Cruz (Dark and Dirty Sinners' MC #5) - Serena Akeroyd Page 0,10
“I think I deserve daily visits.”
I rolled my eyes. “Stop being a baby. The whole dying thing happened ages ago,” I teased, even though it hadn’t. Christ, we’d almost lost her.
She snorted at my joke like I knew she would. “I’ll see you tomorrow, you pain in my ass.”
“Stop being a stitch in my side.”
“You know that’s true.”
Then she cut the call, leaving me smirking down at the coffee mug Wanda plunked there.
“How’s it hanging, Wanda?” I asked as she poured me my first cup of the day.
She shrugged. “Boring as ever.”
“Sorry to hear that.”
Another shrug before she drifted off again—Wanda wasn’t exactly cheerful but I liked that.
I preferred grouchy wait staff to the friendly, perky kind who never stopped fucking hovering around you while you ate.
Slouching into the banquette, I watched the world pass by as regular folk started to appear on the sidewalk, heading out from the office buildings in time for lunch.
Regular, in my opinion, sucked.
I didn’t know if that was my past speaking or my upbringing, or if that was just because I wasn’t made for a pencil-pushing job—not outside of drawing tattoos, that is—but the idea of living a normal life made me cringe and be grateful for weird hours and clients who called at three AM with ideas for new ink.
The diner door opened, letting in a whiff of gas from the road and the noise from the slowly building lunch crowd who were making an appearance in the diner. Grateful I’d placed my order before them because I needed to fill up for the busy day ahead, my gaze clashed with Cruz’s when he walked inside.
The prick was self-assured, I had to give him that. He didn’t dip his chin in greeting or smile at me, just walked my way and, without even asking, took a seat at my table.
I arched a brow at him. “Did I invite you to sit down?”
“I won’t talk if you don’t.”
That had me frowning, because I wasn’t sure if he was being rude or not. I mean, I knew Cruz, but he wasn’t the most ebullient person. He kept to himself, I thought, but he never got into trouble because, if he did, Nyx would have bitched about him to me at one point or another.
Before I could tell him where to go, Wanda appeared with my breakfast and Cruz shot her the sweetest smile as he placed his order and sweet-talked her.
Fucking sweet-talked the most miserable waitress in Verona—right in front of me.
I wasn’t even sure how he did it, because he didn’t exactly say much. Didn’t tell her she looked pretty or anything, but his smile was electric, and his eyes never left hers until, heaven above, she turned pink.
Her cheeks burned with goddamn heat!
Wanda was actually blushing.
Gaping at them both, I flickered my attention his way when she walked off to put his order in, shoving his in front of some other orders she’d put on the board first, her movements a lot bouncier than when she’d left my table earlier.
That mega-watt smile didn’t exactly disappear, and I bit my lip as he turned it on me for a fraction of a second before he dimmed it down.
So, what? Waitresses got smiles but I didn’t?
When I was sharing my goddamn table with him?
Huffing, I dug into my breakfast and spent the next twenty minutes with him in silence.
When he said he wouldn’t talk if I didn’t, he meant it.
And, when I finished and called for the check, that was the first time he spoke: “I’ll pay that, thanks for letting me sit with you.”
I gaped at him, not used to men paying for food without expecting a BJ after it on a damn date, never mind when he’d only shared a booth with me. “You don’t have to do that,” I said uneasily, not wanting him to think I owed him something.
“Sure I do. This place is full—I’d never have gotten a seat, and I was starving.” No shit, considering the size of his stack of pancakes would fill a T-Rex. “Anyway, can I come in later and speak with you about touching up some ink?”
I squinted at him. “You trying to butter me up?”
“You’re Nyx’s sister. Don’t think butter works on you.”
That had me scowling. “Think that was butter I just heard.”
His lips twitched, and he didn’t bestow me with the mega-watt smile but definitely one that was high voltage.
Despite myself, I bit my lip because it packed a damn punch.