Page 6 of Warrior's Cross

“Would you care for some coffee?” he asked, pausing on his way past. He hoped he sounded calm and collected.

The man didn’t look up from his writing. He gave a simple shake of his head in answer.

Put at ease by the more usual reaction, Cameron went on his way.

He’d just let himself be distracted by attempting personal interaction when he was better served forgetting his silly fantasyand doing his job; that was all. Satisfied and back on balance, Cameron went to finish up the checks for the remaining tables.

Then Blake passed by the man’s table on his usual rounds of the patrons. The man reached out without looking up and snagged Blake by the arm, stopping him without a word. He didn’t even stop writing as he held onto Blake’s wrist. Blake stood there for a moment as the man wrote. Then he gently extricated his arm and slid into the seat opposite the man.

Cameron wondered how it was that Blake knew him. Besides greeting him personally at the door like he did only a privileged few, Blake actually sat and talked with him. Cameron had never seen Blake do that with anyone else.

Blake said something more, and the man raised his head slightly, ran two fingers over his lower lip in thought, and then looked down at his book with a frown. Blake nodded and stood once more, strolling away from the table with a small smirk, one hand casually in a pocket, obviously pleased with whatever he’d said to make the dark man think.

Frowning, Cameron wondered what in the world was going on. He shook his head and told himself again it wasn’t his business, no matter how gorgeous the guy was. He headed out to clear a vacated table, deliberately keeping himself from peeking back at the alcove.

When he did happen to glance over at the table, the man caught Cameron with his dark eyes and inclined his head slightly. Now this Cameron was used to.

“Are you from here in the city?” the man asked him when Cameron arrived at the table.

The question totally threw Cameron again. He’d been expecting a request for the check or perhaps more wine. “Yes,” he answered tentatively.

“Do you know it well?” the man inquired, either not noticing or not caring about Cameron’s discomfort.

“Yes, I think so,” Cameron answered, slightly more confident.

“Do you know of a place called The Zenith?” the man asked, his voice holding a hint of barely hidden frustration to it. “Anywhere that could be called that? An establishment, a location, a landmark.

Anything?”

Cameron’s cheeks immediately darkened, and his eyes widened as the man spoke. Just when he thought this man couldn’t surprise him anymore, he out and asked about something like the Zenith. Great. Was this what he and Blake had been discussing? Blake wouldn’t know about a club like the Zenith, would he? Cameron blushed further and cleared his throat.

The man’s observant eyes did notice his reaction this time, and he tilted his head inquiringly.

Cameron cleared his throat again, shocked by how uncomfortable one little question could make him. “That’s the name of an exclusive club,” he answered with a nervous smile. “Caters mostly to gay men, I believe,” he hedged.

The man cocked his head and looked away thoughtfully. He pursed his lips and looked back down at his notebook. “Interesting,” he murmured to himself. “You can have the woman bring the check now,” he ordered without looking up again.

Cameron swallowed hard. “Yes, sir,” he practically whispered.

Once in the back, he stiffly set down his tray with a muted clatter and leaned his head against the wall. The man had asked a question, and he’d answered it. And for that he was not just dismissed, but replaced with another server?

Cameron rubbed at his eyes. What was it about this man that threw him so easily off kilter? With a sigh, he headed into the kitchen to find Miri.

The next time he looked out across the dining room, she was stepping back from the man’s table. She spoke and then turned smartly on one heel and walked away.

The man looked up quickly and narrowed his eyes, glancing around the restaurant slowly as if he were looking for someone. His eyes returned to the kitchen door where Cameron had disappeared and narrowed further.

Cameron, watching from the service area, fought not to shrink back from those piercing eyes. If he hadn’t known better, he would have sworn the man knew he was there behind the blinds.

The man removed a bill from his wallet and placed the money on the edge of the table without looking away from the blinds. Then he walked away with his coat over his arm, not bothering to struggle back into it despite the cold weather. Just before he got to the door, Blake emerged from the hallway that led to the private offices and stopped him for a few words.

The man towered over Blake, but Blake Nichols’ presence alone could overpower a room. Blake had been a medic in the Special Forces, though Cameron had never had the nerve to ask which branch or for how long. Blake carried himself like a capable soldier as well as the affluent businessman he had become. He was a hard man to outshine.

Cameron watched nervously, knowing his boss was asking the dark man about the service and what had happened. The man pointed at the slats with his good hand and spoke to Blake heatedly. To Cameron’s horror, Blake actually laughed in response. Cameron stepped back so fast he almost knocked down another server. Jesus, what was he telling Blake to make him laugh like that?

He cautiously crept back to the shutters to try to see what was going on. The man said something else, and Blake laughed harder. He took the bigger man’s arm and led him towardthe door, helping him into his coat as they went. Surely if Blake were amused, it wasn’t anything bad. Right? Cameron swallowed hard, replaying the evening in his head. There wasn’t a single thing he could see that had been done wrong, aside from knowing the answer to that question. And Blake knew Cameron was gay, so that wouldn’t come as a surprise to him or anyone else who knew Cameron even remotely well.

Blake actually walked out of the restaurant with the man into the lobby of the top floor of the building to the elevators. Cameron held his breath for a moment and let it out slowly to calm himself. It was okay, he told himself. Everything was okay. And he had work to do before he could go home and try not to dream about the man again.

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