Crave (His Second Chance with Heiress Bryn Christmas Duet #1) - Z.L. Arkadie Page 0,18
walked down a short set of steps, and the girl at the hostess station, dazzled eyes pasted on Jamison, welcomed us to the restaurant.
“Just the two of you?” she asked Jamison.
His tired eyes lapped me up, and I pressed my lips together, still wondering what was going on with him.
“Somewhere quiet,” he said. “We have, um, a lot of catching up to do.”
I rubbed the side of my neck. My skin felt flushed as I looked away from him. I was too attracted to him to win the battle against keeping it casual. I glanced at the steps that led away from the dining room. There lay my last chance for escape.
“Okay, please follow me.” The girl started walking.
Jamison wouldn’t move until I stepped in front of him. Why am I so afraid of my attraction to one man? I needed to get a grip and grow up, so I smiled and followed the hostess.
She took us to a table near the window. Jamison pulled my chair back. I leaned away from him as I sat, but he leaned toward me, refusing to lose the opportunity to be close. The hostess told us the glass was warmed, so we wouldn’t feel the chill from outside. It was dark out, but the haze from that morning had lifted enough to give us a majestic view of snow-covered mountains.
The hostess glanced at Jamison. He was staring at me, so she set her focus on me too. “Your waiter will be with you shortly.” She’d just gotten her attention redirected by a pro. It reminded me of the biggest reason I’d fallen for him—because Jamison was smart and so damn good at influencing people. I often pondered how I’d gone from having a fleeting interest in him to admiring him to finding him so scorching hot that I could hardly look at him without wanting him to do me.
“Thanks for always being a gentleman,” I said as I got comfortable in my seat.
“You smell good.”
So do you. I smiled. “Thanks.”
“How was your day?” he asked.
A picture of Dale and Eden standing beside each other came to mind. I wanted to groan and complain about how I’d felt ambushed by Dale and completely believed Eden had nothing to do with it. However, seeing him sitting there brought another question to mind. If we were going to sit down together, have a meal, and reconnect, then it would be ludicrous to ignore the past.
“Um… fine.”
“You never told me who your client is.”
“Jamison,” I blurted.
He snapped back in his chair. “Yes, Bryn?”
“We didn’t leave things on good terms a few years ago. I know you had your issues with my brother, but if you cared for me, you could’ve called me, come looking for me, or something. We had such a great connection that night, I thought.”
He frowned thoughtfully. “Well, I did call you, but you didn’t answer my calls.”
“But that was after I lost my cell phone four days later. You could’ve called me the day after we made love.”
His body tensed up. “We were up all night, remember?”
“I do.”
“I wanted you to get some sleep. However, I was going to call you later that night and invite you over, but then all hell broke loose.”
I frowned as my memory came up with a rebuttal. “But you didn’t learn about Spencer’s endorsement of Mike Black until the following week.”
Jamison sighed. “We had some intel about Spencer being in the desert. Boomer went straight through the goddamn roof about it.”
The fatigued expression that had been on his face when I encountered him in the lobby returned at the mention of his father. “But you remember what you said before I left, don’t you?”
My confusion intensified. “Enlighten me.”
“You said, ‘Let me call you.’”
My mouth fell open as I tried very hard to remember how Jamison and I had parted that morning. Shit, I did say that. I’d been afraid of what I felt for him. It was too much too fast.
“Good evening. I’m Brent, your waiter for this evening.”
My head felt floaty as I turned my attention to the tall and lanky waiter named Brent. Jamison’s explanation had left me breathless, and I was still recovering from that. I’d never tried to view what had happened from his outlook, only from the one that supported him being selfish and willfully letting whatever we’d been building collapse.
“Can I get you started with drinks?” Brent asked after spying our closed menus.