AllFreeNovel
Share Us
All thought screeched to a halt along with my steps when I found a pair of electric blue eyes watching my approach. The world itself seemed to stop as I stared at my personal monster seated at my favorite white-linen covered table overlooking Mag Mile.
Well, fuck.
“Eden Steadfast. Right on time.” Smiling like he was having the time of his life, Luke Keyes rose and rounded to a chair to hold it for me while the hostess retreated. “I see punctuality is a trait we share.”
In a nanosecond a thousand options flew through my mind. The most insistent—run. Just turn around and fuckingrun. Clearly he was playing some sort of joke by pulling this stunt, and I was the punchline.
But I wasn’t laughing.
Unfortunately, I also wasn’t running. I couldn’t, and not just because my feet seemed to have somehow glued themselves to the floor. Running away would only show him that he had the upper hand and could easily defeat me with the slightest amount of pressure. That was something he didn’t know, at least for the moment. But if I ran, that would tell him everything.
And then he’d own my ass.
Three years ago I swore no one would ever again have anything on me that could make me their slave.
So, flight wasn’t an option.
Fight was the only thing I had left.
With great deliberation, I looked at my phone. “Adan Caballero—a Spanish name literally meaning Man Gentleman.Cómo está usted, Adan?”
“Estoy muy bien, señorita.” If possible, he looked even more pleased before tilting his head toward the chair. “Won’t you join me?”
“Only if you’re picking up the tab.” No way was I going to pay for the pleasure of him torturing me.
“I wouldn’t have it any other way.” Once we were both seated, the full brunt of that all-seeing gaze locked onto me until I could barely breathe.
God help me, I wasn’t going to make it to the end of lunch.
“I’ll admit,” he said, not taking his eyes off me as he handed me a menu, “I was a little worried you’d ghost me. With your uncanny knowledge of names, I had a feeling you’d suss out I’d given you a fake one.”
At that moment I decided I would go to my grave before admitting I was so distracted by meeting up with my father after three years of estrangement that I hadn’t given Adan Caballero a thought.
“It’s not unheard of for potential clients to use fake names at the first meeting. I once had a woman make an appointment under the name Manna Tea. Not going into details due to client confidentiality, I’ll just say she was a lovely, vibrant, sweetheart of a woman who had so much to offer this world, but she had low self-esteem issues that were holding her back. Now she’s one of my greatest success stories. And of course there are the perennial favorites like Ben Dover, Phillip McCracken, and Haywood Jablomie. These are the ones I ghost.”
He laughed, and it was alarming how much I reveled in the velvety, pure-sex sound of it. “Holy hell, I don’t blame you.”
“The point is, it’s not unheard of for potential clients to use aliases at the first meeting. For some reason there are people who are uncomfortable meeting with a life coach.”
“For some reason? I’m a psychiatrist, and you have a degree in psychology and know how to read a person like a book. You know the reason.”
“Do I?” With a sigh, I smoothed a linen napkin on my lap and smiled my thanks at a waitress who filled the water goblets and took our drink orders. “Please, tell me what I should know. I love it when men do that.”
He snorted. “You’re convinced I’m a misogynist, aren’t you?”
“Aren’t you?”
“Oh, no you don’t. You’re not going to answer a question with a question. We’re both above that weak-ass game.”
I sighed again. “I’m sure you think you’re not a misogynist, but you have to admit that you believe a woman has a place in this world. And that place is somewhere beneath you.” Then I heard my words echo back to me and desperately wished I had the power to suck them back in. “Uh, and no, n-not like that.”
Again he burst out laughing.
Great.
Nice to know I was the comic relief.
“Before this very moment,” he announced between chuckles, “I would have bet my next paycheck that you were incapable of blushing. God, I love being wrong.”
