He smiles, opening the car door for me. “No problem at all.”
He doesn’t tell me where he’s taking me next, and I quickly find out why when we pull up to La Bistro restaurant. “Jake, this is unfair,” I sigh.
“I don’t understand what you mean. We’re just here for some lunch.” He smiles, giving himself away.
“Jake Bennett, you know exactly what you’re doing, and it’s not fair.”
He kills the engine, glancing across at me. “I thought I already told you. I don’t play fair. Not when it comes to you. Besides, what’s wrong with this restaurant anyway?”
I get out of the car, and he follows my movements. “You know what this restaurant represents. It was where we first met each other.”
He fake frowns. “Really? I hadn’t remembered.” He then smiles as he and I both know that’s complete bullshit.
Shaking my head, I exhale a long, deep breath. “If you weren’t a police captain, you’d make an excellent criminal mastermind, do you know that?” That grin appears again, and my heart skips a beat. I really wish he wasn’t so sexy.
We make our way to the restaurant, choosing a table outside as it’s such a lovely day. The waitress hands us the menus, and we order some soft drinks.
“Are you sure you don’t want some tequila?” Jake asks on a smirk.
“No,” I answer quickly. “Why on earth would I want to take shots in the middle of the day when I have to get back to work? You know the boss can be a hard-ass, don’t you?”
He looks up from his menu at my response. “I’m not quite sure that the boss would take too kindly to being called a hard-ass.”
I smile at that. “No, I don’t think he would.”
The waitress is back and takes our order. I don’t like to eat too much for lunch, so I order myself a Caesar salad. Jake orders a cheeseburger with fries.
“So why are you trying to ply me with tequila?”
Should I really be encouraging this?
“I seem to remember the last time you had some tequila, you let your guard down and told me things you would have normally kept to yourself.”
He takes a swig of his coke before pinning those intense green eyes on me. “I remember that well, but I also seem to recall how ill I was the next day.”
He sucks in a sharp breath. “Ouch, Ana. Take that knife out from my back, will you?” he asks, pointing his thumb at his back.
I put on my best voice reserved for babies and say, “Oh, I’m sowry. I didn’t mean to hurt your widdle feelings.” Laughter slips out easily in his presence. It feels good to be around him and play like this. We used to always poke fun like this together. The thought instantly makes me feel uneasy. I quickly remember the conversation back in the car, and that queasy feeling comes back again.
“I thought you invited me here to talk about work. We haven’t discussed anything remotely to do with work yet.”
I know I’ve digressed from what we were talking about, it was intentional. If I let things carry on, I know what will happen.
“I did want to talk to you about work. How are the statistics going? I know they can be a bitch, so I just wanted to make sure you’re okay with them.”
I can’t help the laughter that bursts from me. “That’s what you wanted to discuss? You could have asked me about this at work.”
Our lunch arrives, and we pause for a second, waiting for the waitress to place our meals on the table. She quickly retreats after we say our thanks, then I start tucking in.
“I know, but I haven’t seen you for so long, and I miss being near you, even though I can’t touch you. It kills me to restrain myself, but I’m not going to push you. I just want to have you close to me.”
My knees begin to tremble at the thought of him touching me. I don’t want to, but my eyes lock onto his lips for a moment before coming back up to those incredible sexy eyes of his.
“That day here over a year ago was the start of something monumental for me. It was the day I met the love of my life. I haven’t been the same since. It was like a bolt of lightning struck me that day. That or maybe cupid paid me a visit.”