Glancing down at her phone, she prayed for some indication that her friends were on the way. Unfortunately, there was still no text from either of them!
Ugh! She should just leave, she thought.
Glancing over at the man, she placed her hands on the bar, prepared to stand up and leave, but then she caught his eyes. The silent message was there in his dark eyes and her body automatically reacted to it.
Don’t leave, his eyes told her.
Naya ignored his silent command and told herself that she should leave. She should run out of this bar and go home, put the entire night behind her and grab the special carton of cherry vanilla ice cream that was stashed in the back of her freezer, behind the smaller cartons of theoretically-healthier frozen yogurt that she’d bought so that she would eat that instead of the more fattening ice cream.
Shaking her head, she pushed the man’s silent order out of her mind. He might be handsome and powerful looking, but he didn’t control her! She’d leave when she wanted to! No man was going to give her orders. She didn’t care how much his eyes promised bliss, she wasn’t controlled by a man! Ever!
Ignoring the tingling sensations that told her that he was still watching her, she lifted her martini to her lips and took a long sip, needing the liquid courage. She would just…
Die! The burning sensation going down her throat was singeing all of the mucous membranes out of her throat. She was going to die! Coughing and gripping the edges of the bar, she gasped for breath as the heat of the martini hit her hard. It took several moments for her to get her breath back. When she could once again open her eyes, wiping the tears from her lashes, she looked around, refusing to look at the man at the table. She was certain he was laughing at her.
She wasn’t going to look. No way was she looking! She was finished with men judging her, finding her lacking. She wasn’t frigid and she was fully capable of drinking the sophisticated martini.
With a gulp of air and a defiant lift of her chin, Naya lifted the glass to her lips again. This time, she took a smaller sip. Thankfully, this time the burning from the alcohol was only painful, not death-inducing.
She could do this! She could manage drinking the martini and be sophisticated!
No man was going to laugh at her!
The bartender placed a glass of white wine in front of her and she blinked. It took her a moment to realize that the wine was for her and she glanced up, her eyes searching the kind, gentle eyes of the bartender.
“I didn’t order that,” she told him, suspecting that the wine was of a much better quality than anything she was used to. Just the color of the wine looked expensive.
“The gentleman at the table ordered it for you, ma’am,” the bartender explained and walked away.
Naya looked over at the man, her shoulders relaxing when she noticed no amusement in his handsome, rugged features.
Defiantly, she lifted the martini glass to her lips and took another sip. She wanted to cough again, but refused to give him the satisfaction. And when he simply lifted a dark eyebrow higher, questioning her stubbornness, she felt a small, silly victory.
Once again, she turned away from him and glanced down at her phone. Still no word from either of her friends. Boy they were going to get an earful from her about tonight!
She should just leave, she thought.
At that moment, her phone buzzed and she looked down. “On my way! Almost there. It will be nice to try out a different place.”
Naya’s shoulders slumped. So much for her speedy escape. If Ella was on her way, she couldn’t leave now. She typed out a reply. “Let me know when you are close and I’ll order you a drink.”
She set her phone on the bar beside her martini and took another sip. This time it wasn’t as bad. Smooth, she thought with surprise. She wouldn’t look at him, she ordered herself, placing the glass down on the granite countertop carefully, as if all of her focus was required to get the bottom of the glass perfectly centered on the small, white napkin.
Ella would arrive any minute and they would laugh over this, she told herself. They would make up silly stories about who the man was and why he was watching them. They would…
A message from Cassy came in and she looked at her phone eagerly, hoping for additional reinforcements. Alas, Cassy needed to work late. She wouldn’t be here.
That’s okay, she thought. She and Ella would have a good time. Everything would be okay.
She took another long sip of her martini, still ignoring the subtle call of the refined white wine. She wasn’t giving in. She was going to be sophisticated and casual. Like she drank martinis all the time. And choked on the first sip. Yep, that was her. It was just her normal routine.
The men at the table were standing up, the participants of the very serious table dispersing.
Unfortunately, the one man she wanted, needed, to stand up and go away didn’t stand up and he definitely didn’t go away. He continued to sit there. Watching her. Now that the others had walked away, The Wolf wasn’t even trying to be subtle about watching her!
In fact, he was being horribly rude!
She looked over at him, the martini giving her courage, warming her body. She stared right back, accepting the silent challenge in his eyes. She could handle this because Ella was close by, ready to save her and they would walk away, go have a burger somewhere and Naya could tell her friend the whole story. Ella would clap her hands enthusiastically, because Ella did everything with an exuberance that would exhaust a normal human being, and Ella would tell Naya that she handled the situation perfectly.
In the meantime, Naya would simply stare at the man and convey that she wasn’t intimidated by him. Not anymore, at least.
She watched as his lips curled ever so slightly. Amusement?
Oh no! She was not a joke! No way!
She lifted her glass again, watching as his eyes moved from her gaze to her hand.
When she put the glass back down onto the bar, she then lifted her eyes, daring him. Ella would be here. Any moment now. Naya would be saved by Ella’s presence. All was okay because Ella would walk in at any moment and the man would know that Naya was off limits and was just issuing elusive challenges that he was too slow to accept. She would come out the winner and he would walk away with his tail between his legs.
The man accepted her challenge.
Wait! No! This wasn’t the way this was supposed to play out!
Naya’s throat constricted as he stood up. Goodness, what was she supposed to do now? Where was Ella? Where was her savior? This wasn’t how this scene was supposed to play out! Ella was supposed to arrive and the two of them would…
He wasn’t supposed to pick up his own drink and walk over to her! Umm…why was he coming closer? He wasn’t playing the game properly!
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Guilty Pleasures (The Ladies of The Burling School Book 3) Page 15
