Nina couldn’t be friends with normal people. She had to remember that. She was better off alone.
Remembering that, she put the fake, friendly smile firmly on her face and went back to bring Alethia’s group their drinks.
As she was setting down the last glass, in front of Mr. Tall and Friendly, his face lit up and he lifted a hand, looking past Nina’s shoulder to the door. “Joel!” he called.
The last member of their group must have shown up after all. Nina turned to welcome him, smile in place—and froze in place for a moment, mouth dropping open.
He was coming straight for the table, and he moved with a sort of a rangy grace that captured her eyes. He seemed to exude leashed power, like he was keeping himself to a casual walk for society’s sake, but at any moment he might explode into motion, and be gone.
He came to a stop next to her, as everyone greeted him and shifted around in the booth, and it was like she could feel the energy crackling off of him. She wanted to reach out and touch him, wrap a hand around that powerful bicep, and see if she got a shock.
Snap out of it, she ordered herself, with a sudden jerk. What was wrong with her? She’d seen plenty of attractive customers before, and she didn’t usually have to stop herself from putting her hands all over them.
He slid into the booth once there was room, and looked up at her. His eyes—
They were a startling silvery-gray color, unlike anything she’d ever seen before. And they caught her, held her motionless, her breath held in her lungs, her heart speeding up in her chest.
Her leopard growled.
She startled out of it, and fumbled for her pad and her pen. “Welcome to Oliver’s, I’m Nina.” Her voice sounded strange in her ears. “Can I get you something to drink?”
A long pause, and then he said, “Just water.”
His voice was deep enough to make her shiver. “One water, coming right up.”
She almost ran away from the table, wondering what
the hell had just happened.
She never reacted to men like that. She barely reacted to men at all—or women, or anyone. She’d tried dating guys when she was younger, eighteen or nineteen, but she hadn’t been able to have more than a casual relationship, not with the knowledge of her secret burning inside of her.
She’d only had sex a few times, and found it too—everything. Too close, too uncomfortable, too hot and sticky and strange. She’d avoided the possibility after that. And she never looked at anyone and thought, I’d like to have sex with that person.
When men looked at her like that, she usually felt the urge to run the other way. And most of the time, that was the smartest option.
But the way that man—Joel, Tall and Friendly had called him Joel—the way Joel had looked at her. The way his voice had resonated in the pit of her stomach. She had warm shivers running through her body, and she felt tingles deep inside her at the thought of him. His big hands touching her, his body pressed up against hers...
Stop it!
She took a few minutes in the back to breathe, get herself under control again, before she got the water and went back to the table.
Now that she was prepared, it wouldn’t be as dramatic, right? She’d just been surprised to see someone she’d actually felt attracted to, because it was so unusual for her. That was all.
But as she approached the table, her eyes were drawn to Joel again. And, she realized, he was staring right back at her.
Nina took a breath, set the water down, said, “There’s your water!” as fake-cheerfully as she could possibly manage, and whipped out her pad and pen. “Are we ready to order?” She kept her eyes fixed on the pad.
They all gave their orders, one by one. Nina carefully wrote down everything they said, digging her pen into the paper and concentrating furiously. Joel was last. He ordered a burger, and when he spoke in that deep voice, Nina’s resolve broke, and she looked at him.
He was looking back, again, but this time he was—frowning? He looked like she was something strange and mysterious that he couldn’t figure out.
No, she wanted to tell him. You’ve got it backwards. You’re the mystery.
“How would you like that cooked?”
It was surreal, having a normal back-and-forth about an order, like she did multiple times a day, while something else was simmering in the background. She wrote down medium well and stared at it; she was sure that was what he’d said, but she’d barely heard the words around the deep pulse of his voice.
“I’ll get this started for you all,” Nina told the table, her voice wavering, and escaped again.