Their server arrived, a young man who couldn’t be more than twenty-one or two. He took one look at Astra and Rune could all but see little hearts dancing around his head.
Shit.
They each ordered a glass of ice water, and he ordered another glass of red wine since he’d left his on the bar. Astra ordered prosecco.
The young man lingered for a moment before he finally went about his business.
Before Astra could speak again, Rune said, “The first thing I should have said earlier was that you look beautiful tonight.”
A tremulous smile crossed Astra’s lips, as though no one had ever said anything like that to her before. Which blew his mind because, if she were his, he would tell her that at least twice a day. No matter what she wore or if she’d just woken up or finished cleaning the garage.
“Thank you,” she murmured. “You look handsome as well.”
“Thank you.”
Their drinks arrived much more quickly than his wine had earlier, even though he’d been seated at the bar. It seemed their server was determined to ingratiate himself.
“Thank you,” Astra said to the boy with a smile.
Rune thought he might have to drag the kid off by the scruff of his neck, but the young man left quickly after he cleared his throat and shot him a hard look.
“Intimidating our waiter?” she asked.
“Only because he was horning in on my date with you.”
She laughed and his breath caught in his chest. It was low, throaty, and very sexy. He immediately wanted to make her laugh again as soon as she stopped.
Instead, he said, “Tell me more about your job.”
“I don’t know,” she said, taking a sip of her prosecco. “It can be a mood killer to talk about it.”
“I’m terminally curious and now you’ve just guaranteed I’m going to bug you until you answer me.”
As he wanted, that got another laugh out of her. “Okay, fine. But don’t blame me when your eyes cross from boredom.”
“I don’t think anything about you could ever be boring,” he said.
Her gaze lowered and she cleared her throat. “You’d be surprised. My life basically consists of work, home, and working out.”
“Then tell me about the work part of it for now and we’ll get to the rest later.”
“You’re relentless.”
“I already told you that,” he said, smirking at her as he leaned further across the table. “Give in. We’ll both enjoy it.”
When he realized what he said, he grimaced.
“Ignore that last statement, please. It was entirely too creepy and sleazy. Please, just tell me about your job before I start salivating.”
“Fine, fine.” She took another sip of her wine. “I’m a partner in a security firm that my parents founded. We mostly consult with companies on their security protocols, but we do occasionally take contracts for protection of individuals or firms.”
“Like bodyguards?” he asked.
She smiled. “Sometimes, but mostly we help them design their procedures and streamline their process. We even have specialists that determine their system needs and install the sensors and other hardware. Some of our teams take individual contracts for clients, like bodyguards, but that’s not our specialty.”
“I would love to see it,” Rune said.
She smiled. “I doubt it. The offices are pretty plain and the training areas smell like sweat, feet, and B.O.”
