do relationships, and when I get bored, I move on.”
“Wow.” She leaned back and stared at him, disappointment stamped all over her expression.
“Would you rather I lie and let them think there’s a chance? That would be cruel, Rebecca, and you know it. It’s better if we just go out, have fun, enjoy ourselves, and have as much sex as we want in the interim.”
He rubbed his neck, uncomfortable. Rebecca’s opinion mattered to him, and the look on her face didn’t sit well. She knew he was a manwhore, though. She teased him about it all the time. Why was she getting upset now?
The waitress saved him by coming to take their order. He went with a burger and fries instead of breakfast food. The need for greasy comfort food prompted the decision. He needed the willpower. If she didn’t stop biting her damn lip, he wasn’t going to be responsible for what he did. It was sexy as hell and driving him nuts.
As soon as Becca noticed she wasn’t alone with him and in a place full of people, he could see her start to close off. She spoke so softly the waitress had to ask her to repeat her order. She shrank back against the seat, her head down. Nope, sweetheart, you are not doing that. After observing her behavior, he thought her psychiatrist was right. She needed to face this head-on. It wasn’t as bad as she had it built up in her mind. Making her see that was going to be the challenge.
“Tell me about Louie.”
“What?” Her head snapped up. “What about Louie?”
“How did you get to know a gang member when you don’t go outside your apartment?”
“I didn’t always not go outside my apartment, you know.” She looked out the window, away from him. “I was okay until about two years ago. Before that, I went out. Not a lot, but I did.”
Her closed-off tone told him she was done with that particular line of questioning. “So, Louie?”
“His mother lives down the hall from me. I used to help her with her groceries and things. She has rheumatoid arthritis in her hands, so it’s hard for her to hold things. Sometimes I would do her shopping for her, other times she would hit the buzzer to let me know she needed me. We went on like that for about a year. Then one night she comes banging on my door at three in the morning, scared out of her mind, and begs me to come to her apartment. Her son was on the couch, beaten, stabbed, and he had a gunshot wound. He refused to go to the hospital, and she didn’t know what to do.”
Gang violence. His knuckles whitened where they gripped the table. She should not be in the middle of all that danger.
“I was able to get the bullet out and patch up the rest of his wounds…”
“Wait, what the hell do you mean, you got the bullet out? You’re not a doctor or a nurse, Becca.”
“No, but my dad was in a motorcycle club. He was their Sergeant at Arms. He came home with enough bullets in him over the years, and I learned how to get them out. I used to doctor them all up until I moved.”
What the ever-loving fuck? He knew he had to be sitting there gaping like an idiot, but what the fuck?
She grinned. “Even I have secrets, Dimitri.”
“Secrets are one thing. Biker gangs, street gangs, playing doctor…”
“Make a pretty good book, huh?” She winked, and he caught his breath. One second, he was reeling from all these crazy facts, and then the next, she had him wanting to yank her across the table and kiss her. He needed to lock this down before it got out of control, but he had no clue how to do it. For the first time in his life, he was at a loss on how to control the situation.
He shifted in his seat, trying to alleviate pressure. “I guess.”
His phone buzzed again, and being tired of it, Becca snatched it before he could hit ignore. “Hello?”
“Who the hell is this?” The screechy voice only made her grin. The women he dated.
“This is Becca. Who’s this?”
“Charlene, and why the fuck are you answering Dimitri’s phone?”
“Because I’m at lunch with him, and he didn’t want to answer your call?”
Dimitri’s eyes widened, and he mouthed, “What are you doing?”
The shriek that came out of the phone was loud enough she had to