Page 14 of Her Forbidden Prince
Carys arrived at the Mexican restaurant, wondering if she’d completely messed up.Maybe she should call Andi?No, Andi had her own issues.Andi had recently gotten a huge promotion and was now working on a specialized team in…somewhere in the world.
As Carys walked into the restaurant, she wondered if Andi was doing okay.How was the accounting department handling the changes to the running of the company?
She walked in and looked around.No Rafi.Was he ignoring her?
Of course he was!Angrily, Carys walked over to the roughed out bar.The restaurant was actually just a hole-in-the-wall place but the food was excellent.It had gotten busier in the past year as more people heard about the “dive”.But tonight, it was relatively empty, only four tables taken by other customers.
She was just about to leave when Rafi walked in, his eyes locking onto hers as he quickly eliminated the distance between them.
“Are you…?”Carys started to ask, but he kissed her before she could finish her question.Her arms were already around his neck by the time he lifted his head to stare down at her.
“Did you have a productive day?”he asked, his voice huskier than usual.
Since he kept his hands on her back, pressing her against his hard, delicious body, Carys didn’t bother to remove her hands from his hair, which was softer than it should be on such a hard, muscular man.He should have rough hair, not soft, silky strands.
“It was good,” she admitted, struggling to remember what he’d asked her.“How about yours?”
“Good.”He released his grip on her back, but those hands slid down to her hips.“Until some woman told me that she didn’t want to be seen with me.”He looked around, then down at Carys.“Are you sure this place has a license to serve food?”
Carys laughed, ignoring his comment about being seen together.“I promise the food is great.And yes, they have a license.”
He sighed, tilting his head.“Let’s grab a table toward the back.”
Carys grinned, her mood lightening now that he was here with her.What was it about this man that made her feel so good?
They ordered margaritas and chips with the best salsa.For dinner, she got the taco combination while Rafi ordered the fajitas.The steak and veggies came on a sizzling platter and, for a moment, Rafi looked confused as to what to do with the parts of his meal.
“Just put it together the way you like it,” she explained to him, nodding her appreciation when the waiter set down their second round of margaritas.
He looked across the table at her with a dark, raised eyebrow.“You think I don’t know how to eat fajitas?”
She laughed and took a big sip of her drink, enjoying the sweet and sour flavors.“I think you’re a food snob and wouldn’t know excellent flavors unless they were put in front of you at a five hundred dollar a plate establishment.”She was only half kidding.
But he took the bait.With precision, he piled the meat, onions, green peppers, and sour cream on his flour tortilla.Carys watched, thinking to warn him that he was overloading the tortilla.The trick was to have just a few ingredients on the tortilla so that nothing fell out when one took a bite.
Obviously, Rafi hadn’t ever had them like this, so when he lifted his over-stuffed tortilla to his mouth and took a bite, more than half fell out the other end back onto the platter.
Carys snickered, then covered her amusement with her own taco, which was perfectly filled.“You missed a bit,” she told him, chuckling at his frustration.
“You know you’re going to pay for making me look foolish, right?”he warned her, concentrating on rebuilding his fajita again, but with less fillings this time.
“I know you’ve just proven my point.”She lifted her drink and took a long swallow, enjoying the way the tequila soothed the edges from the day.
“How so?”he asked and took another bite of his fajita.
“You didn’t know how to fill your fajita.You’re a newbie at this.”
He took a chip and dunked it in the spicy salsa.“That doesn’t mean that I’m a food snob.”
“Aren’t you though?’she teased, tilting her head slightly.She narrowed her eyes.“I think you are.You might not realize it yet.”She feigned a frown.“And that’s really sad.It’s tough to not be self-aware.”
He growled something and selected another flour tortilla to start a second fajita.“Oh, you don’t think I’m self-aware?”
“Nope!”she laughed, leaning back in her chair with her margarita in hand.“However, I acknowledge your superior talents in other areas that are equally important.”
His hands froze and he looked across the table at her.One dark eyebrow lifted.“And what’s that area of expertise?”
She knew what he wanted her to say, and her small, triumphant smile warned him that she was going in a different direction.“You’re excellent at motivating the staff at work.”
