Page 14 of Taking Root

Chapter Seven

Danny barely got a sip of her wine in before Adrian stopped still as granite.

Her brows drew together as she twisted around to try and catch sight of what had turned him into a statue. Her hand crept toward the leg holster she wore beneath the dress, her pistol always at the ready. While Kyle Peterson wouldn’t be caught dead in a swanky joint like this, ever since high school she’d been trained in a special brand of vigilance where she expected him to emerge around every corner.

Adrian stared at a couple dining at one of the tables behind them, the guy dripping with a slicked hair sleaze. His stunning arm candy was the sort of put-together that promised she was as rigid as a board.

“Does one of them owe you money?” Danny asked, lifting a brow. “Because you’re scowling something fierce.”

Adrian dragged his stare away to drink the rest of his wine in one gulp before grabbing the bottle to pour more. “Technically, we’re split even, but Betty gouged me on payments to keep the house, so I guess.”

Danny took another sip of the dry red, waiting for more explanation. Based on the bitterness in his tone, the situation had bad breakup stamped all over it. Whatever happened, she hadn’t seen him this rattled since they reconnected. Adrian didn’t fall into wild gestures or the dramatic, but his grip tightened on the glass, and his lips pressed together so hard they whitened.

“Cheating ex-fiancée,” he explained. Even though she could unpack plenty more from those two words, he said everything she needed to know.

“How recent?” she asked. Her chest tightened at the pain clear in his blue eyes.

He traced the rim of the glass with his thumb, staring into the depths of his wine. “Less than a year ago. Longest relationship of my life shattered on the rocks, so as you can imagine, I’m doing great. Go figure, the one time I venture out to anywhere Michelin-starred, I run into her.”

Danny couldn’t stop herself from reaching across the table. His pain pulsed in the air, a raw, visceral thing. She placed her hand over his and squeezed tight. She’d never stayed in a place long enough to form any lasting relationship, but she would always understand the pain of hoping to build a future only to have it snatched away. Someone as devoted and patient as Adrian should’ve never gotten betrayed, but she learned a long time ago that karma was a petulant bitch.

“If you don’t mind getting kicked out, I could go over and spit in her wine glass,” Danny offered. He slipped his fingers through hers in a gentle motion that felt so right it hurt.

“I’m just surprised to see her, that’s all,” he responded. “I’d rather focus on the gorgeous woman I brought here than some nightmare from my past.”

The waiter approached again, this time holding steaming dishes. Her mouth watered at the buttery scent of the scallops beside goat cheese ravioli covered in a light cream sauce. One of the things she’d missed the most about this region was the cooking. With the plate set before her, she extricated her hand from Adrian’s and tucked in. Screw small, patient bites.

She glanced up to see Adrian cutting his steak into precise strips, a grin lifting his lips. Danny popped the first scallop into her mouth and let out a low moan. The light, buttery flavor and the crust of smoked salt interplayed on her tongue while the flaky scallop melted in her mouth. His blue eyes intensified at the sound. She’d snared his full attention.

“Keep making those noises and we’ll have to find somewhere private.” His voice came out low, loaded with enough raw sexuality to make her toes curl.

“But I thought we were just friends,” she murmured, blinking wide-eyed in a farce of innocence.

He shook his head, grinning as he took his first bite of steak. “Friends can fuck too, darling,” he responded, and goddamn his words had her thighs clenching.

She slipped another scallop into her mouth and chewed before she said something to get them both into trouble. He was pure cocaine, and she had long been an addict jonesing for a bump. The second she’d gotten Adrian Dukas into her system again, she couldn’t quit him. Not when for the first time in over a decade they were in the same city.

A shadow fell over their table.

Danny whipped around on instinct, her hands balling into fists.

She looked up at the sour face of Betty, Adrian’s ex-fiancée.

The woman might wear the hell out of a scarlet dress, but the prim expression reminded Danny far too much of Natalie Horntree for her liking. She could pick out pretentious from a lineup, and this chick oozed it from her pores.

“Nice to see you’d drag me to shitty family dinners to avoid a nice restaurant for the entirety of our relationship, but you’ll take a girl you barely know here?” Betty murmured. Even though her voice remained hushed and a smile plastered on her face, poison dripped from her words.

Before Adrian could respond, Danny jumped in. “If you’re going to spit in the face of a family meal, then you sure as hell didn’t deserve a fancy sit-down dinner.” God knows how often she longed for what the Dukases had, a close-knit family who would scream in each other’s faces just as quick as they’d hug it out. She turned to look at Adrian, who gripped his knife like he prepared to use it. His face paled, and his jaw clenched so tight it formed right angles. “I mean, I assumed she had the moral spine of a jellyfish since she cheated on you, but you didn’t mention what a bitch she was.”

Danny didn’t give a damn the word “bitch” rang around the entire restaurant.

Adrian let out a snort as he let go of the knife he’d been gripping. A couple of waiters slowly approached, as if they needed to tame a couple of rogue tigers who wandered in. Danny knew how rich folks liked to play their games. Betty wouldn’t risk getting blacklisted from Siren’s Call or embarrassing Joe Slick over there.

Betty turned to face Adrian. “You might want to watch the company you keep,” was all she said before she clipped her way on those four-inch stilettos back to her guy.

Danny leaned back in her seat and took a sip of wine from her glass. “I think that went well,” she said, a building inferno brewing in her chest. Adrian Dukas had been everything she ever wanted when she was seventeen, and even now those feelings hadn’t changed. The fact Betty hurt him made her the human equivalent of a sewage plant, because abandonment and betrayal always left their marks.

“You are some sort of extraordinary,” he murmured, a hushed sanctity in his tone. She expected to see pain streaked across his face, but instead he watched her with a sense of wonder that made her forget how to breathe. Her chest ached like she drowned.

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