“I have my concerns,” he said vaguely. “I think you should listen to your friend and drop it.”
I straightened. And who the hell did he think he was to tell me that?
He must’ve read the defiance heating my every nerve, because his jaw ticked, and he looked away.
He lowered his voice. “How long have you been in the scene, Nova?”
“What scene?”
He muttered something under his breath that sounded likeoh,good God.
“The kink scene,” he said softly.
“Um…”
He rubbed his mouth and sighed.
“Well, how long haveyou?” I retorted.
He met my eyes again. “I’ve been out for a while. But before that, ten years.”
My heart skipped a beat. He’d said it so matter-of-factly, like it was the same level of admission as woodworking.
“Which makes you how old?” I asked before I could stop myself. It shouldn’t have mattered how old he was because I wasn’t interested in knowing anything else about him. I knew everything I needed to know.
“Thirty-five. And you?”
“Twenty-five.”
He sighed again, with a look in his eyes that was nearly tortured.
My gaze narrowed again. I couldn’t get over the coincidence of Wes being here. “So you just hang out at this overpriced diner all by yourself for fun?”
He snorted. “No. I’m meeting a friend. They’re running late.”
“Oh.” And now, my fingers were tapping. I tried not to look out the window where Hudson and Delilah were gaping at me and Wes from their spot on the sidewalk.
“Back home, there’s this diner where they still let a couple of older gentlemen smoke indoors,” Wes said, nearly wistfully, a slight southern twang appearing that hadn’t been so apparent before. “It just wouldn’t be right to tell them to stop now.”
My already queasy stomach grew queasier. “Where is home?”
“North Carolina.”
I nodded. “Tennessee,” I offered, even though I shouldn’t have and instantly regretted it.
Wes just stared at me, lost in thought. Maybe he was wondering how I didn’t have an accent. The answer was that I’d literally trained it out of myself, along with all other reminders of my hometown. I squirmed under the weight of his gaze, tired of being assessed for the hundredth time today. By him, by the bitchy receptionist, by Jayne…
I cringed again. God, why the hell had I said all of that? That was soweird.
“Ain’t it funny how all the Brooklyn hipsters co-opted hunting camo as a fashion trend?” he finally asked, appealing to our shared Southern roots.
Damn him, I smiled. “Yeah. As if they’ve ever seen the inside of a Walmart.” I let go of a sigh.
He chuckled. Then, he lifted the coffee to his lips and took a generous sip. “You’re not backing down, are you?”
I shook my head. “I need to get to the members-only party, find my friend, and make sure she’s all right. Then, I can get out.”
Wes’s sharp jaw was still rigid, and his eyes easily pulled me under their spell. Everything about him was different, unexpected, potent. I could sense when someone was like me and Lorelei—when they’d been dealt a shit hand in life and had come out the other side. There was something different about the energy they gave off, an unspoken comradery.
