Page 17 of My Blind Date is a Werewolf

“How about you? Unlike me, you clearly knew that I was the woman Beverley planned to—” I stopped talking mid-sentence, my eyes going wide. Something clicked in my mind that had me looking at Adrian a little differently.

Beverley approached me about finding my perfect match in the coffee shop hours before I ran into Adrian at the Scarlet Season. Did she come to me first or…?

“The night of the hospital charity thing at the hotel, did you already know that Beverley thought you and I were fated for each other?”

I knew his answer before he verbally confirmed my suspicions, but we were interrupted by a waiter before he could tell me.

“Ah, shoot! I haven’t decided what I want to order yet.” I cursed under my breath, going over the menu one more time. I felt a soft kick to my left shoe underneath the table, and when I looked up, Adrian was already staring at me, his complexion almost as fiery as his unruly curls.

“I can order for you, if you don’t mind?”

His gaze locked on mine before skating away to look at something over my shoulder and flicking back to my face again, staring at my mouth this time around.

The duality of Adrian Cooper was mind-boggling. He went from being this take-no-nonsense Alpha/CEO who could knock your teeth in to this bashful, teddy bear of a man.

I gave him leave to order whatever he thought looked good on the menu. He went with Greek salad and spinach pie for starters, followed by chicken gyros, prawn saganaki, and pita bread, and then moussaka for mains. “For dessert, we’ll go with the white chocolate piato and some coffee,” he told the waiter, handing off the menu.

I waited for the waiter to leave before voicing my doubts. Leaning across the table, I lowered my voice. “Wasn’t that a bit much? I feel full just from listening to your order.”

My hand went to my stomach and patted it as if I’d already eaten. Adrian’s smile could only be described as wolfish. “I have a pretty big appetite, so rest assured that I’m going to wipe the plates clean even if you pick at your food like a bird,” he replied, grimacing immediately afterward. “It occurs to me that I should not make myself out to be a pig when this is only our first date.”

“Don’t worry, I’ve been around you wolves long enough to know that you could eat this place out of existence. And don't think I haven’t noticed that you skirted over answering my question,” I pointed out.

Adrian leaned back in his seat and scratched at his beard. He remained silent for a moment, a faraway look glazing his eyes over. “I did know that it was you, yes. And the only reason I didn’t say anything was because I knew you weren’t ready to step back into the ring again. Not to mention, you were accosted by that creep again. I didn’t want to bother you right after you were harassed.” He shrugged, the fluid movement accentuating the breadth of his shoulders and drawing his shirt tight across the broad expanse of his chest.

“So, this…whatever this thing is between us, you want it to happen? You’re not here just because of the ramblings of an old witch?” I asked, looking at him from beneath my lashes and brushing my finger down the stem of the wine glass.

“I’d hardly call it the ramblings of an old witch, but I do want this. Do you?”

I shrugged. “I don’t know what I want, Adrian, but that doesn’t mean I don’t want to see where this goes…if it goes anywhere. All I ask is that we take it slow, take our time to learn about each other all over again. This time as lovers instead of friends.”

“Great, where do we start?” Adrian asked just as the first course of our meal arrived. My stomach chose that moment to growl. Despite my initial doubts over the copious amounts of food he ordered, I felt hungry enough to eat a horse.

“How about you start by telling me how your day went today and we’ll go from there?” I dug into my food with gusto and let his voice wash over me as he told me about the project he and his crew were working on at the moment. It was apparent from the way he talked about his job, the fervent timbre of his voice, the way he articulated himself, and the gleam in his eyes, that he enjoyed what he did.

To me, construction was an odious chore to be completed before the fun part, which was settling in and making a house a home, or an industrial building a quaint coffee shop.

The conversation went from how his day went to mine. I told him about my new hire and the rivalry brewing between her and Wendy, and then I somehow ended up telling him about my semester abroad, studying to be a pastry chef in Paris.

“I worked in the most adorable cafe right across the Seine. The customers were all so different and interesting. The city was unlike any other place I’ve ever been. I would have stayed there forever, but my boss/teacher soured the whole experience for me.” I chuckled, remembering the nightmare Olivier Tremblay had put me through.

“How so?” Adrian asked, his attention hanging on every word I said. I couldn’t remember the last time I was this open with a man on a date. Usually, I kept all the personal talk to a minimum.

“He was a demon in the kitchen. Olivier gave new meaning to the phrase ‘work ethic.’ I didn’t mind putting in the long hours. I’d even say I thrived under all the pressure, but his rude attitude I could not deal with. The man was a sexist, chauvinistic pig who was more interested in getting into the pants of his female students, and if you rejected him, which I did, he made sure that every day in the cafe was a nightmare.

“And even if he weren’t a terror to work with, I still wouldn’t have stayed. I was newly engaged, had a wedding to plan, and Sean was just starting out at his new job. I had a whole other life waiting for me, even if it did all blow up in my face down the line.”

“But you don’t regret the paths that lead you here, thorny as they may be,” Adrian observed, his expression inscrutable. I wondered for a moment if he was perturbed that I’d brought up my ex-husband, but I didn’t think he was.

“I suppose not. I mean, I was a bit of a mess after the divorce. Looking back now, I see that my marriage to Sean was always going to end up in divorce. The man I married and the man who cheated on me were two different people. People grow and change, that’s a fact of life. But Sean and I… Our paths diverged somewhere along that period of growth and change. We became unrecognizable to the other. Or maybe the real Sean Carter finally showed his colors after a while.”

I went quiet before I divulged too much. I wasn’t embarrassed or ashamed of what happened, but I didn’t want to spend the whole date waxing poetic about my past. It was over. I’d slowly been approaching my breaking point with Sean. He wanted a pliable, subservient, suburban wife—one who did not lower herself to baking bread for a living. He wanted someone who’d pander to his ego, the glitz and glam that came with being a junior partner in a prestigious law firm.

All I wanted was a quaint life raising a family with the man I loved. I did not need the bells and whistles that came with Sean’s paycheck. In fact, I’d tried to give back all the jewelry and expensive gifts he’d bought me over the years. But when he refused to take them, I sold them and used the money to lease the building for my coffee shop. In the end, I’d call that a win.

CHAPTER 12

We stayed at the restaurant for almost two hours after I steered the conversation away from my failed marriage. Between the food, drinks, and good company, I felt the exhaustion and anxieties of the day melt away into the ether. My cheeks hurt from smiling too much and the taste of our meal lingered on my tongue. It was almost nine o’clock and I was not as dead on my feet as I usually was.

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