Page 25 of Graves

I’m adjusting my watch as I step through the restaurant and make my way to the hostess.

“I’m meeting with Mr. Robinson.”

She smiles a little too wide and sticks out her tits as she bends down to look at the seating chart. I can’t hide my disgust at her desperation. If I wasn’t completely infatuated with my woman, maybe I’d give her a second look. However I am, impossibly so, and she couldn’t be more repulsive inthis moment.

“Right this way.” She winks.

I let her get several steps in front of me, putting as much distance between me and her overly poignant perfume before following her. We wind through the restaurant when a hand catches my arm.

I turn in a flash, surprised when I see my woman holding the cuff of my suit jacket as she smiles widely at me. I soften my posture and give her a small smile as she stands to hug me. Wrapping my arms around her, I hold her tight before cupping her jaw and pressing her lips to my own. It’s just short enough to be appropriate but long enough to tell her how much I’ve missed her since last night.

“Sir,” the annoying hostess says, clearing her throat. “Your meeting is this way.”

She gives a nasty glare to Blake, and I feel her actually shrink slightly under the woman’s gaze, which pisses me the fuck off. I stand a little straighter, slightly pushing Blake behind me so she doesn’t have to witness the bitch a second longer.

“Please inform him I’ll be a few moments. I’ll find my way,” I say before dismissing her with my back.

Blake flicks an uncomfortable look at her before I regain her attention, shaking my head, so I hope she knows she’s worth a thousand of that woman. That the only reason she is trying to make Blake feel small is because she burns too bright.

She smiles warmly up at me before nodding.

“Dominic, these are my friends, Gabrielle and Christian.”

Gabrielle extends her hand to me, a knowing smile on her face as she looks me up and down. It appears she has heard asmuch about me as I know about her. Like how she moved here from Chicago when she was ten. She grew up rather privileged and married Christian Aranda five years ago and gave birth to Alison Aranda on February eighteenth of this year. That’s all the information I gained from her background check. Blake told me that they met in a foster home together.

I shake Gabrielle’s hand as I nod.

“A pleasure to meet you, Gabrielle.”

“Gabby, please.” She smiles in a way that is just a touch condescending.

I turn to face her husband, who smiles at me genuinely. I ran a background check on him as well. He’s in tech, a software engineer for one of the largest computer software companies in the country.

Shaking his hand, I nod and greet him. “Pleasure.”

“Yeah, nice to meet you! We’ve been curious to meet the guy that’s scooped up our Blake.”

“Your Blake?” I ask with a dubious eyebrow raised.

The look Christian sends her when his wife isn’t looking raises my hackles, and I take a seat beside Blake, wrapping my arm around her as I keep my eyes on him. He feels my gaze and quickly averts his eyes, pulling out his phone like he’s answering an email, before I drag my attention back to my woman.

“What are you doing here?” she asks with a completely oblivious smile.

Her naivety is so refreshing in my life yet so frustrating because I can’t be there to protect her from creeps every second of the day. Especially when she assumes they are friends. I’mgoing to have to work with her on that.

When her unique eyes practically twinkle from the daylight streaming in through the window, I can’t help but soften a little. Fucking hell, she’s stunning, and she’s all mine.

My fingers rub across her arm, tracing over her tattooed sleeve as I look down at her.

“Business meeting. What about you?”

“We’re just having lunch. They got a sitter?—”

“And we are making the most of it!” Gabrielle smiles as she lifts her mimosa in the air.

Christian raises his as he laughs, and I eye them both carefully before looking at Blake.

“Do you need a ride?”

---