by J. H. Croix
That’s not why you’re here. You’re marking your territory. You need to back the fuck off. You know you can't let things go too far with her.
I shook those voices away. Crazy or not, after last night, I wasn't about to let that be all I had with Audrey. I was usually a man with a plan, and I had none right now. None beyond allowing myself more of Audrey.
She stopped by the reception desk in the restaurant. Despite being in the dead of winter and still lightly snowing outside, Bay Bistro was busy. Haven’s Bay might empty out in the winter, but Mainers prided themselves on being able to tolerate the hard winters. There were plenty of locals that stayed here year-round. Sherry Levesque caught my eye from across the restaurant. Sherry and her husband owned this place, in addition to the main grocery store and a few other businesses. You wouldn't know at a glance as they were quite down-to-earth and led a quiet life, but they were damn wealthy. Sherry’s husband Emile had wisely bought up one business after another over the years. All of them were successful and made money hand over fist during the tourist season of summer.
I gave Sherry a wave and forced myself to let my hand fall off of Audrey's waist. I might be here with her tonight and fully intending to be with her later in more ways than one, but it wouldn't be helpful for Matthew to think we were anything other than old family friends. Years of being in the FBI had taught me quite clearly there were layers of lies and layers of truth. In this case, it was the truth that Audrey and I were old family friends. It was a lie of omission in allowing Matthew to think nothing more. He didn't need to know I'd been buried balls deep inside of his ex-fiancée last night. Part of me wanted to needle him with that knowledge. It would be easy to do. I wouldn't have to say a word.
Yet, I knew Audrey wouldn't appreciate it. No matter what an asshole he’d been to her. She didn't need to deal with his petty grievances, and he was that kind of man. It wouldn't matter to him he’d been fucking one of her friends and Audrey had tried to break it off even before she knew that. If he had any suspicion she and I were together, he would turn it into something about that. Sherry greeted us with a smile.
“Well, fancy seeing you two again,” Sherry said cheerily as she walked quickly to meet us.
Audrey nodded tightly, tucking her hair behind her ears, a habit she'd had since childhood. It was something she did when she was nervous. My heart gave a hard thump, and I had to force my attention to Sherry.
“We're actually here to meet Matthew,” Audrey said.
Sherry's eyes narrowed. “Matthew?”
I breathed a silent sigh of relief that Audrey had called her parents’ today. She’d kept her conversation short and assured them she was fine before handing the phone over to me when her father wanted to talk with me. He'd also kept it brief, simply asking if she was okay and asking me to let him know if she wasn't. With Audrey here to meet with Matthew, I knew word would spread once it became known she’d called off the wedding.
“I might as well just tell you,” Audrey blurted out quickly. “I called off the wedding.” Her words came out fast and clipped, two red spots appearing high on her cheeks.
Audrey wasn't one to worry too much about what people thought, but I knew she was a private person. Sherry’s gaze softened.
“What the hell did he do to you, hon?”
Audrey shrugged. “It doesn't matter. It's for the best anyway. He showed up at the house today. I agreed to meet him here, just to make it clear it's over once and for all.”
Sherry's eyes flicked to me. “Well, I'm glad Dallas is with you. Now that you've told me the wedding’s off, I'll tell you what I think. He was never good enough for you. I’d hoped for the best for you, but I’m relieved to hear it’s over,” Sherry said bluntly.
Audrey’s eyes widened slightly and then she took a breath and let it out with a sigh, her shoulders relaxing. I fought the urge to touch her again.
“Well, you were right,” she said softly.
Sherry gave her a little smile and then stepped around the reception desk to give her a quick hug. “You'll be fine. You'll find the right man, and it will be everything you wanted.” As she stepped away, she gestured to the back of the restaurant. “Anyway, he's already here. He acted like you two were still together by the way,” she said with a roll of her eyes. She looked to me again. “Don't let him be an asshole to her.”
I chuckled. “Absolutely not, Sherry.”
Sherry took the extra step of walking us over to the table and introducing us to the waiter whom she gestured to follow as we walked across the restaurant. I knew she was doing it just to make a point to Matthew. Namely that Audrey meant a lot to her and that she had people here who cared about her.
My chest tightened a little at the controlled expression that fell over Audrey's face when she looked at Matthew. I wanted her to be angry. Hell, I wanted to haul off and punch the guy myself, but it would be more satisfying to have her let loose on him. Yet, what I wanted and what Audrey wanted might be quite different. It made me sad to think back to what she'd said yesterday about him—that she'd known all along she didn't quite love him and thought it was the best she was going to get. I felt a pang realizing I might be partially responsible for that state.
Sherry stepped away from the table, while the waiter moved to fill the water glasses. Audrey slipped into the furthest chair from Matthew, which left me sitting across from him. She angled herself slightly closer towards my chair. I could tell by the look on his face he’d expected her to sit across from him. Fuck that. She chose to sit where she wanted.
“I didn't expect you to bring anyone,” Matthew said. “I was hoping we could talk privately.”
Audrey met his gaze, her chin lifting slightly and anger flashing in the depths of her eyes. “You forfeited that right,” she said calmly, her tone perfectly polite.
Matthew cocked his head to the side. “Forfeited what right?”
“The right to a private conversation. If you wanted a private conversation with me, perhaps you shouldn't have been fucking Alyssa,” she said, every word enunciated clearly.
I bit back a laugh. Okay, so this was how it was going to go. Worked for me. I leaned back into my chair. The waiter’s eyes darted amongst us.
Audrey remained calm and measured. She looked up to the waiter and asked, “Can we go ahead and order some wine please?”
The waiter didn't miss a beat. He pulled out a small tablet and flipped it open, quickly reeling off a few wine choices. Audrey selected a bottle and pointedly noted she would be sharing it with me and then looked to Matthew.
“Were you planning to order anything for yourself?”
Matthew's face was red, and his eyes dark. Amusement turned to anger inside of me as I looked over at him. He had absolutely no right to be angry with her about anything. The fact she’d even agreed to have dinner with him was more than he deserved. He ordered a beer and stayed quiet until the waiter departed from our table. He then looked to me.
“Do you mind? I really need to speak privately with my fiancée.”
Audrey's hand curled around my arm, which was resting on the table.
“Dallas isn’t going anywhere,” she stated clearly. “I asked him to be here, and I’d like him to stay. Please stop referring to me as your fiancée. I am not your fiancée, nor will I ever be again. Our engagement is over, and the wedding is off. That is final. The only reason I agreed to meet you for dinner was to make that perfectly clear.”
I beat back the urge to haul her into my lap and kiss her.
She proceeded to detail everything related to their wedding she had already canceled. I kept my approval silent, but I was proud of her. It might’ve been years since I’d seen her, but I hadn’t forgotten her feisty side. She’d never been one to back down in a fight, and I was damn glad to see she still held that fire inside of her. I surmised she’d been busy while I was working earlier. She’d joined me at the table with her laptop for a bit, announcing she would be working as well. She must’ve been busy metho
dically canceling all of their wedding plans.
I carefully watched Matthew as she spoke, pausing only when the waiter delivered our drinks. I sipped my wine as she continued. Matthew looked furious, but he appeared to have enough sense to stay quiet.
“I'll send you a detailed receipt later from my lawyer,” she said in conclusion.
“Your lawyer?” Matthew asked, a hint of snide in his tone.
“Yes, my lawyer. I know how you can be, Matthew. You like to win. I’m not even going to entertain any of your bullshit. We’ll sort out who gets reimbursed for what, and who will be responsible for any costs that can’t be refunded. Once that’s done, you won’t hear from me. Ever again.”
I could see Matthew silently calculating, his eyes narrowed and his lips tightened in a line. He had no idea what he was in for. I'd known Audrey forever, and she had a temper. It didn't show very often, but when it did, she didn't back down. I was damn glad she wasn't backing down for him.
***
It wasn’t long before Matthew decided to leave. He actually had the gall to try to hug Audrey, but she wasn’t having it. Once he exited the restaurant, her shoulders relaxed. She took a gulp of her wine and looked to me.
“Well, that was a relief. I can’t believe he thought there was any chance we might still get married.”
I shrugged, my eyes on her. She’d worn her hair up in a twist this evening. It was pulled back tightly, not a single hair loose. Her hazel eyes were bright in the dim light of the restaurant. She wore a deep red sweater, the rich color setting off her fair skin and dark hair. I wanted to see her hair down. It was as if she’d pulled it back to bolster herself, to eliminate any softness to her. Before I realized what I was doing, I reached over and slid the clip out of her hair. It tumbled loose, the glossy locks falling around her shoulders. Her cheeks flushed, and her eyes widened. A startled laugh escaped.
“What are you doing?”
I took a swallow of wine before answering. I couldn’t tell her I hadn’t meant to actually act on my thought. I simply thought I wanted to see her hair down again. Apparently, I wanted it enough that my body acted on the impulse without consideration. Unsettled, I shifted my shoulders and looked back at her. “Your hair is beautiful,” was all I said.
My mind spun back to earlier today. After Audrey had called her parents, she’d called Thea. I hadn’t been privy to the details of that conversation because she’d gone upstairs to have it. She and my little sister had been best friends forever. Sometime after Audrey’s call with Thea, Thea called me to check on Audrey. I was relieved at least to know Audrey wasn’t hiding where she was. I had learned more than I probably should’ve known about the state of Audrey’s relationship with Matthew before she found him with her friend. For example, I now knew that apparently they hadn’t had sex in months. Thea had openly shared her relief that Audrey had called off the wedding. She even shared she’d suspected Matthew had been cheating on Audrey for months and had only stayed quiet about it because it was nothing more than a gut feeling.
As these thoughts tumbled through my mind, I considered my relief at knowing Audrey was free of Matthew. I hadn’t reckoned with the truth of my jealousy of him before this point. Hell, I’d buried my feelings for her so deeply I’d successfully forgotten how much she meant to me. In particular, I’d forgotten how much I wanted her. Want didn’t quite capture how I felt. It was more of a burning desire, so intense it nearly set me on fire.
Audrey took another sip of her wine and ran her fingers through her hair. Fuck me. Just that small action and my cock got hard. I wanted to lace my fingers in her hair and kiss her senseless. I told myself to keep my mind out of the gutter. She’d only just had her second conversation with her now ex fiancé since walking in on him fucking one of her friends. She might not be up for yet another night like last night.
She glanced over at me again, a smile curling the corners of her mouth and her eyes darkening. “Thank you,” she said softly.
I had to give myself a mental shake to remember what I’d just said. Oh yes, her hair. “Well, it is.” I forced myself onto any topic other than how fucking beautiful she was. “How are you?” I asked, considering she might be relieved her conversation with Matthew was over, but there might be more to it.
She leaned back in her chair, angling her head to the side and shrugging. “Honestly, I’m fine. I mean, it sucked to walk in on him fucking one of my friends. But the whole situation’s just shown me I never should’ve agreed to marry him in the first place. I don’t know…” She paused, her cheeks pinkening again. She took a gulp of wine before continuing. “I think I tried to talk myself into it because I figured it was the best I’d find. Now that it’s over, I’m realizing it was way too much of a compromise. I’d rather be alone than settle for someone like that.”
My heart gave a hard kick, as if trying to get my attention. Audrey’s unexpected appearance here and finally giving into my longing for her had knocked through the walls around my heart so thoroughly, I was scrambling to gain control again. Control of nothing more than the state of my own heart, body and soul.
I stared at her, keeping my expression calm. “Good. You shouldn’t settle. For anyone.”
Her eyes caught mine. She smiled and gave her head a little shake. “No, I never should have to begin with.”
At that moment, our waiter came to clear our plates. “Anything for dessert?” he asked, his eyes bouncing between us.
Audrey glanced to me. I shrugged. If she wanted dessert, we would have dessert. At the moment, I was busy wrestling to get my body under control. I wanted her. Fiercely. Having her close like this with the subtle, sweet scent of her drifting to me, it was an act of will to keep my attention on socially acceptable matters. All I wanted was to pull her into my lap, kiss her senseless and bury myself inside of her. After a beat, she glanced back to the waiter.
“We’re all set. I'll just finish this glass of wine. You can bring the check when you have a chance,” she said.
He nodded, clearing the rest of our plates from the table and then spinning away to return to the kitchen. Sherry passed by, throwing a smile our way as she moved on to serve a bottle of wine for another table. I almost jumped when I felt Audrey's hand slide onto my thigh. I swung to look at her, watching as her eyes darkened.
“You know what I thought about today?” she asked.
Unable to speak, I simply shook my head, fighting to keep my cock from getting any harder than it already was. It was a futile effort. I was already rock hard, so hard I likely had an imprint of my zipper on my cock.
“When I was talking to Thea today, she told me she was relieved. I wished I'd ended things a lot sooner. She thinks Matthew has been seeing Alyssa for a while. I should've suspected it myself. But I've been busy with work and when Matthew told me he was working late on a big case almost every other night, I believed him. Now I know why we hadn't had sex for months.”
I simply nodded, uncertain how to reply. When she didn't say anything and it was clear she expected me to say something, I asked, “Why are you telling me this?”
She shrugged, her hand still hot on my thigh and my cock still hard.
“I'm not sure. I suppose I wanted you to know that while we may have only officially broken up days ago, I wasn't really with him for months longer than that. I mean, my God, I tried to call our wedding off sooner, but he made me feel bad, like I wasn’t understanding enough of how busy he was.”
Next thing I knew her hand was on my cock under the table.
“Fuck,” I muttered. “What are you doing, Audrey?”
She smiled slightly, her eyes sly. “What I want to do.”
“We need to go,” I said, my words coming out tight and low.
I cleared my throat and reached for her hand under the table. The last fucking thing I wanted to do was dissuade her stroking my cock through the denim of my jeans. But we were in a restaurant, and we needed to walk out. She rolled her eyes when I purposefully drew her hand
away, keeping it held in the grip of mine.
“Spoilsport,” she said with a little laugh.
Nothing more than the sound of her husky voice and seeing this bold side of her, and lust jolted through me. I signaled for the waiter with my free hand. Audrey quickly drained the remainder of her wine.
“I'm done,” she declared with a sassy grin.
It would be a miracle if I got out of here without dragging her into my lap.
Our waiter delivered the check, and I paid in cash because I didn't want to wait. I barely gave her enough time to put her jacket on before walking out of the restaurant, her hand held tight in mine.
Chapter 10
Audrey
I savored the warmth and strength of Dallas’ grip around my hand. So much had become crystal-clear in the last few days. Perhaps I was slightly crazy to let myself keep playing with fire the way I was with Dallas. This was nothing more than a fling, and I needed to remember that. Yet, I couldn't help myself. We were here together, and there was no one else to interfere with our time. I was going to wring every drop out of this that I could. Cold air hit my face when we stepped outside. The snow had finally stopped, and the air felt sharp and crisp. I paused for a second, looking up into the sky. Stars glittered in between wispy clouds drifting across the night sky.
I released his hand and spun in a circle. Bay Bistro was in the center of downtown Haven’s Bay. It was lovely here at night in the winter. Holiday lights glittered, snow-covered tree branches reflected against the sky, backlit from the lights below. I took a bracing breath of air and let it out with a sigh. When I looked back at Dallas, his gaze was waiting, dark and unreadable.
