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When she did, his hands lingered on her arms before dropping back to his sides. She told herself it was because he wanted to make sure that she was steady on her feet. But part of her wondered if he liked touching her as much as she liked being touched by him.
No, no, no.She absolutely could not go down that path.Guard up, she reminded herself, wishing there was a spray that could repel his charms like the bug spray she used to ward off mosquitoes. If there was, she’d bathe in it.
"We have to stop meeting like this," she teased as she inhaled a shaky breath.
His smile widened as his left brow lifted. "Do we?"
"We do," she stated definitively as she walked around him.
He turned and easily fell into step with her.
She glanced up at him and motioned behind her. "Weren’t you going that way?"
The sexy bad boy grin was still on his way-too-sexy bad boy face as he confirmed, "I was going that way."
She stopped and turned to face him. She wasn’t sure why all of Knox’s responses felt like challenges to her. Or why she kept taking the bait.
"Where are you goingnow?" she asked bluntly.
He pointed in the direction of Lanterns. "Now, I’m going this way."
She could stand here and ask more questions, but if she did, she’d be late to meet her date.
Her date. If Knox was going to follow her, he’d see her with a date. At first, that sounded worse than walking barefoot on burning glass. But after a second, she realized it might not be a bad thing. Maybe if he saw her with another man, he’d lose interest and move on.
"Fine," she said.
He leaned closer to her; it was just a tiny, nearly imperceptible amount, but she perceived the hell out of it. His eyes twinkled as he said, "I wasn’t asking your permission."
There was a difference between being confident and being cocky. She loved confident but cocky had always turned her off. Knox, it turned out, was the exception to that rule. His statement from anyone else would have irritated her, but from him, it only threw gasoline on the fire of her attraction to him.
* * *
Knox lifted his beer to his lips and watched as Laura pasted what he was sure was a fake smile on her face. Colson, or Colby, or Colt—Knox didn’t remember, and he didn’t care—appeared clueless that Laura was clearly humoring him.
When they’d arrived at Lanterns, the dude had been waiting for Laura. She made introductions, and then the two of them were seated at a booth by the window overlooking the lake.
Knox thought about leaving once he realized she was on a date, but instead he’d taken a seat at the bar, where he had a perfect view of the table where Laura was seated. All night, he’d wanted to stalk over there, grab her, throw her over his shoulder, and walk out. He hadn’t, of course, but he’d wanted to.
He was sitting there wondering how in the fuck this guy secured a date with her. The two clearly had no chemistry. He liked talking, that was for sure. But she had barely said two words to him. In the hour that they’d been sitting together, Knox had only seen Laura nod politely.
So what was it about this guy that made her give him a chance?
It was driving Knox crazy.
"Can I get you another one?" Liam, the bartender asked.
"Nah, I’m good." Knox knew that he should leave. He had no reason to be there. But there was something stopping him.
Liam nodded and headed back to the other end of the bar, where three women who had been giving Knox fuck-me eyes since he got there were seated. Knox watched as the young bartender flirted with the trio. He wasn’t sure if Liam was actually interested or just doing his job to earn more tips. He’d been chatting with the twenty-eight-year-old and found out he was working on his MBA and hoped to open his own restaurant one day.
Knox sort of envied where Liam was in his life. He was close to reaching a goal that he’d been working on for years, and then his life was gonna start. The life that he’d always wanted.
From the time Knox could remember, all he’d wanted to do was follow in his grandad’s footsteps and join the Navy. And he’d done that; now that he was out, he realized that he needed to find other goals.
Having too much time on his hands was clearly not working out for him. Exhibit A: he was sitting at a bar alone, watching two other people on a date.
He wasn’t sure if he was just a glutton for punishment or if this was like some sort of staring contest, and he wasn’t going to blink first. He knew that Laura was very aware that he was still there, and he had a feeling that most of the smiles Caleb, Cooper, or Cobalt were seeing were actually for Knox’s benefit.
