up in a simple knot, stood at the hostess stand. Her dark brown dress stood out in lovely contrast to her creamy skin. The deep V gave away just a hint of cleavage, almost as flirtatious as the skirt that floated around her knees. He knew those legs, that skin. That hair.
Mel.
What was she doing here? She hated getting dressed up, hated fancy dinners. That was one of his favorite things about her. Unlike so many other girls he’d dated…been with— whatever you wanted to call it — she never demanded he take her out for fancy dinners. His last girlfriend spent so much time in heels and expensive dresses, he’d started to think that they were surgically attached to her skin. Yet here Mel was, looking like a beacon of light in this otherwise dull evening. Damn if she didn’t look sexy. Mel had certainly grown into her looks in the last ten years.
He glanced around, wondering if anyone would notice if he tried to seduce her into leaving with him for the evening. He’d much rather devote the attention he was wasting on this dinner to earning the privilege of tracing the creamy skin along her neckline, of tasting the sweetness of her lips. To convincing her to let him see her in nothing but those heels that made her legs look like they went on for miles. Caine shifted in his seat, thankful that the long white table cloth hid his reaction to Mel.
The hostess led her over to one of the darker booths at the edge of the dining room, directly in his line of sight. A small smile tilted her lips as she thanked the girl and accepted a menu. He had to go over and talk to her. They had a lot of unfinished business to discuss and they were ten years overdue.
Determined, he started to slide his chair back. Then Caine saw him. A guy who looked to be a few years younger than him shook hands with her and sat down. He wore a suit, but he looked a little like a kid wearing his dad’s clothes. His longish hair didn’t help him any. Suit, nice dress, fancy restaurant. Shit. Mel was on a date.
Narrowing his eyes, Caine searched his brain, trying to place the guy. He thought he might be the new firefighter who had moved to town not too long ago. Ian something. Nice enough guy, if he accurately recalled their one meeting. Still, he didn’t see the attraction between him and Mel. He always saw her with a well-educated man who could stand up to her and not be afraid of her intelligence. Mel couldn’t settle for a “nice guy;” that would never make her really happy.
It would be so easy for him to go over there and show her how wrong that Ian guy was for her. Jealousy was a new thing for him. He’d only really had two monogamous relationships in his life. The first had been with Mel and she’d been too young and shy to show interest in anyone else. Would he have felt like this if she looked at someone else back in college? He vaguely remembered seeing her at that Valentine’s Day party his fraternity hosted, talking with some other guy. He’d immediately gone over and turned on the charm. It’d be so easy to do it again. The adult inside him told him to be mature, to be happy she’d found someone who seemed to make her happy. But the college boy in him still bellowed that she was his girl, his and no one else’s.
The day her dad told him she never wanted to see him again still counted as the worst day of his life. Worse even than his almost-wedding day.
Seeing her again had thrown him off his game. If she’d been any other woman, he’d be over there starting up a conversation, convincing her to come home with him, but this was Mel. She always sent him a little off kilter. Back in college, he’d stolen a few of the romance novels she kept by her bed, just to get a better idea of what she might like. Maybe that’s what he needed to do now. Step back, look for the signs of what might fix things for them. They didn’t know each other anymore. Ten years was a long time. She needed to see that he wasn’t the idiot he’d been ten years ago.
He was beginning to see