Page 37 of Stone Promises

“Are you kidding? I think they’ve gotten even better since you lived here.” She squirms happily in her seat.Lucky fucking seat.“Wait until you taste it,” she says. “You’ll go nuts.”

“I’m looking forward to it.”

“Wait. We can’t go there,” she says, looking disappointed. “It’s Friday night. It’ll be packed.”

“Don’t worry about it,” I tell her.

“Don’t worry?” She looks slightly panicked. “One of us has to, Chad. You shouldn’t be seen out with me.”

She doesn’t realize what I have planned, but her comment pisses me off anyway. The way she said it was self-deprecating. Like she was somehow worried about what it would look like if I were to be seen with ‘someone like’ her. “Why the hell not?”

“Isn’t it obvious?” she says, holding out her arms and looking down at herself.

“Jesus, Mallory, would you quit that shit? You are gorgeous and smart and generous, and any man would be honored to be seen with you. You were never self-conscious when we were younger. Why now?”

“Oh, let’s see,” she says, looking around the car. “Maybe because when we were younger you didn’t have a bodyguard-slash-driver. Or maybe because you weren’t a gazillionaire movie star. Or maybe because you weren’t dating beautiful actresses or hobnobbing with famous athletes. Should I go on?”

“Gazillionaire?” I mock. “Is that even a word?”

“Whatever. I mean, come on, Chad. You have to admit, this is all pretty intimidating for someone like me.”

“It shouldn’t be. You should have everything that I have. You should have it and more. I want to give it to you.”

She stares at me in the darkness of the back seat. “You can’t say things like that.”

“I can say whatever the hell I want, Mal. I’ve never censored myself with you and I’m not about to start now. I want to see you. I want to take you on a real date. And at the end of that date, I want to kiss you. I want to kiss you until your knees go weak. I want to kiss you so long and so hard that any other kiss you’ve ever had with another guy will seem inconsequential. I’m not going to hide how I feel, and I’m sure as shit not going to feel badly about it.”

Mallory is frozen to the seat, speechless. I glance at Cole, who has been witness to the entire conversation. He catches my eyes in the rearview mirror and smiles. Cole doesn’t smile.

“I—I’m just a little overwhelmed, I guess,” she says, straightening her skirt. “This is all so new to me, Chad. You’ve had years to get used to the money and the fame and this new life that goes with it. You can’t expect me to accept it all in six short days. Can we take a breath, please? Can we have dinner and talk about things like we used to? Can we just be friends tonight before we make any decisions?”

I get what she’s saying. I do. But once you’ve made a decision about your life, you want to get on with it and start living. “I’ve already made mine,” I tell her. “But yeah, we can just have dinner and talk. Being with you tonight is all I wanted. The rest can wait.”

She takes in a deep breath and lets it out slowly. I can see the tension leaving her as we drive through the city. Cole pulls into the alley in the back and knocks on the rear door to the restaurant.

Mallory looks sideways at me. “Sneaking in the back, are we?”

“It’s all part of my plan to seduce you,” I tease. “Nothing screams sexy like wading through dumpsters and homeless people to impress your girl.”

“You’re terrible,” she says, swatting my leg.

I trap her hand on my thigh and hold it there until Cole opens the door for us. The best part about it is, she lets me.

“Everything set?” I ask Cole.

He nods. “Just like you asked.” He escorts us the ten feet from the car to the back door of the restaurant. “I’ll park it and be close by if you need me.”

“Welcome, Mr. Stone,” says the small Italian man with a heavy accent who greets us at the door. “I’m Mario, the owner of this establishment. Anything you want, just ask. Follow me. I set a good table for you in back. Far from the windows. No one will see.”

He walks us into the main dining room. It’s dark and quiet, with candles in the center of each table providing just enough light so we don’t trip over anything. He points to a large table in the back corner. It’s set with a red-and-white-checkered tablecloth.

Mallory takes in the barren dining room, looking from one empty table to the next. She questions me with her eyes as we make our way to the table with the most candles. There is already a bottle of champagne chilling and a glass of her favorite beer on the table. At least I think it’s her favorite. It’s the kind she had at her house when I shared one with her dad. Maybe it’s only her dad’s favorite.Shit—there is so much I need to learn about her. I just hope she’ll let me.

She thanks Mario for seating us and then turns to me with a hard stare. “Where is everybody?”

“I didn’t want us to be bothered. Sometimes this is the only way.”

Her jaw drops. “You rented out the whole restaurant for the night?”

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