Page 22 of Color of Love

Justine’s new date sat down in front of her. Even though two minutes was such a short amount of time to spend with someone, she was exhausted. She turned to look at Blake, he was on the table next to her. If she listened hard enough, she could probably hear him talking. She tried to tune out her date so she could eavesdrop.

“Everything ok?” her date asked. She snapped her attention to him, annoyed he had interrupted her spying and then instantly felt guilty for ignoring him, so guilty that she promised him she would give him her number. This was not going well.

The next thing she knew, he was getting up and Blake was sitting down. As her eyes met his, her palms started to sweat, and she felt sick. He slid into the seat and eased back, folding his arms over his chest, his huge biceps stealing her attention. He didn’t say anything, she opened her mouth to speak but then thought better of it, why should she? He’d been plenty chatty with the other women tonight and every time they’d spoken previously, she’d initiated it.

He began rolling up his shirtsleeves, slowly, exposing more and more of those tan muscular forearms and she couldn’t tear her eyes away. Okay now you have a forearm kink? One kink at a time, lady! She raised her eyebrow at him in challenge as she sipped her wine. His nostrils flared but he gave no other reaction. After two minutes—she counted every damn second—she gave up.

“Starting to feel like a day at the office,” she muttered. A muscle ticked in his jaw and then he shocked her by speaking.

“I thought you were dating Beau?” he said, his eyes drilling into her, bewitching her until he drew an answer from her.

“I’m not sure why you would think that, don’t you remember what I said in the forest?”

“So, you’ve really never been with anyone, have you?” he demanded, and then clamped his mouth shut, his brow pinched in confusion like he hadn’t meant to say that. Her pulse quickened and heat coursed through her as she realized what he’d asked her but before she could answer there was another man hovering next to them, waiting to sit down. Their time was up, and she couldn’t work out whether she was happy or disappointed.

Blake stared at her for a moment longer, his eyes hot and demanding as though he wasn’t leaving until she answered him. She fought a shiver as tingles shot down her spine. Her breathing deepened and her body heated, tension thickening the air around them. What was happening to her body? What was this? The man standing beside them coughed discreetly and Blake blinked, snapping out of their stare-off. He grabbed his drink and stood up.

“Have a good evening,” he said, his tone neutral and then went back down the row to his next date. Justine tried to ignore the heat flaring through her, shoving it away as she fixed a bright smile on her face and greeted the man now sitting down opposite her. He was her final date and seemed pretty nice. He was a few years older than her, looking to settle down and start a family which really interested her. When they were finished, Taylor came over to the group.

“Okay, we’re all done! Hopefully, that wasn’t too painful for some of you. Ladies, if you want to break off over here to make your decision, gentlemen you can wait right there.”

The women all stood and walked off to gather around a table that had little slips of paper and pens on it. Justine followed and moments later Taylor joined them.

“I don’t know about y’all but the tall, dark and handsome one was tasty!” the busty blond giggled.

“Which one, there’s two of them?” another woman replied. Justine looked over at the group of men. There were only two who could be described that way, Beau and Blake. Would any of them choose Blake?

“The trainer. He can give me a workout anytime,” the blond purred.

“You know, I heard he gave his last girlfriend herpes,” Taylor said in a mock whisper. Justine rolled her eyes, of course.

“No, he didn’t,” Justine told the blond, scowling at an unrepentant Taylor.

“Do you know that for sure?” Taylor replied, grimacing. Justine shook her head and shoved Taylor away.

“I think he’s really into you, you should definitely go for it,” she replied to the blond. The women deliberated a little longer and scribbled their numbers down, but Justine wasn’t really paying attention, she was watching Blake, who seemed to be looking anywhere but at her. Taylor came back to announce it was time for the ladies to give out their numbers to the men they were interested in. To Justine’s dismay, the women flocked to Blake, practically throwing bits of paper at him, then they ambushed Beau.

Hot anger coursed through Justine, jealousy nipping at its heels. Of course, these women all wanted him, he’d been charming, funny and chatty to them but when he was seated with her, he had pretty much ignored her. He had a good job, nice hair, he was gorg- wait a minute, why did she even care? She didn’t, except from a professional point of view. He was her client afterall, and his wellbeing was her business. She didn’t want him to feel like he was in over his head. It could have a detrimental effect on him, and she only had his best interests at heart.

As she watched him, she noticed he looked a little flustered at the attention and then he caught her staring. He looked away, dismissing her and that pushed her over the edge. She scribbled her number down on multiple bits of paper, then stomped over and gave her number to all the men except Blake, including Beau and the guy who wanted her to be his sub, but fuck it! She ignored Blake and threw herself into conversation with all the men. She was so busy talking to them that she didn’t notice Blake storm out of the bar, or the angry rev of his motorcycle as he rode off into the night.

*

Blake didn’t think he could run fast enough or hard enough to clear the thoughts in his head. He had been sociable last night and had chatted to all the women at the Ladies’ Night. He’d appeared engaged with all of them and responded to all their questions. But as soon as he’d got home, every number that had been pressed into his hand had been thrown in the trash. None of them had held his interest or attention. Well, except one but he couldn’t have her.

You’ve really never been with anyone, have you? God, that question haunted him. It had tumbled out, he’d never meant to ask it but once he did, he needed the answer more than his next breath. Except she hadn’t responded and that just pissed him off even more. She’d turned the tables on their little game of the silent treatment, and she had won, again. He’d walked away with his tail between his legs and his mind running on overdrive.

Did she know how she looked last night? Did she know that every man in that bar had stripped her with their eyes? Cataloguing her body like they knew exactly how every dip, curve and hollow looked? How she looked naked, and like they were going to own every inch of her. He snorted to himself as he pounded the pavement. If anyone were going to own her, it would be hi–

“No,” he grunted, cutting off the thought before it was formed, forcing himself to increase his pace, punishing his body for the thoughts in his mind. Was she still a virgin? No, she couldn’t be, that was ridiculous.

He huffed out a breath, angry that his thoughts had immediately returned to her. He kept running along the street and only stopped when a basketball rolled out in front of him. He looked up and spotted Dean and Beau waving at him from the court on the street.

He picked up the ball and was about to throw it back and continue on his way when her words replayed in his head. He needed to build relationships. It couldn’t hurt to be a little friendly, could it? And if he wanted to become sheriff here, he would need to start embracing the town and getting involved, becoming someone they could come to with their concerns. Instead of throwing the ball back to the men he jogged over, and they met him halfway.

“Hey, man,” Beau said with a grin that Blake no longer wanted to smack off his face now that he knew Beau wasn’t dating Justine. Not that it was his business anyway. Dean greeted him and Blake nodded at them both.

“You play?” Dean asked, nodding to the ball in Blake’s hands.

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