Page 45 of Sweet Surrender
She stood upright. “Come in.”
There was a brief pause before her bedroom door opened and there he was. He was dressed in a simple black sweater, black slacks and black formal shoes but despite the simplicity the overall effect was breathtaking. His dark eyes roved over her, so aggressive in his inspection that she felt as though he were stripping her naked.
“You look beautiful.”
She swallowed around the lump in her throat.Faking. It.She reminded her brain. “So do you.”
He smiled briefly and looked away. “You ready to go?”
“I just need to put my shoes on,” she said and went over to the sky-high heels placed by the door. She stepped into one, wobbling slightly and he gripped her arm, steadying her so she could tighten the strap.
He opened her car door in true gentleman fashion, and they drove in a comfortable silence to the restaurant. When they arrived, he opened her door again and held her hand as they walked into the restaurant. She rarely had any chivalry from men on dates, she was lucky if they even put on clean clothes. She wasn’t usually a fan of it, being too independent to enjoy people doing things for her, and she believed chivalry worked both ways, but she couldn’t deny the little thrill that leapt through her whenever he took charge.
While the hostess looked for their reservation, he dipped his head to her ear. “I meant what I said earlier, you look beautiful,” he murmured. Little butterflies took flight in her stomach which gave her pause. Instead of responding nicely, she decided her fake girlfriend persona was a brat.
“Am I the most beautiful woman in the room tonight?” she simpered at him. His gaze collided with hers, his eyes turning molten.
“You’re the most beautiful woman in every room,” he replied fiercely, his intensity stirring something inside her and she floundered for a reply.Whelp, that shut me up.
“This way, please.” The hostess led them to their table. Beau pulled out her chair and eased it under her with finesse as she sat down. His attentiveness was definitely working its way under her skin. The specials were read to them, they ordered wine and scoured the menus then once they ordered their food they were alone.
Beau laid his arm across the table, palm up. “Give me your hand,” he commanded. A thrill running through her once again, giving her pause.Okay, alpha commands are apparently your kink now.
“Hand-holding was on the list of acceptable behaviors. So gimme,” he said. She smirked but placed her hand in his warm palm and he stroked his thumb over her knuckles.
After a moment he spoke. “I’m not sure how you’re feeling, after…everything so I’m just gonna put this out there.”
Her stomach dropped.Is this it? Is he feeling all this torturous tension and tingles too?
He took a deep breath and let it out in a puff. “You were my best friend. We fucked up and lost a lot of time together. We can’t get that time back, but we have a chance now to fix this so we don’t miss anymore. And I want to, Tay. I want to get back what we had. If we even can,” he finished.
Disappointment flooded her.Okay so he just wants to be friends, it is just you feeling all this weird energy.Wait, did she even want something more with him? No of course not, it would only lead to someone getting hurt. Then his words registered, he wanted to go back to what they had, which meant he still cared about her. After all their shit, it must have taken a lot of courage for him to admit that to her. She watched him take a long sip of his wine, his throat working as he swallowed, waiting for her to answer.
She nibbled her lip. “I’m scared we can’t.”
His hand tightened in hers and his eyes dipped away briefly as disappointment drew his luscious mouth downwards.
“But I want to try,” she added.
His head shot up, a bright smile pulling across his lips, and it teased her own into place.
He nodded, wide smile not faltering. “In that case, what have you been up to these last million years?”
She laughed. “You know what I’ve been doing.”
“I don’t know the details though. Tell me about the bar, what made you buy it and how did you turn it into the success it is? I remember how that place was,” he said, shuddering dramatically.
“It wasn’t that bad!” She took a sip of wine, the flavors bouncing off her taste buds. She nearly groaned when she caught a hint of vanilla.This is good shit, I need to find out who their supplier is and get some for the bar.
“I had a few jobs out of school but never really knew what I wanted to do. I worked at Ruby’s Diner for a bit until she got fed up with me sassing her all the time.”
Beau snorted. “I don’t think she could ever get fed up with you.”
“You’re probably right but her sass and my sass combined? We over-sassed and customers started complaining. It was her livelihood after Roger died and I didn’t want to jeopardize what they had built together so I took a job as a secretary. I didn’t enjoy that either, and Daddy got sicker, so I started looking after him. But I couldn’t do both so I quit working.” She took another, larger sip of wine.
“I felt like I was suffocating. I was so young and having to take him to the toilet, help him shower, keep him medicated and clean up after him just felt too much. Then the guilt at feeling like that about looking after him started to eat at me. One day we had a fight and I went for a real long walk and stumbled across the bar. I went inside and Bob was there, we got to talking and he mentioned he wanted to take a step back and I saw my opportunity.”
Beau’s eyes were fixed on her, giving her his full attention and she couldn’t deny she loved having all that attention focused only on her.
