For the umpteenth time, Greyson wondered what the hell was wrong with him. He was ex-Army Special Forces, and somehow, at age thirty-nine, Greyson was stuck under his parents’ thumb fulfilling ‘family obligations’ instead of doing what he really wanted to be doing. Cade owned a lucrative security firm here in town, and was constantly trying to recruit Greyson. What the hell was keeping him from just saying yes? The money? The false sense of belonging with his family? The fucking Steele name?
“Close, man. I don’t know how much more of this I can take.” Greyson took a sip of his coffee, surprised by how good it was. He’d never been in this little diner before, but since Blaise had suggested it—not to mention it was close to the flower shop—Greyson had decided to give it a try.
“Grey, you’re a grown man. Stop letting them control you, brother.” Cade signaled for the waitress, pointing at Greyson’s coffee. Within a couple of minutes, an extremely attractive woman set a cup in front of him, filling it with a smile. “Thanks, darlin’.”
“Sure thing, sugar,” she drawled back with a soft chuckle.
Greyson watched in amusement as his friend watched her ass—a mighty fine ass, he admitted—as she walked away. “Get a good look?”
“Shit, man. Did you see the ass on her?” Cade whistled low. “That’s an ass you could get used to seeing…”
“All right, all right. I get it,” Greyson laughed.
“How’d you find this place, anyway? I’m kind of pissed I didn’t know about it before. Especially with someone like her working here.” He leaned out of the booth, trying to get a look at their waitress again.
“When’s the last time you got laid?” Greyson teased, knowing full well Cade had no problems in that area.
“Fuck you, brother,” he grunted with a smile. “Seriously, what’s up? Not that I mind, but what are we doing here?”
“I met a woman this morning.”
“Yeah? And, you want me to run a background check on her or something?”
It wasn’t unheard of for Greyson to have potential lovers checked out by Cade. He’d avoided many bad situations like that, but that’s not what he wanted with Blaise.
“No, nothing like that. She recommended this place, so I thought I’d check it out. I asked you here because… fuck, I don’t know, man. This woman, she’s sticking with me. In my head.” Greyson shook his head in disbelief. Never before had he been affected this way, especially after just spending mere minutes with a woman.
“Are you shitting me? You dragged me down here to talk about your feelings?” Cade laughed enthusiastically.
“Come on, man!” Greyson whispered harshly. “Don’t bust my balls.”
“Sorry, brother, sorry.” Cade wiped tears of laughter from his eyes, trying to calm down by taking a drink of coffee. “Tell me about this woman that’s got you all tied up in knots.”
“She’s fucking gorgeous, Cade. Makes Pricilla look like one of the ugly step-sisters.”
“Ouch!”
“Yeah, I know, I’m an ass. But Pricilla’s a bitch, man, you know that.”
“That I do, brother.”
“Anyway, Blaise…”
“Blaise?”
“That’s her name. Blaise Knight.” The name rolled off Greyson’s tongue almost reverently.
“Unique,” Cade remarked, giving his friend an odd look. Greyson had never acted like this before. This woman must be something else.
“Just like her. I asked her out,” Greyson said at length.
“Good for you, man.”
“Not really, she turned me down.”
“No shit?” Cade laughed again. It was an unusual occurrence for Greyson to be turned down by a woman. He’d have to mark this date down. Now he was even more intrigued by this Blaise Knight.
“No shit. Told me to ‘have a nice day’.” This time Greyson laughed along with his friend at the absurdity of it all. “Man, she’s… here,” he finished in a whisper as the woman commanding his thoughts stepped into the diner.
Cade turned his head to get a glimpse of Greyson’s mystery woman. “Wow. Can’t blame ya for being a bit obsessive, brother.”
BLAISE FELT HIS eyes on her before she saw him. Oh God. What is he doing here? Blaise avoided eye contact, determined to make it safely to Ellie’s kitchen without confrontation. As soon as the swinging door closed behind her, she propped herself against the wall, letting out the breath she had been holding.
“Blaise?”
She started at Ellie’s voice right beside her, bringing her hand to her rapidly beating heart. “You scared me.”
Ellie frowned at her friend’s behavior, looking around and noting they were being watched by her kitchen staff. “Come on. Let’s go into the office.”
Blaise followed wordlessly, embarrassed by her reaction to the hot, yet totally infuriating, man.
“Sit,” Ellie ordered. “And, tell me what’s going on with you.”
“Nothing.” Of course Blaise’s answer sounded like the lie it was, and she winced at the scowl Ellie gave her. “Fine. There’s a guy out there.” She jerked her thumb in the general direction of the eating area.
“There are a few guys out there, Blaise. Mind being a little more specific?”
Blaise blew a frustrated breath out, fluffing the piece of hair that had fallen over her eye. “He’s sitting near the door, on the left. Where are you going!?” Blaise cried when Ellie got up.
“Calm down, I’m just going to take a peek.”
“Ellie,” Blaise whined.
“Blaise.” Ellie chuckled as she whined back. “Just cool your jets, I’ll be right back.”
Blaise nervously bounced her leg, gnawing on her thumbnail as she waited.
“Black hair or brown?” Ellie asked as she popped back into the office, startling Blaise once again.
“Brown,” she sighed.
“So? What’s the deal with him? Have a bad date? Ooo, did you have sex with him and then didn’t call?”
Blaise narrowed her eyes at Ellie, noting her friend’s eyes were twinkling with mirth.
“No and no. We met this morning. Kinda.”
“Kinda? How do you ‘kinda’ meet someone? And, why are you hiding from him?”
Blaise flopped her arms on Ellie’s desk, and began to lightly bang her head on the hard surface with a groan. After a few taps, she decided it wasn’t worth regaining the headache she had just gotten over, and sat back. “His name is Greyson Steele. We ‘kinda’ met at my shop this morning. He parked in my van’s spot.” Her mouth twitched into an almost smile when she heard Ellie’s teasing ‘oh no he didn’t’. “Then, he had the nerve to practically demand I move my van.”
“Wait. Move your van?”
“I double parked, blocking him in,” Blaise explained. “Yadda, yadda, blah, blah…”
“Translation: he said move, you said when you’re good and ready?” Ellie guessed.
“You know me so well. This is why you’re my best friend.” They laughed together before Blaise continued. “Anyway, after the whole debacle, he asked me out.”
“Shut up.”
“Truth. He asked me for coffee, actually. I had told him to come down here and get a cup of coffee while he waited. He offered to bring me a cup, as a truce, I suppose. Then, as I was leaving, he asked me out.”
“And, you said?” Ellie leaned forward, resting her elbows on the desk. With her chin in her palms, she looked at Blaise intently.
“I declined.”
“You declined,” Ellie parroted. “That man out there, with looks to kill asked you out and you declined?” She didn’t believe it. Blaise was a serial dater. She rarely declined an invitation to dinner, much less coffee. There was no ‘looking for the one’, Blaise didn’t believe in that. But most of the time she still enjoyed being ‘wooed’. Other times… well, other times ended up like last night’s date.
“I told you last night, I’m taking a break from dating.” Blaise glowered at her friend, knowing exactly what she was thinki
ng. Okay, so she went out on a few dates. So what? That didn’t mean she didn’t know how to say no. Blaise said no many times, to many things. “Besides, he’s arrogant.” Her indignation filled the atmosphere, and she glared again when Ellie’s mouth twitched. “Don’t you dare laugh!”
Ellie covered her mouth with her hand, and cleared her throat. “Not laughing,” she mumbled into her palm before removing it from her face. “But I do have a question.”
Blaise sighed. “Which is?”
“Were you being difficult because you had a hangover and I made you run five miles this morning?” The corners of Ellie’s mouth curved up, but she managed to keep herself from laughing outright at Blaise, who stuck her tongue out.
“I was not being difficult! And, just for that, I’m rethinking the whole ‘best friend’ thing.”
This time, Ellie snorted. “Yeah, right. You’d miss my red velvet cake!”
“Oh yeah.” Blaise let out a grunt of frustration. “Why oh why does he have to be so damned hot?”
“You like him.” It was more of a statement than a question.
“I most certainly do not! Did you know he didn’t even have the decency to apologize for parking in my spot?”
“No! Of all the pig-brained, arrogant…”
“You’re making fun of me,” Blaise pouted, which pissed her off because she hated pouting.
Ellie laughed softly. “I’m not making fun of you, sweetie, just the situation.”
Oh, like that makes all the difference, Blaise judged inwardly.
“And, it does make a difference,” Ellie continued as if reading Blaise’s mind. “I just find it ironic that you decided to take a break from dating just when Mr. McHottie Pants comes into your life, getting you all fired up.”
“Mr. McHottie Pants? Can I tell him you called him that?”
“Does that mean you’re going to talk to him?” Ellie responded with a satisfied smirk.
“Shit.” Blaise dangled her arms over the armrests of the chair, tapping her fingers to some silent beat. “I know Mr. Steele’s kind, Ellie. Hell, I went out with his kind last night. Rich, fancy car, fancy clothes, good looks. And, an ego the size of Texas. I just don’t want to deal with that anymore.”
Ellie rose, and went to her friend’s side, kneeling before her. “Sweetie, you don’t know him. Maybe, like you, he just wasn’t at his best this morning. If you’re attracted to him, why not give him a chance?”
Blaise shook her head decisively. “No. I said I was going to take a break from dating, and that’s exactly what I’m going to do. I need this, Ellie. I’ve been doing this dating thing for a while now, and I’m not happy. Look at you. You don’t date, and you’re just fine. I can do that.”
Ellie smiled sadly. “You shouldn’t be looking at me for inspiration. When you’ve prepared yourself for being alone for the rest of your life, it becomes easier not having a lover.”
“Why do you think you have to be alone, El?”
“Oh, no. We’re talking about you, not me. I was just telling you not to compare your life with mine.” Ellie stood up, and backed away as if she were afraid of the direction the conversation was taking.
Blaise sighed with resignation. One day she would get her friend to open up to her. She wanted to know what had been so horrible in Ellie’s life that she refuses to open herself up to the possibility of love. “Very well. But I’m still not dating him. He’s too dangerous.”
“Dangerous?” Ellie questioned, obviously relieved at the change in subject.
“I could lose control with him, El.”
“And, that would be bad?”
“Very.”
BLAISE PEEKED OUT the portal window of the swinging kitchen door. “Shit. He’s still out there,” she muttered grumpily.
“Probably because he’s waiting for you to come back out,” Ellie pointed out, following her from the office. She regarded Blaise for a moment before continuing. “You know, I’ve never known you to be a coward.”
Blaise backed away from the window quickly when she saw Greyson begin to turn around. When she faced Ellie, Blaise saw narrowed hazel eyes. “I’m not a coward.”
“No? You’re hiding in the kitchen of my diner, spying on some guy that you just met this morning.”
“I’m not spying, El!” Blaise scoffed, giving her friend a hard stare. “I’m just seeing if he left.”
“So, you’re just going to stay in here and avoid the situation? What if he shows up at your shop again? Are you going to hide from him then, too?” Ellie stepped closer to her friend. “What is so dangerous about him, sweetie?”
Blaise sighed. “I don’t know, El. I just…”
“Are you afraid you could fall for him?”
Love was not something Blaise was looking for. In fact, she avoided it at all costs. Marriage, kids… Blaise shuddered at the thought. But a few moments, even tense moments, with Greyson Steele, and she could see herself breaking a lot of her rules. She was loath to admit that out loud, so she shrugged. “I’m sure he can have his pick of women. I’m not really interested in being another notch on his bedpost.” Blaise knew she was stereotyping a man she didn’t really know, and she felt badly about that.
“Blaise, that’s the second time you’ve jumped to conclusions about the type of man he is,” Ellie said, again seemingly reading Blaise’s mind. “Did you Google him or something and found out he was some kind of playboy?”
“No,” she admitted shamefully. She had wanted to Google Greyson Steele, and that’s exactly why she didn’t. Blaise didn’t want the desire to know more about this man. And, if she were honest, she didn’t want to know about other women. Stupid, she thought disgustedly.
“Sweetie, just because you agree to have coffee with him doesn’t mean you have to have sex with him.”
They were distracted by the sound of a pan clattering on the counter. With a glance, the friends saw that their conversation was not as private as they would like it to be. Kitchen staff looked away quickly, making themselves busy—or look busy—when the boss glared back at them.
“Thanks,” Blaise muttered to her smirking friend. “And, do you really think that I could resist having sex,” she whispered the word, “with a man who makes my body respond with a simple look?”
Ellie’s eyebrows shot up. “That phenomenon is real?” She peered around Blaise, out the window. “Well, he certainly is hot enough, I suppose.”
“You think?” Blaise shot back with teasing sarcasm, then sobered. “Ellie, I’m not strong enough to deny what my body wants when he’s near.”
Ellie sighed. “Okay. But you can’t keep avoiding him. If you really don’t want to go out with him, then don’t. But being a coward is not who you are.” Ellie grabbed a to-go coffee cup from the shelf, filling it with coffee and handing it to Blaise. “Here. Now you have a reason for having been here. For…” she checked her watch, “twenty minutes. By the way, what was today’s flavor,” she asked, knowing of her best friend’s coffee roulette routine in the morning.
Blaise snorted. “Jamaica Me Crazy.”
Ellie barked out a laugh. “Maybe you should take that one out of rotation, sweetie. You’re crazy enough.”
Blaise flipped her friend off with a half-grin. “I don’t know why I put up with your abuse.”
Ellie waved her hands in circles in front of her nose, sniffing the air. “Smell that?”
The scent of mouth-watering pies filled the air, and Blaise couldn’t help inhaling deeply. “If I didn’t know better, I’d think you use your brilliance with baking just to control me.”
“Would I do that?” Ellie asked with innocence, and a smirk that was anything but innocent. “Now stop stalling and go.”
“I could just go out the back.”
“You could, but as your best friend, I’m not going to let you. Go. You have work to do, and I still need centerpieces.”
“Such a slave driver,” Blaise muttered as she took a deep breath, and forced herself to wa
lk through the swinging door.
Don’t talk to me. Don’t talk to me. Don’t talk to me.
“Blaise?”
Shit.
Blaise paused at the door and glanced back. “Mr. Steele.”
She could swear she heard him growl, and suppressed a shiver. He looked at her expectantly, and as much as she wanted to just walk away, her good manners compelled her to go to him. Sure. Keep telling yourself it’s your good manners, Blaise.
“This is Cade Drake,” he rumbled, introducing the incredibly handsome man sitting with him.
Blaise gave him a pleasant smile. “Hello.”
“Ma’am.”
She bit back the sigh, wanting nothing more than to get out of there, and back to her shop where she could lose herself in her work.
“I see you already got your coffee.” She heard Greyson say as he nodded to the forgotten cup in her hand.
“Yes.”
“Perhaps I could interest you in dinner instead?”
His beautiful gray eyes, framed by long, dark lashes, flashed with hope and… desire?
“I’m sorry, Mr. Steele.” Blaise glanced towards the kitchen where she just knew Ellie was watching her. “I have plans. And, I really do need to get going now,” she said hurriedly, backing towards the door. “Have a nice day.”
SHIT. AGAIN!
“Damn. Strike two, brother,” Cade laughed.
“Fuck you, man.” Greyson wasn’t so arrogant that being rejected embarrassed him. It didn’t happen often, but there may have been a couple of instances when he got shot down. He just couldn’t think of any right now. Well, except for the two fucking times Blaise Knight knocked him down a peg.
“Hey,” Cade held up his hands in surrender, “no hard feelings. I just never thought I’d see the day Greyson Steele was flustered by a woman. An impressively beautiful woman, mind you, but this has got to be some kind of national holiday or something.”
“More coffee?” Ellie’s arrival to their table just might have been the reason Greyson let Cade live. Or, at the least, didn’t give him a fucking black eye.
“I’ll take anything you’re offering, darlin’.” Cade smiled charmingly at the woman. It was the smile that usually ‘closed the deal’ for the Colonel.
Coming Home: An LA Lovers Book Page 3
