Page 15 of Bombshell (Whiskey Dolls 1)

To help push the guy along, I handed him the folio with my credit card in it, and he quickly retreated, probably in a hurry to close out the table so he could get rid of us.

“Okay, what’s happening now?” Marin asked, pulling my focus back to her.

Knowing I wasn’t getting out of this without playing spy for her, I turned back to the bar to watch. “Nothing’s really happening. They’re just talking.”

“But how do theyseem?” she pressed, still crouched down, hidden behind the table.

“They seem...” I trailed off, unsure how to answer when I saw the woman reach over and place her hand on the man’s thigh.

“You got quiet all the sudden. Why’d you get quiet? What’s going on?” Her head darted back up, and she sucked in an affronted gasp. “That little hussy!”

Placing my palm on top of her head, I shoved her back down. “Will you keep it down? You’re going to get us caught.” I was in this now, no going back, so I figured I might as well see it through. Truth be told, I was kind of curious how it was going to play out.

“But she’stouchinghisthigh!”

“Yeah, but he just pulled away,” I told her, fully immersed in this little spy operation. “And now he’s fiddling with his wedding ring like he’s trying to draw attention to it.”

“Okay, so maybe he’s not a complete ass,” she grumbled almost resentfully, like having to relent that he wasn’t totally in the wrong left a sour taste in her mouth.

“Do you not like him or something?”

“Of course I like him,” she said with no small amount of defense. “He’s family. He’s just screwing up with my sister and their kids over and over again, and it’s really starting to piss me off.”

The sound of a throat clearing broke through the strange conversation. “Here you go,” the waiter said, dropping the folio back on the table. “Hope you enjoyed your meal.”

To save face, Marin smiled brightly up at him. “Oh here it is,” she chirped, pretending to find her imaginary contact. “Found it.”

She let out an embarrassed giggle and began to push up off the floor. Before I could think better of it, I stood tall and reached out to help her up, taking her hand in mine. Just like when we’d collided back in the hallway, the touch of her skin against mine sent a jolt of electricity through my entire body.

From the way she gasped, I sensed that she’d felt it too. That voice in my head was yelling at me to retreat, but before I had a chance, her heel caught on the carpet and she stumbled, right into my chest. My hands instinctively wrapped around the curve of her waist to keep her on her feet.

Her plump lips parted on a breath as she stared up at me, the amber in her eyes growing a touch darker, and I swear to Christ, I felt her lean in even closer.

The realization that she fit me perfectly was too goddamn strong to ignore as I held on to her. Her mouth wasright there, just a few inches away. All I had to do was lean in, just a bit, and I’d be able to taste her. As it was, she was all I could see and smell.

Reality came slamming back into focus when someone dropped a dish somewhere in the restaurant, the loud clatter snapping me right out of the daze she’d just put me in.

Clearing my throat, I dropped my arms and took a step back. “I have to go. I need to get back to Eli.”Eli. My son I should have been on my way home to at that very moment. Instead, I’d left him with my mother longer than I should have, all because I’d been sidetracked by a woman who made me lose myself. A woman who was so off limits it wasn’t even funny.

“Oh. Yeah. Of course.” I detected a hint of disappointment in her tone, but I refused to let myself dwell on it.

“See you around.” I grunted, unable to meet her gaze as I pushed past her.

I could hear the befuddlement in her voice as she murmured, “Yeah, see you.” I felt like an asshole as I bailed out of the restaurant, but I couldn’t allow myself to look back.

7

Marin

It had been three days since I’d run into Pierce—literally—during my disastrous blind date, and I hadn’t been able to get that damn interaction out of my head. There was a point where I could have sworn he was about to kiss me. He’d shown me a side of him, a warmth, that I hadn’t thought he was capable of. He’d smiled, and it stole every bit of air from my lungs. Then, from one heartbeat to the next, that warmth disappeared and that icy cold came rushing back.

He’d been so desperate to escape that he ran out of the restaurant like his ass was on fire, leaving his credit card behind. A credit card I’d been carrying around for days. For reasons I could not and absolutelywould notdissect, I’d caught myself pulling that damn card out of my purse at least once a day and staring at it.

Odds were, he’d canceled it already, and I could probably just cut it up and throw it away, but I couldn’t seem to make myself do it. I kept telling myself that I’d find the time to return it to him,thatwas why I still had it.

I was lying to myself because the truth was, I’d felt...somethingthat night. For a moment in time, I’d completely forgotten I hated the man, and, more importantly, that he hated me for some ungodly reason. How could he? I was a freakingdelight!

I didn’t know why I hadn’t been able to pull that brief, very faint flutter of attraction out of my mind, but it had been nagging at me for days to the point I felt like I was going crazy.

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