Page 28 of Fearless Sinner

Heat crawls into my belly and settles there like stagnant water. “What?”

“He’s here and he’s asking for you.”

A shaky breath ripples in my throat and I swallow. “Me?” I point to myself as if there are any other Chloes in here.

“Yeah. You.”

Chapter Eight

Chloe

God…

What the hell is up with my luck?

Shivers erupt across my skin, as if I’m standing outside in the cold, when I spot Cillian O’Ridian sitting in the back of the restaurant.

He sees me, too, and a thin smile spreads across his handsome face. We’re about twenty feet apart but I can see the spark in his bright blue gaze.

He’s here to see me.

But why?

The tension in my nerves makes my heart pound faster and my thoughts race, each one tripping over the one before it.

Please, God, don’t tell me he changed his mind.

Maybe he came to his senses and realized that he was being too generous, and he decided he wants his money now.

What else would bring him into my sphere of existence again?

And does he always have to look so good? Every time I’ve seen him he’s looked GQ gorgeous.

Tonight he’s wearing more casual clothing than last time. I would almost mistake him for a normal mundane person in his long-sleeved T-shirt and Levi’s. Not the billionaire mafia guy who owns his own bank and who knows what else.

Summoning strength and confidence I don’t feel, I make my way over to him.

But I’m tired. I’m mentally and physically tired.

The news from yesterday took it out of me, and when I left the bank today I didn’t exactly feel like the hills were alive with The Sound of Music positive.

Whatever this is had better not be something else to knock me down. I’ve only just started digging myself out of my grave.

Cillian’s eyes are riveted to me and he has that same look of curiosity wrapped in desire I noticed the other day.

I run through all the possible things I could say to him but my mind slows when I reach him.

He straightens, drawing attention to his military-man muscular shoulders. Then he levels me a curious stare and gives me a sexy half-smile that would make most women see no problem in losing their dignity.

“Hi, there.” My voice is breathy in a sultry way but it’s from a combo of curiosity, surprise and—yes, attraction.

“Hello, Miss Ricci.”

“Chloe. Call me Chloe.” I borrow his tactic to get me to call him by his first name. “Miss Ricci sounds like my mother. Or rather, how she was known when I used to live here.”

“Alright, Chloe.”

“I wouldn’t have thought that someone like you would be dining at Ricci’s Ristorante.” I’m so desperate to find out why he’s here I fear I might combust.

---