Worth the Risk_ A Contemporary - Megan Hart Page 0,69

have been going for pity, but Arden didn’t have much for him. Being dumped at the altar somehow, in her book, didn’t quite compare with losing your spouse to cancer. Still, she had agreed to go on this date and making the best of things was better than focusing on the negative, or so she’d always tried to tell her kids. Funny how much harder that could be than expected.

“So, Greg. What do you do in Leo’s office?”

He launched into a complicated but blessedly brief description involving integers and statistics and the conversation soon trailed off, but the food arrived, so the next few minutes were taken up by eating.

“My salad is delicious. How’s your steak?”

Greg nodded around a mouthful of red meat. “It’s okay. I haven’t had much of an appetite...since...you know.”

Arden watched him polish off an entire steak and a side of broccoli smothered in butter without even pausing to breathe. If that was not having an appetite, she didn’t want to see him when he was hungry. She was being uncharitable, but Greg’s sad-sack routine had worn thin within five minutes.

She’d never been so glad to see a check arrive in her life.

“I’ll be right back to get that,” said the waiter.

Arden waited, but Greg didn’t reach for the paper. He just sat, staring at her. Arden looked down at the slip of paper, a scant inch from Greg’s fingers. He didn’t move.

“I’ll get this,” she said and snatched up the check, anxious to get out of there.

“No, you don’t have to.” But he didn’t reach to take it from her, just sat back and bored holes in her boobs with his eyes.

“Nope. Got it.” Arden stood, calculating a tip she knew was too generous, but not wanting to take the time to figure out the right amount. She dug out a twenty and some change from her purse and handed it to the startled waiter. “Keep the change. Greg, it’s been nice—”

“I’ll walk you to your car.”

Deep breath, Arden. “Okay.”

Once there, he followed her around to the driver’s side and stood so close she couldn’t open the door without smacking him in the knees.

“Thanks for lunch. I didn’t expect you to treat me.”

Sure you didn’t, buddy. “No problem.”

He was on her so fast she didn’t have time to get away. Trapped between the car and his saggy trying- to-watch-my-carbs gut, Arden had no room to move. Greg’s face loomed in front of her like a scene from a very bad B-movie, the leer on his lips as unmistakable as the gleam of lust in his eyes.

Arden managed to duck the kiss at the last possible second, so his mouth landed on the corner of hers instead of full-on. She’d been trying to catch it with her cheek. As it was, his mouth squirmed on her skin like a worm on a hook, and—oh, mercy, yuck, oh no—she felt the tentative tickle of his tongue before he withdrew in apparent surprise at her ducking maneuver.

He didn’t pull away far enough for her to escape. Despite what he’d said about garlic making him bloat, he must have had some of it sometime recently because she smelled it on his breath. His body pressed against hers as he pinned her with his gaze.

“I don’t have to be back at the office for another half-hour,” Greg whispered.

“Greg?”

Now he smiled, a dreamy yet lascivious grin that turned her stomach. “Yes?”

“If you don’t get off me in three seconds, I’m going to knee you in the nuts.”

He stepped away from her, hands up, like she’d threatened to shoot him. Which wouldn’t have been a bad idea either, Arden thought. She wiped his slime from her face and fixed him with a level glare.

“I’m not sure exactly what made you think I was willing to hop into bed with you after knowing you for oh, let’s see—” she looked at her watch, “—one hour and seven minutes. But you’re so wrong, if wrong were rain, we’d be building an ark.”

For an instant, anger flashed in his eyes, but maybe the pity-me routine had worked for him too many times before.

Greg’s brow creased and he frowned.

“Sure. I get it.” He sighed. “I should’ve known better. I mean, after what happened to me, I should’ve known. I don’t expect you to understand...”

His sob-story persona had been working her nerves from the beginning, but now, with his garlic stench still clinging to her nostrils, Arden’s temper exploded.

“What don’t I understand? Why your fiancée left you? If