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“I’ll find her,” he said, starting again for the door. “Don’t worry about me.”
The five of them returned to talking strategy about how they planned for the Savea op to play out, but none of them were fools. Things wouldn’t go smoothly, especially since they had a mole in their group, a defector.
One of them couldn’t be trusted.
Little did they know, the person was him.
CHAPTER5
The hostess had already taken their coats and asked them twice to follow her to their table, but Joel’s feet remained rooted in place.
Ayesha tried calling his name.
Still, he didn’t look above her neck, the fingers on his right hand twitching as though it was a struggle not to reach out and touch her, but he couldn’t decide where to start first.
The hostess tried again. “Right this way?”
Ayesha took his hand, and he moved after a couple of tugs. Still, they nearly bumped into several people on their way to the table, his focus never wavering from her black, long-sleeve turtleneck, skirt, and skin-toned winter leggings for brown skin that were a prototype Xara planned to debut in a year.
She smoothed the skirt. “Xara helped me with the whole thing. Even the shoes and accessories. What do you think?”
He cocked his head to the side and chewed on the corner of his bottom lip, but no words left his mouth.
Once at their table, he pulled out her chair. As she sat, he placed his lips next to her ear and whispered,“Fuck,my wife looks incredible.”
Now breathless, she spared the soft chandelier lighting above them and the floor-to-ceiling rectangular windows next to their table a glance. However, they would have to come back again for her to notice it all. The moment Joel took the seat across from her, it all disappeared.
The server took their orders.
Tayler nudged her thigh under the table.
Ayesha jumped, then coughed into a fist. “So, Joel…I would ask you how your day’s going, but I already know.”
“Ask me anyhow,” he said.
She clasped her hands on the tabletop and leaned forward. “How was your day?”
“I had a great day. By the way, I’m sorry I didn’t mention this in my dating profile, but I have kids.”
“Oh? Well, why didn’t you mention it?”
“I like to make sure, you know. Me and my boys, we’re a package deal.” He scratched his jaw and pulled off a convincing nervous expression. “Is that a deal-breaker, you think? I’ll be honest…I like you, Ayesha.”
“Oh gosh, no. Not a deal-breaker. I love kids. Personally, I’ve always wanted kids.”
He laughed.
“And I like you too,” she added, and it was impossible not to smile when he was smiling at her, looking at her.
“It’s me and my two boys. One’s four, and the other one’s eleven.” He pulled out his phone, tapped the screen a few times, and handed it to her. “I took that today. We went to an indoor park, and I didn’t think my older son—his name’s Josiah—would enjoy it, but we all had a good time.”
Her heart warmed at the image of Theo on Joel’s neck with Josiah at his side, all three smiling at the camera. Then she scrolled, and the next photo was Joel and Josiah with panicked looks on their faces as Theo appeared to attempt a “trust fall” from Joel’s shoulders.
“Where’s the boys’ mama?”
“I think I might be looking at her.”
She sent him a look that made him adjust in his seat as she handed the phone back to him. While she understood why he wanted to wait, why he wanted to make their first time making love even more memorable, she wouldn’t make it easy for him. It wasn’t as if he was trying not to seduce her, sitting across from her in a black sweater with a sliver of the shirt underneath peeking from his collar.
