Page 23 of Fierce-Hyde

He didn’t even cringe when she got artichoke dip and homemade pita chips.

He went for the oldie but goodie of pulled pork smothered nachos.

She was eying his food that he was putting on a plate. “What?” he asked, grinning. “I like messy food. I should warn you right now.”

“Good to know,” she said. “Do you need a bib? Maybe we should have gone to a seafood place and you could get one of those lobster bibs.”

“No,” he said, laughing. “To both of them. I’ve just mastered eating over my plate. Ryder picks on me all the time when I get loaded burgers and all the toppings fall out with every bite.”

“Okay,” she said. “Can I confess something to you?”

“Sure,” he said.

“I love burgers like that but only ever get them when I’m with friends or make them at home.”

“Why?” he asked, picking up a chip and putting one in his mouth. He nudged the plate toward her to see if she’d take some. She did. “Because you don’t want anyone to think you don’t eat healthy or just messy? Don’t take this the wrong way. I don’t want it to come off that way. But you don’t look like someone who doesn’t take good care of herself.”

She smirked at him.

He was positive she wasn’t trying to turn him on with her attire, but she was.

There was nothing on her other than her shoes that screamed sex, but it was the way she carried herself that spoke volumes.

Cool confidence that she could handle the world was one sexy feature on a woman that she should never leave home without.

“Thank you,” she said. “Most of the time I eat healthy, but we all need to live a little. You look like you take good care of yourself, but for all I know you just burn it off. Your arteries could be screaming at you to stop.”

“They probably are,” he said, taking another bite.

She nudged her dip toward them. “Give them some relief and try a vegetable.”

“If you think that is healthy, you’re delusional. It’s still dip with fat in it.”

“Yummy fat covering up the taste of the vegetable,” she argued. “Think of it that way.”

“I suppose,” he said, grabbing a chip and trying it. “Okay, not bad.”

“And your arteries might thank me.”

“I’m going to hush them up with nachos,” he said, helping himself to another.

She smiled again and he found himself lost in her bright brown eyes.

He tended to be attracted to blondes with blue eyes.

This might be the first time that he could remember dating someone with brown eyes before.

Expressive eyes too.

Maybe he was used to seeing them annoyed, confused, or angry, but the humor was a nice change of pace.

“It’s your body,” she said. “But I think I’ll let mine scream at me a bit tonight too.”

“There you go,” he said when she put some nachos on her plate too.

To be polite more than anything else, he had some more of her dip and chips too.

“This is nicer than I thought it’d be,” she said after a minute.

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