Page 66 of Fire in You

“Oh my fucking God,” I whispered.

Grady’s chin jerked up, but I barely saw him. “Excuse me?”

I didn’t normally take the Lord’s name in vain, but I had a feeling Jesus and Moses and Mary and everyone at this point totally understood my response.

What was he doing here? Had I mentioned where I was having dinner with Grady? Possibly? I mean, I could’ve in random conversation. I had to have, because I couldn’t picture Brock being that much of a stalker, because that was like leveling up in the stalker arena.

“Jillian?”

Blinking, I focused on Grady as my heart felt like it was trying to crawl its way out of my throat. “I’m sorry?”

He frowned as he leaned forward. “Are you okay?”

Clearing my throat, I nodded as I hoped and prayed Brock didn’t see us. “Yeah. I’m sorry. I just, um, remembered something I needed to do for work.”

A small smile played over his lips. “Sounds like it was important.”

I glanced over his shoulders, spying Brock talking to the hostess. “Yeah. It’s really important.”

“Hopefully it’s not another work dinner you’ve forgotten about.”

Had I? Because that was most definitely Brock and he was by himself—oh my God, was he turning this way? I almost wanted to dive under the table, but that would be weird, so I hastily looked down at my plate, upping my prayers that he wasn’t coming to the table. That there was no way Brock would be—

I peeked up through my lashes and saw his dark head over the high walls separating the tables, getting closer and closer, and I knew deep in my very core that Brock was coming to this table.

Chapter 19

Like a toddler, I was of the mindset that if I wasn’t looking at Brock, he couldn’t see us. Like he wasn’t truly there, so I fixed my gaze on my nearly empty plate, and prayed I was having hallucinations.

“Well, hello,” came the smooth, deep voice that never failed to slip over my skin like heated silk. “What a surprise.”

God. Damn. It.

I lifted my gaze at the same time Grady did, and I saw surprise flicker across his handsome face as he caught sight of Brock towering over our table.

“Hi?” I forced out.

Brock’s full lips slipped into a half-smile as he looked down at Grady. “We meet again.”

“Yeah. We do.” Grady was nodding as he glanced between us. “This is a surprise.”

“I know.” Brock’s dark eyes glimmered. “Such a coincidence.”

My eyes narrowed as I picked up my wine glass. A coincidence, my rosy red ass. “So, what . . . what are you doing here, Brock?”

“Oh, I was just in the area and thought I’d swing by and grab something to eat.”

“By yourself?” I asked, because this wasn’t the type of restaurant you wandered into by yourself. So what in the world was he up to?

“I do a lot of things by myself, Jillian.” His amused gaze centered on me.

I widened my eyes at that and took a healthy gulp of my wine, because my mind really took that to a place that was really inappropriate since I was on a date with another man. I suddenly heard his heated words in my ear. I got you.And that made me think of his hand slipping between my legs . . .

Grady cleared his throat. “So, do you come here often?”

“Actually, I was here not too long ago.” He was still staring at me, his lips curved into a rather delighted smirk. “Remember? Our dinner date?”

“Dinner date?” Grady parroted, sounding confused as his pale eyes settled on me.

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