“No,” she answered quickly. Too quickly. She shook her head. By the Mountain, she sounded guilty. She reined it in and smiled. Too many teeth. She stopped smiling.
“You’ve never been by the twenty-fourth precinct for anything, have you?”
“No.” She inhaled sharply. She’d been to the nineteenth precinct when she was arrested, but that was another identity, another name, another face. “No, I don’t think we’ve ever met before.” She forced herself to drink some ice water. “I’d remember you,” she added under her breath.
“Oh.” Nick nodded.
There was a clunk and scrape as the server slid Rowan’s pancakes in front of her and focused on Nick. “Can I get you something, Detective?”
“Coffee. Black. To go.” Nick’s eyes never left Rowan’s face.
“So, uh, what did this blond guy you’re looking for do?”
He shook his head, a crooked grin revealing a chipped molar she found positively endearing. “Just need to ask him some questions.”
She wondered what had caused that chip and how he’d gotten the scar that cut through his left eyebrow. There was one along his jaw too that caused an insanely sexy break in his stubble, hardly visible. She hadn’t noticed either the night before.
“In other words, it’s none of my business,” she said, resting her chin on her fist.
That crooked grin flashed again, and Rowan almost fell off her stool. She took another sip of ice water.
“What are you reading there?”
She tucked her hair behind her ear, her cheeks heating. “Nothing that would likely appeal to you. It’s a vampire romance.Love’s Last Breath.”
“Never heard of it. But I like vampires. Dracula. My favorite book of all time is Mary Shelley’sFrankenstein.”
Her mouth fell open. “Truly?”
“Yes. Someone important to me had a copy in their hands the last time I saw them. I like the story well enough, but it’s the memory of it, you know?” His voice was soft. Between that and his furrowed brow, she got the feeling he was sharing something deeply intimate with her.
“It’s an incredible tale about the importance of family and personal connections, don’t you agree? It’s not Frankenstein’s nature that turns him evil but his abandonment and isolation.” She loved the book. Had loved it since its release.
“Are you sure we haven’t met?” He scratched the side of his neck.
Rowan gulped and had to look down at her pancakes to break the power of the twin tractor beams pulling her toward him. The man emitted his own gravity. How could he be human? He had to be human, didn’t he?
“Do you make it a habit to approach women in diners and ask them if you’ve met before? It seems like a line better suited for a bar.”
“Excuse me?”
“I’ve told you we haven’t met, twice now.”
He rubbed the back of his neck. “What’s your name?”
“Rowan,” she said softly.
“Nick.” He leaned a hand against the counter beside her plate, and she wanted to sit on her hands to keep from touching him. Instead, she played with her knife beside his fingers, never touching but close enough to set her heart racing.
The server returned with a to-go cup and dropped it in front of Nick, who pulled out his wallet and paid the man.
“Now that we’ve met, maybe we should get to know each other better. Have dinner or coffee.”
“You already have coffee.”
“Dinner then.”
She looked down at her ring, the ruby a blood-red reminder of why she needed to stop flirting with this man and eat her breakfast. She was a dragon, and she’d wiped his memories last night. Spending time with him could only lead to disaster.
