I nodded and looked over the menu again, debating whether to get what he was getting or to be more ladylike and order a smaller cut of meat instead.Before I could decide, the waitress appeared, setting our drinks on the table.
“Would you like a few more minutes to look over the menu?”she asked, clasping her hands in front of her.
I felt Patrick’s eyes on me as he waited to answer.
“I think I’ll do the ribeye with the roasted garlic mashed potatoes,” I answered, fighting a giggle when I saw the corners of his lips curl up into a smile.
I set the menu down on the table and looked at him, loving how incredibly sexy he was.He had a laid-back charisma about him, but what was even more attractive was how he acknowledged the waitress and treated her with respect, all while looking at me like he wanted to spread me across the table and eat me.It was a fine line that he seemed to have mastered perfectly.
“I’ll do the same,” he said, collecting both of our menus and handing them to the waitress.
“Perfect.I’ll put this in now.Would you like any appetizers to start with?”She looked between us, but the heat I felt from his gaze had me shaking my head no instead of verbally answering her.
She smiled, bowed her head, and walked off, leaving us alone.
“This is a really nice place,” I said as I reached across the table and wrapped my fingers in his.
He lifted our hands and brushed a kiss against my knuckles, sending a shiver through me.
“I’m glad you like it.”
We stayed staring at each other for a few seconds before I looked away, desperate for some relief from the ache that was building between my thighs from the thoughts of what I knew he could do to my body.
Patrick leaned against the plush leather of the booth and adjusted himself under the table while I took a sip of my martini.It had been a long time since I’d had a drink, mainly because I didn’t trust myself to be even slightly inebriated around Dale.After getting drunk and married in Las Vegas, I stopped drinking immediately after that.
But the difference now was that I felt safe with Patrick, which let me lower my walls and let him in.It had been so long since I’d felt even slightly this comfortable with someone that I was still a little nervous to let himall the wayin.
Soon, our dinner arrived, and we made idle conversation about Christmas and what gifts he wanted to get for Daisy while we ate.The food was incredible, but the company was better than anything I’d ever experienced.While Patrick limited himself to one drink because he was driving, I decided to allow myself a little freedom and had a second martini while we finished dinner.
I had been so caught up in our conversation that I hadn’t noticed the man sitting across the room at another table, staring at me, until Patrick had gone to the restroom.A glass of water sat in front of him beside a basket of bread that didn’t appear to be touched.There was something about him, the way he was looking at me, that sent a shiver through me and made my blood turn to ice.
I tried to get a better look at him, but it was too dark to see him from so far away.The sound of blood rushing through my ears kept me from hearing Patrick as he returned, startling me as my eyes shot up to him as he slid into the booth and then froze.
I looked from him back to the table where the man had been sitting, my stomach dropping when it was suddenly empty.
“What’s wrong?”Patrick asked, leaning forward as he turned to look past the tall wall that divided our booth from the one behind him.
“There was...there...a man...I...”I pressed my lips together and shook my head.I needed to get it together and stop letting fear overcome me.“There was a man sitting in that booth, and he was watching me.”
“Where?”
I pointed to where he had been sitting, the full glass of ice water and bread on the table untouched.
“What did he look like?”
“I don’t know,” I said with a shrug, trying to remember as much as I could.“It was really hard to see anything with the dim lights and how far away he was.He seemed thin, but I couldn’t tell you anything else.”
“Did you see what he was wearing?”
I shook my head, trying to remember as Patrick got up from the booth and waited.
“I think maybe a solid, dark colored button-down shirt and jeans.I don’t know, Pat.It was hard to see anything.”
Before I could say anything else, he sprinted off, nearly knocking a server over on his way.
I leaned back in the booth and tried to regulate my breathing as our waitress approached, concern on her face as she looked from me to the direction Patrick had run off.
“Is everything okay?”she asked, standing beside the table.
