Page 14 of Degrees of Control

“Hi, I’m Bea and I’ll be your server this evening. Can I take your order?”

“Coffee and another of what she’s havin’. Thanks, darlin’.”

The waitress’ cheeks turned as pink as her hair and she leaned across him to rearrange the menus, brushing her tits against his torso in the process. James leaned back into his chair. He appreciated the effort but he was trying to impress Blue-Eyes and right now she was giving him a smile he didn’t like one bit. Mercifully, the waitress left and James refocused on Charlotte. “Something funny?”

She smiled her little smile. “Not really, I’m just trying to figure out why you’re here. Also, you look kind of weird in a hipster café.”

James had to agree. The suit stuck out like a sore thumb and his tetchiness at being in such a happy-clappy dive had to be making itself clear on his face, but before he could say so Pink-Hair returned with his coffee and a cup of what looked like swamp water. She dumped the latter in front of Charlotte and gave her a smile so wide James could count her teeth. “How’s your boyfriend, Charlie? Does he still want to borrow my naturopathy book?”

Boyfriend?James almost spat out his coffee. Sophia had said Charlotte was single and she had better as hell be single. Not only was henotdown to be anyone’s piece on the side, the thought of Charlotte spending her nights riding the kind of scrappy douchebags littered around this irritating café tasted worse than his coffee. His resentment toward their waitress intensified but Charlotte merely smiled and reached for the honey. “Dale and I broke up four weeks ago, Bea. I told you that when you asked if he wanted any leftover carrot cake.”

The waitress gave a loud, unconvincing laugh no one responded to and an awkward silence reverberated around the table. Charlotte stirred her tea, James looked out of the window.

“Well, I’ll leave you two alone then,” the waitress blurted out and left.

“Strange girl,” James offered.

“Not really, I think she’s just making sure you know I’m on the rebound.”

Cute as fuck and a straight shooter. Be still my beating heart.

Charlotte touched the long silvery bag beside her. “Seriously, can I help you with something, James? I have a class in fifteen.”

James was a little taken aback by her abruptness and her desire to ditch him for a yoga class. “Just wanted to apologize for the way we ended things the other night.”

Charlotte flushed. “Thanks for saying that, but don’t stress. It was no big deal.”

He liked her accent. It was clipped and flat and she put the wrong emphasis on vowels. “Well, while I was apologizing, I wanted to ask you to dinner tomorrow night. You’re Australian, you like Outback Steakhouse?”

Charlotte laughed, a big belly laugh. Not what he’d been expecting. She continued for so long James started to get offended. “What?”

Finally, she wiped her eyes. “I’m sorry, it’s just, I don’t drink, I don’t eat meat and aside from the koalas, Outback Steakhouse is the least Australian thing I’ve ever seen in my life. If I had to choose the exactoppositeof what I like, I’d say it would be Outback Steakhouse.”

James scowled. He didn’t like the way Blue-Eyes was staring at him, not pissed butamused. The women he hooked up with didn’t talk like her. Or look at him like her. Or turn down the chance to go to moderately priced steak restaurants with him like her. Hell, Pink-Hair was the biggest hippy going around and she looked about ready to fuck him on a pile of dead zebras.

“Most women wouldn’t just come out and say that, Miss Charlotte.”

She grinned at him, her blue eyes shining. “It’s Charlie and subtlety is not one of my strong points. Besides, I’m kind of confused, Sophia told me you don’t date.”

He was going to be having words with his cousin. He dated. He took girls out for dinner and then he fucked them. That was the very definition of dating. And there was no way in hell he was addressing Blue-Eyes like she was some kind of salty sea dog. Her parents had named her Charlotte which meant she was Charlotte. End of discussion. “You’re very…direct.”

She shrugged and sipped her tea. “Why shouldn’t I be? You must be able to tell I’m nervous.”

The dominant instinct inside him flickered. Judging from the flush, she was undoubtedly interested in buying what he was trying to sell, but she was laughing him off. James gritted his teeth. If she hadn’t been interested he’d have paid for her swamp water and left, but she was interested so come hell or high water they were going on a date. Leaning forward, he gave her his best grin, the one that photographers always asked for, the one that made women get on their knees and suck his cock in strange and enjoyable places. “Why do I make you nervous, darlin’?”

Charlotte stared at him like he’d grown another head. “Are you fishing?”

“Excuse me?”

“For a compliment. Are you fishing for a compliment? I can’t actually be the first person to tell you you’re attractive. Didn’t you model?”

James felt like someone had hit him with a phone book. This girl with her fuck-me eyes and her smart mouth was giving him whiplash.Right, gloves off.He gave her a great big smile. “That why you picked me on Saturday night, darlin’? ’Cause I used to model?”

Charlotte looked at him, her face so red she was in danger of spontaneous combustion. “Sophia told you about that?”

In one sentence, he’d managed to suck all the mischievousness out of her. That was interesting. “Sophia did tell me that and I’m flattered to say the least. Even if I didn’t hold up my end of the deal, as I understand it.”

Charlotte looked around the restaurant as though the people were already drawing perverted conclusions from their conversation. “Um—okay, whatever bodily harm Sophia threatened you with to get you here, please just ignore it? You don’t have to, uh—finish the jobor anything.”

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