Page 44 of Grant’s Flame

“Please tell her where you want to sit so we can move out of the doorway, baby,” I rumbled directly into her ear. The whole time, I kept a hand splayed possessively across her hip, and I greedily took advantage of the chance to get in a nip to the sensitive skin of her neck.

I knew every single reaction of Rio’s body by that point. They were cataloged in my memory like short clips I could call up and play on command. As soon as her breathing hitched from my sensual little bite, I knew what would come next. When I stood to my full height again, a deep flush of arousal would paint her flesh from the gentle swell of her breasts up to where my teeth had just been. I couldn’t fucking wait to watch.

“I’m sorry.” Rio leaned closer to the girl to get an obvious look at her name tag. “Candace, is it?” She worked in a sweet smile before continuing, “Do you work out on the patio as well as inside the dining room?”

The young woman looked a bit confused but replied, “Uh, no. I stay here by the door when I’m not showing people to their tables.”

“Good, good.” Rio nodded with effervescence. “We’ll take the patio, then.”

“Uhh, okay. Follow me, please?” The poor girl was so confused and could definitely tell something she didn’t like had just happened but couldn’t quite work out the details. I wasn’t much help for easing her nerves, already indulging the happiness that swelled through me from my Blaze’s possessive display. After the wonderful way she’d let me touch her back at the boutique, I was feeling like the goddamned king of the free world.

We hadn’t publicly shown affection to one another before today, and damn, it felt good. I never considered how much I’d been missing that, or how much I’d enjoy it, but I felt like I could fuck this girl on the table, and it still wouldn’t be enough of a public claim. I’d known months ago I felt this way about Rio, but judging by the look of confusion taking over my little pixie’s features, she was having trouble working out her own similar feelings.

Once we were seated and had ordered a couple of beers, I leaned back in the chair and stretched my legs beneath the table. The new position gave me a long minute to just study the captivating woman sitting across from me. It was another perfect moment for my mental video library. Perhaps its portrait gallery too. Rio looked over the menu as if she were going to be quizzed on its contents afterward. Her usually pale skin was lightly tanned, and her facial features were relaxed. The only thing that gave away the storm inside her mind was how her eyes bounced and darted from picture to explanation and then on to the next item. Her pupils scanned so rapidly; it was fascinating that she could be processing any of it.

“What are you getting?” she finally asked, looking up from the lengthy menu. Confusion twisted her adorable features, and I chuckled before answering.

“I thought you were jonesing for fish tacos?” I reminded instead of actually answering the question she asked.

“But they have so many delicious-looking things. Now I can’t decide.”

“I had a feeling this was going to happen the minute I saw the size of the menu.”

“Sean always says the—”

Well, shit.

After cutting herself off midsentence, she was prisoner to a wide, terrified stare. First, she just looked at me with those incredibly expressive eyes, as if I held the balm that would relieve the pain she’d just rekindled. Then my girl darted her gaze to every corner of the room, as if expecting her late husband’s ghost to arrive at one of the entrances and ask to be seated at our table. A pained sound escaped, even though she tried to press her lips together in a seam.

“Okay, Blaze. Breathe.” I said the words as conversationally as possible so the patrons sitting closest to us wouldn’t notice anything out of the ordinary. The dining room was crowded and loud and, I suspected, over the fire marshal’s maximum occupancy limit by at least twenty people. Tables were unusually close to one another, so our neighbors were within earshot.

When she didn’t transition from her steady blank stare, I asked, “Hey? Want to get some air? We can order to go or just eat on the boat instead?”

Her hands were in their usual place in her lap. Likely she had been digging her nails into her thighs beneath the table to focus her rioting nerves. Often, she grew anxious in public settings like this and used the trick to stay calm. Unfortunately, I couldn’t subtly squeeze them in mine to snap her focus back to the present, so I waited while a few more beats passed. When she still hadn’t snapped out of the trance she had slipped into, I did the unthinkable. I was going to get in serious hot water, but I couldn’t see another option. Under the table, I drew back at the knee and kicked her shin.

“Asshole!” Rio yelled. The only eight people remaining who hadn’t noticed her up to that point sure as hell did then.

Yeah, that was shitty. But at least it worked. “Welcome back,” I muttered, trying not to attract more attention.

“Fuck, Grant. Seriously?”

“Sorry, baby.”

“Sorry? Really? That’s all you’ve got after a stunt like that? I’m sure it’s already turning black and blue.” She leaned down, nearly resting her cheek on the tablecloth to rub her abused shin.

I leaned across the table and growled, “What did you want me to do? You were staring like a zombie. Half the staff was already panicking like they’d have to perform some first-aid procedure from a class they didn’t pay attention in.”

Rio extinguished the fiery glare with which she’d nearly been roasting me alive. “Sorry,” she muttered instead, blowing out an onerous exhale. “We can just go. I’m not really hungry now anyway.” Her sorrowful caramel stare never left her twisting fingers until I reached across the table and wrapped my palm over her knuckles.

“Blaze.”

“What?” she snapped.

“Look at me.”

Christ. One step forward, two steps back. Would life forever be like this with the woman?

Easy answer on that one. If it was, then she was worth it.