She flashed him a smile. “I could have had dinner at home. I came out with you tonight because I’m expecting much more than food.”
Remy felt a crazy vibration start in his gut at the teasing, playful look she gave him. Gaze locked with his, she licked her full lips, tracing her nimble tongue over them in a gesture that was innocent and sexy at the same time. The heat that had come with that earlier vibration spread from his stomach in a distinctly southerly direction. Sitting this close, it was impossible to miss the pheromones rolling off her—or to be immune to them.
That’s when he knew the night was going to be very special.
“Are you the kind of woman who likes to be wooed?” he asked, his voice sounding a little deeper as his inner wolf attempted to come out and play. He casually looked over at his fingers where they rested on the table to make sure his claws hadn’t slipped out. Thankfully, they hadn’t.
“All women like to be wooed and charmed and appreciated,” she said softly, tilting her head and looking at him in a way that made his inner wolf growl a little louder in hunger. “If the man doing those things is the right man.”
He grinned. “I hope I’m the right man.”
Triana leaned forward a little. “Well, if it helps, you’re definitely on the right track so far.”
They were forced to put their flirting on temporary hold as their server arrived to introduce herself and deliver their glasses of wine. The woman gave them the standard pitch about house specials and chef recommendations, but since he and Triana were more interested in each other than in dinner, they ignored all the appetizers, soups, and salads and headed straight for the main entrées. He ordered the filet of beef while Triana chose the sautéed salmon. It wasn’t like they could go wrong with anything they picked because everything was good there.
“You never did answer my question,” Triana reminded him after the waitress left. “What are your friends up to?”
Remy sipped his wine. “They said something earlier today about heading to the French Quarter again.”
“You’re not sorry we didn’t go out with them, are you?” she asked teasingly. “We could always give them a call and meet up with them later if you want.”
His mouth twitched. “No, thanks. I’m good. Don’t get me wrong. I’m closer to the members of my SWAT team than most people are with their families, but tonight, I’d much rather spend time with you instead of them.”
“Good answer. You really are skilled at this wooing thing,” she said with a smile. “But I have to admit, you have me intrigued. I saw the way you guys acted with each other last night, so I could already tell you’re tight with them. You obviously spend a lot of time with them outside of work.”
“Yeah, I hang out with them a lot,” he said, trying to figure out how to put what he wanted to say into words that made sense. It wasn’t like he could tell her he was a member of a wolf pack that spent just about every waking minute together. “The men and women on our team are kind of like a family—closer than most families, actually. It’s kind of hard to explain, but doing the job we do tends to make for a pretty tight bond.”
Triana regarded him over the rim of her wineglass. “There are women on your SWAT team? Do I need to be jealous?”
“I don’t know,” he said, unable to resist teasing her. “Are you the kind of woman who gets jealous at the idea of a man she’s seeing working with another woman?”
She hesitated, seeming to think about it. After a moment, she frowned thoughtfully. “Normally, I’m not. But in this case, I find myself feeling somewhat…possessive.”
While there was a part of him that felt a trace of alarm at what Triana’s jealousy meant, a more practical portion was quick to point out he’d been a little possessive himself a few minutes earlier when half the guys in the dining room had twisted their heads around like Linda Blair in The Exorcist to follow Triana’s movements across the room. What was good for the goose was good for the gander, as his grandmother used to say.
As to what all that jealousy meant, he and Triana were sexually attracted to each other. The primitive part of them that wanted to get naked and nasty was sure to express itself in other ways, such as in her knee-jerk jealous reaction to him working with women and his desire to bite the men who were ballsy enough to stare at her ass.
“Well, in this case, you have no reason to feel possessive,” he told her. “There’s only one woman on the Dallas SWAT team and she’s off-limits. Beyond the fact that I think of her as a sister, she’s in a serious, committed relationship with another member of the team. They’d probably be married by now if it wasn’t for the fact that they have to hide their relationship from the brass.”
Triana did a double take. “Wait a second. Two members of your SWAT team are sleeping together and the rest of you are covering for them?”
He shrugged. “Yeah, pretty much.”
Their food came then, interrupting their conversation. Remy was glad, because he definitely didn’t want to get into the fact that the only woman on the Dallas SWAT team was in a relationship with her own squad leader. For someone like Triana, who worked in the law enforcement community, that little detail might be difficult to accept. It wasn’t as if he could tell Triana that bonding with one’s soul mate threw all the normal rules of society straight out the window.
Remy speared a piece of steak with his fork and tasted it. As he’d expected, the food was amazing. Triana seemed to approve of the salmon she’d ordered as well, if the little moan she let out was any indication. As she nibbled another piece of fish off her fork, Remy discovered he enjoyed watching her eat. He was as orally fixated as the next guy, and seeing her lips close over the fork and her mouth move as she slowly chewed was an erotic experience.
Then again, almost anything Triana did would probably be a turn-on, considering he seemed to have it rather bad for her at the moment.
She must have seen him staring at her lips as she chewed, because she gave him a sultry smile. “Are you watching me eat?”
He contemplated denying it but changed his mind. What would be the point?
“Yeah,” he admitted. “I hope it doesn’t make you uncomfortable. But you have a very sensual mouth and I have a hard time watching it move without thinking all kinds of things I shouldn’t be.”
“That’s a pity,” she murmured, returning her attention to her salmon and field pea succotash.
“What’s a pity?” he asked, hoping she’d clarify her words. “That I find your mouth so sensual, or that I have completely naughty thoughts when I watch it move?”
