Page 25

Shaking off the last of my nerves, I climb out of the truck and cross the street to the restaurant, ready to take on the whole damn world. As soon as I walk into the waiting area, the woman standing behind the maitre d’ stand arches a brow and watches me approach her with a wary gaze.

“Can I help you, sir?”

I flash her a smile. “Yes, I’m meeting some friends here for dinner.”

Her mouth drops open as her gaze falls to my arms, where all my tattoos are on display and I scan the restaurant for my target. When I finally spot Kady in the back corner, I point in her direction.

“Never mind. I found them.”

Without waiting for a response, I walk around the stand and weave through the other diners, ignoring the stares and whispers. My gaze is focused on my girl. She spots me when I’m about ten feet from her table and her words trail off as her mouth drops open and panic fills her eyes. Her gaze flicks to Mason before coming back to me as I grab a chair from the table next to them and position it next to her.

“Hey, y’all. How’s dinner?”

Mason jerks back, a bewildered expression on his face. “I’m sorry. Can we help you?”

“What are you doing here?” Kady hisses, her teeth clenched and fire igniting in her gaze as she glares at me. My cock hardens and I smile.

“Oh, Kady, baby, you already know.”

“You son of a bitch,” she whispers under her breath as Mason clears his throat, his gaze flying between the two of us.

“Kady, do you know this guy?”

She nods, her fist clenching on the table. “This is the ex I told you about.”

Oh, so she told him about me, did she?

Anger radiates off her in waves, hitting me like an atom bomb and I’ve never been so goddamn turned on in all my life. She’s magnificent.

Turning to Mason, my smile is a little more forced. “I’m Noah, Kady’s fiancé.”

“Ex-fiancé,” Kady snaps and when I turn back to her, I swear I can see her blood boiling. The zipper of my jeans digs into my flesh and I chuckle as I reach under the table to discreetly adjust myself as she continues to glare at me. Mason and all the other diners disappear while we continue our silent face-off and my heart thunders in my chest, picturing how hot it would be if I could get her underneath me right now. Some of my most vivid memories of the two of us happened when I got her in bed after one of our knockdown, drag out fights and she was never this angry at me. I can only imagine that we would scorch the earth right now.

Someone clears their throat and I jerk my gaze away from her.

“And why are you interrupting our dinner?” Mason asks, irritation slipping through his polite southern boy mask. Ignoring Kady’s eye daggers, I turn to face him and lean back in my chair as I grab her glass of wine and take a sip.

“What did she tell you about me?”

He copies my pose, leaning back in the chair like he doesn’t have a care in the world, his expression turning cocky. “That you just got back to town and that the two of you are ancient history.”

“Kady, baby,” I coo, turning to look at her disappointed look. “That’s not exactly true, is it?”

“Yes, it is,” she challenges, daring me with her gaze to continue. Adrenaline races through my veins and my cock aches. Fuck, I need this woman so bad.

“No, it’s not.” I turn back to Mason. “Let me give you the lowdown, Mason. You seem like a nice enough guy so I do feel a little bad about all this.” I motion to the three of us.

“Shut up, Noah,” Kady growls. I ignore her.

“But you’ve got to understand, I met this girl in sixth grade and from the moment I saw her, I knew she was the only girl in the world for me. We were together for nine years and we were engaged when I royally fucked up and got myself sent to prison. You with me so far?”

He nods and grits his teeth. “Yes.”

“Noah,” Kady whispers again, a threat clear in her voice.

“So, I get locked up and my girl here, she just disappears. We’re talkin’ no record of her anywhere and trust me, I looked but there’s only so much a guy can do behind bars.”

Mason’s gaze flicks to Kady and she sighs but I refuse to look back at her.