The little voice in the back of her head was saying this was a bad idea. She needed to keep her wits, or whatever was left of them about her. But another voice, one that sounded suspiciously like Rasha said that one more drink wouldn’t hurt. It might even help with the nervousness she was feeling being this close to Grady.
Rasha-voice won, Liv lifted the glass to her lips and downed half of it. When she set it down, she saw that Grady was paying for the drinks.
“Oh you don’t have to—” Liv reached for her purse.
“It’s my treat,” Grady insisted as he handed Gemma some cash. “Keep the change.”
Liv noticed that she blushed as Grady spoke to her. Liv couldn’t blame the girl. The man was nothing if not blush-worthy.
“I think she might like you,” Liv commented after Gemma walked away.
“She’s not my type.” Grady’s brown eyes met Liv’s and the intensity in his stare knocked the wind out of Liv. Literally, she was finding it difficult to breathe.
“Really, what’s your type?”
“If you would have asked me yesterday, I would have said I didn’t have one.”
“And today?”
“Today I’d say my type is you.”
Some part of her knew that this could just be a line, but that didn’t stop her from buying a one-way ticket to Swoon City. Liv felt her cheeks heat and her mind was spinning trying to come up with a clever, flirty response.
Before she was able to articulate any thought, much less a flirty/clever one, she heard Jordan’s voice.
“Livy-lu can I have a minute?”
Liv blinked, sure she must be hearing things, but when she looked to her left, sure enough Jordan was standing beside her table with his patented irritated look on his smug face.
Why would he be irritated? He’d broken up with her. He was at her cousin’s wedding and had brought a date. If anyone had the right to be irritated, it was her.
She opened her mouth to say no when beside her Grady stood from his chair. “We were actually just leaving.”
We were?Liv thought to herself.
She looked up at Grady as he held the back of her chair and she stood. When she was on her feet, she felt his hand rest on her lower back. She could feel the heat from his palm radiating through the thin cotton fabric of her dress. She wondered what his palm would feel like on her bare back. Skin to skin. Just the thought had arousal flooding through her.
In her head she knew that it was probably just for show, but her body had other ideas. Or maybe not. He had just told her that she was his type. But maybe that was for show, too. Chrissy said that it would benefit him for people to think they were a real couple. They were in public. This was probably all for show.
Jordan’s eyes volleyed from Grady to Liv’s. “You’re leaving together?”
“Yep!” Liv said.
She realized it must have been a little loud because it caught several people’s attention. Liv wanted the ground to swallow her up. She truly was a lightweight and not able to hold her alcohol well. Hindsight was twenty-twenty and it was clear as day now that she should have listened to her little voice and not had that third Let Your Hair Down.
Jordan turned his attention to Grady and Liv recognized the shift in his energy. He was in salesman mode as he extended his hand. “I don’t think we’ve met, I’m Jordan.” He emphasized his name, indicating it was significant.
Grady, in a power move that Liv found very attractive, pretended to have no clue who he was as he shook Jordan’s hand. “Grady.”
Neither man dropped the other’s hand as they stared at one another. Liv studied the interaction between the two alpha males like she was preparing to write a paper on it for sociology class. It was a good old fashioned pissing contest, and she was pretty sure that Grady was coming out the victor.
“Ready?” Liv asked when the situation grew uncomfortable.
Grady immediately lowered his arm and ushered Liv out of the restaurant.
As they walked through the crowd, she could feel eyes on them. She wondered if that was just her imagination because she was a little, or a lot tipsy, or if they truly were garnering attention. To be fair, if they were, it was probably due to Grady. She had a hard time keeping her eyes off of him and she doubted she was the only one.
* * *