“Krusk. My name is Krusk,” he insisted.
“Krusk,” I gritted out, still holding out the cork to him. He took it with huge fingers that were gentle. They brushed against mine and I yanked my hand away, the burn of his touch searing me to my core. The cork dropped to the floor and embarrassment scalded me. “Sorry,” I gasped, dropping down to scoop it up.
He was there before I was, his warm palm cupping my hand and stopping me as he bent to collect the cork. He held it out to me with a rueful smile. “I’msorry. I didn’t mean for this… I hadn’t meant to bother you where you work. I just thought…” he trailed off, clearing his throat and his gaze dropped to his feet as if he was bashful. “Do you want us to leave?”
Panic swept over me. The table had ordered a huge amount of food and my manager had even come out to check that thenumber showing up on her system was correct. If they left now, what would we even do with all the food that they were in the middle of preparing? Also, did Iactuallywant him to leave?
He hadn’t done anything to make me uncomfortable—other than the staring. He’d been… sweet. Which wasn’t something that happened often. And if he decided to start dating Lin, we’d probably meet outside of work anyway. I’d have to get used to him.
