He sat back in his chair, and I dropped my eyes to his massive chest that was unfortunately covered by the black T-shirt he wore. Picturing what he looked like without a shirt, I ran my tongue over my bottom lip.
“You can’t keep doing that.”
The sharpness of his tone snapped me back to reality, and I blinked. “Doing what?”
He tilted his head to the side.Damn, this man is beautiful from every angle.
“Licking your lips.” He let his eyes drop to my lips. “If you do, we won’t make it through the rest of this dinner.”
I was so fucking tempted to tell him to make good on his threat. Or was it a promise?
But I shook my head. That wasn’t the reason I was there.
Waving his comment off, I took another sip of my water, before sitting back in my chair. I needed at least a little bit of distance to break some of the intensity that was broiling between us.
“Your career as a PI. How long?” I reminded him of the original question.
He blinked and looked me in the eye again. “Officially, five years. I spent ten years working for the Texas Department of Public Safety as a trooper and then as a ranger.”
I lifted my eyebrows. “A ranger? Aren’t they like the best of the best in the state or something?”
Leaning in, I planted my elbows on the table, intrigued. This information wasn’t available on the LS Investigations website.
“We are, I suppose. There’s nothing like being a ranger.”
“What made you leave?”
He paused from answering, as our waitress brought our food to the table. Once we thanked her and she strolled off, I undid the cloth napkin on the table and placed it on my lap.
“Tell me if you like it,” Micah encouraged, looking eager for me to try the dinner that he recommended.
I took my first bite of the ribs and instantly closed my eyes. “Mm, man, I forgot how excellent Texas BBQ is.” I immediately took another forkful of the meat, savoring the sweet, smokey, and tangy flavoring of the rub and sauce. It was fall off the bone tender and reminded me of the days my grandfather spent using his grill in their backyard to prepare ribs with the sauce my grandmother made.
“Told you,” Micah insisted, cockily, causing another shiver to move down the length of my torso.
I took a bite of the macaroni and cheese to ignore the temptation to taste him next.
“Getting back to your question,” Micah stated after a few minutes of eating. “I resigned from the DPS to take over LS Investigations after my father decided to retire.”
“Your father. Joel,” I stated, remembering that was his name.
Grinning, he nodded. “Joel.”
“You still call him by his first name?”
“We all do.”
“Let’s see if I can remember. Micah, Ace, and Gabe. I think you said that was the name of the brother your mom was pregnant with at the time.”
His eyes lifted as a far-off look appeared on his face, but it vanished so quickly I doubted whether or not I’d interpreted correctly.
“That’s us. Me, Ace, and Gabriel, Gabe for short.”
I nodded. “Your mom must’ve had a time with all of those boys in the house.” I’d only spent a minute amount of time with Micah, but I imagined that if his brothers were anything like him, that poor woman had her hands full.
“She did.”
My chewing slowed as I heard the thickening of his voice. Sorrow coated it. He’d used the past tense when referring to his mother. The strings around my heart tugged.
