Page 53 of Reckless
“Let’s talk about Friday,” I said, because I needed to drag this back into logistics before I lost the plot entirely.“What am I expected at.”
“Dinner first.Family only.”
“And then?”
“Something at the house.Drinks, probably.Charlie making noise.My mother pretending restraint.”
I made a face.“Love that for me.”
His eyes dropped to my mouth at the phrase like he’d heard it before and liked that too much.
I ignored that with heroic effort.
“What do I wear,” I asked.
His gaze came back up.“Whatever you want.”
“That was the wrong answer.”
“How.”
“Because your mother has probably already started mentally dressing me in a white gown.”
“True.”
“Wear a dress to make it harder for me to think.”
My breath caught.Damn him.
“Anything else?”I asked.
“Yes.”
I looked up against my better judgment.
“If my mother touches you, approves of you, folds you in, don’t recoil.”
That tightened something sore in my chest.He was lucky to have his mother.Roxanne did fold people in.Roxanne approved of me like I was important to her.
And if she did it to me while I was pretending, the part of me that wanted family warmth like some secret vitamin deficiency I had in life, I’d probably break.
I leaned back.“That’s not a rule.”
“No.”
“A warning.”
I looked at him for a long second.Then nodded once.
Our fingers brushed.And Jesus Christ, maybe I was doomed, because even that was enough to send a clean hard pulse through me.
He let go first as the bill came.He took out his wallet but I pressed against his knee.“It says no gifts.”
He stared at me like I was crazy.“I made you order the wine.You don’t owe me if I invited you.”
I took the check out of his reach.“Watch me.”
His eyes held mine for one half-second too long.
