AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“The people know you here,” I said.
“I started coming here a long time ago when I was barely old enough to drink. I guess I’m a regular.” He half smiled.
“It’s nice to see you can enjoy something other than business.”
“I think you were already aware I could. You’re a very bad girl,” he said after grabbing his napkin, trying to wipe off the remainder from my face.
“So you’ve told me more than a few times,” I purred then jerked my head away, trying to maneuver my tongue in order to lick every drop of sweet ketchup. “You surprise me.”
“I do? Why?”
“Yes, including the fact you were a champion equestrian rider?” I folded one arm on the table, swirling the index finger of my other hand around the rim of my wineglass.
“Hmm… I can see there will be no secrets around you.”
“I should hope not if we’re to be…” I stopped myself before saying the words. Did they even mean anything? Marriage? A family?
He shook his head slightly and leaned further over the table. “Yes, I competed, but I can’t say I was a champion. I was too tall, too rough, too unpolished.”
“You? Never.” When I rolled my eyes, he gripped my chin, pulling me as far over the table as possible.
“The things I want to do to you right here, right now, are undoubtedly a sin.”
“Don’t tease me.”
He rubbed his thumb back and forth across my lips then pulled it to his mouth, sucking for a full thirty seconds. I squirmed in my seat, my damp panties making me uncomfortable. “I don’t plan on it, tonight. I’d still famished. I’ll get the check. Onto part two of our evening.”
Our evening. He had the ability to make everything seem so normal, when nothing that had gone on in the last seventy-two hours could be considered anything but weird. No, that wasn’t the word. Why was it so easy to be around him when he wasn’t puffing up his chest, acting as if he was king of the world?
We’d listened to music and talked about anything and nothing. He hadn’t asked me about my father and I hadn’t barraged him with questions about what he had planned for me. I’d just enjoyed the moment. It was crazy, still twisted, but also natural.
I studied him as he called over the waiter, exchanging pleasantries even as the young man obviously knew who he was. When he left a crisp hundred-dollar bill as a tip, I gave him a few additional kudos points.
If only he could be that way all the time. Would that make a difference in how I felt about him? Could I even enjoy the time we spent together? Oh, God. What was I saying?
“Come on.” He stood, prepared to take my hand, nodding to another soldier that I’d yet to be introduced to.
I’d almost forgotten we had a bodyguard with us, a brooding man who’d taken a strategic seat at the bar, constantly scanning the restaurant. He’d even gone with me, standing outside the ladies’ room. He would have burst in, guns blazing, if I’d taken too long. The reminder was both good and bad, allowing me to grasp that I was in an alternate world.
Constantine kept his hand on my back, guiding me to the front door. The bodyguard moved in front of us, both men only communicating through facial expressions and hand gestures. They had this down to an exact science.
By the time I was eased into the SUV, I was antsy all over again.
“What’s wrong?” he asked when he settled next to me.
“I just don’t understand how you can tolerate this every day.”
“I don’t usually have guards with me, unless there’s an issue.”
“Does that mean there is? Do you think the men from the Bahamas followed us?”
He settled against the seat, unbuttoning his jacket. “No, I don’t.”
“But you still think we’re in danger.”
“I know we are. More specifically, you are.”
“Why?”
