“Do you need more time to look over the menu?” He interrupts us.
“Yes, we’ll let you know when we’re ready.”
After the waiter walks away, Autumn attempts to pull her hand away. “You know what? I think this was a really bad idea.”
“What’s a bad idea?” I bring her hand to my lips and run my tongue along her soft knuckles.
“This, us. You being my lawyer…” Autumn starts. When her expressive eyes widen, I glance over my shoulder to see what’s got her attention. I groan to myself watching Cash, Playboy, and Hacker sit at the table across from us. Motherfucking hell.
“What are they doing here?” Autumn groans.
“I guess we’re going to have an audience.” I lean close to whisper in her ear, “Those assholes.”
“Hey.” She attempts to lean away from me, but I scoot closer to her luscious body. “You can’t call my brother an asshole.”
“Do you live to challenge me?” I haven’t had this much fun since law school. My little rebel keeps me on my toes while warming my heart and playing havoc with my cock.
“It’s a hard job, but someone has to do it.” Her small smile causes my heart to jump in my chest. Fuck. I rub the spot, realizing she owns me, heart and soul. Now, I need to find a way to convince her that we’re meant to be. “Can we discuss my case now?”
“We can discuss your case tomorrow in my office where we have privacy.” Okay. Maybe getting her to the restaurant under false pretenses was a little underhanded. Make that a lot underhanded, but a desperate man takes desperate measures.
“But. But.” There she goes with that adorable sputtering again. “That was the whole reason for me meeting you here for dinner.”
“No,” I correct her. “I wanted to have dinner with you because I couldn’t spend another moment without seeing you.” I shrug.
“I’m so firing you,” she threatens again as a round of chuckles moves through the table across from us.
I glance over to glare at the three fuckers blatantly listening to our conversation. Before I’m able to express my displeasure at their interrupting our date, each man holds up a paper napkin with a number written on it.
Motherfucking hell. These immature bastards are giving me goddamn scores. Cash is holding up an eight while Hacker has a five. My little rebel’s brother has the lowest score at three.
ThreeI mouth. I know I’m fucking rusty at the whole dating thing. Actually, I’ve never even bothered to attempt it before, but still. I deserve better than a goddamn three.
I was feeling generous. You really only earned a two,Playboy mouths back. I rub my middle finger against the side of my head, wanting to get my point across without blatantly scandalizing all the uptight wealthy patrons around us.
“Excuse me a minute.” I lean over and kiss Autumn’s forehead. “I’ll be right back.” Then a thought occurs to me. “Don’t even think about running out on me or I’ll whip your ass in front of your brother and mine.”
“You wouldn’t.” She’s wrong. There isn’t anything I wouldn’t do for her.
“Are you willing to risk it?” I’m slowly discovering what makes my girl tick. She wants to control her own life and destiny. Part of me worries my heavy-handed approach will scare her off, but my analytical mind assures my cautious side that this is the way to go with Autumn. Out the corner of my eye, I notice Cash is holding up a six while Hacker and Playboy both have napkins with twos written on them.
“My brother will kill you.” She rolls her eyes, attempting to ignore the three comedians at the next table. My little rebel isn’t wrong about her brother, but I won’t let anyone come between us.
“He might try, but I’m not worried. I’m all in. Nothing is going to come between us.” I stare into her shocked eyes. “You own my heart.” It’s time to lay my cards on the table. “And I’ll do whatever it takes to make you see that we belong together.”
“I’m totally firing you.” Her expressive eyes fill with worry, telling me I’m pushing a little hard.
“We’ll see,” I tell her before sliding out of the booth. “Just so you know, I’m going to keep pushing until you realize that I’m not going away. I’ll let you have the control you crave, and hell, I’ll even let you run the show, but I won’t ever let you get away.” I’m man enough to admit that I need her more than I need to control everything. If my little rebel wants to take charge, I’ll let her. But I’ll always be right at her side, ready to step in and protect her from her actions. God knows, past history has shown that she can get into unbelievable amounts of trouble.
I leave Autumn sitting at the booth with her mouth hanging open and step over to the assholes’ table. “What the fuck are you three stooges doing here?” I direct the question at all of them but stare into Playboy Romano’s eyes, trying to read his true feelings about my relationship with Autumn.
“Making sure you don’t fuck this up.” Playboy shocks me with his answer. “And to let you know that I’ll make sure they never find your body if you hurt my sister.” That was more what I was expecting to hear.
“You’re not really shining over there,” my brother adds, shaking his head. “I mean, she looks ready to flee while you’re doing your best caveman impersonation.”
“Get the fuck out of here,” I tell them, already knowing they aren’t going to listen to me. “And let me handle my woman.”
“Oh, man. The water has another victim.” Hacker shakes his head sadly. “But this one isn’t too swift.” He smirks up at me. “The magic Silver Spoon Falls water can only do so much. You still have to win over your girl.” Goddamnit. I’m so tired of hearing that crazy old wives’ tale. The rumor mill in town swears that the insanely large number of happy unions in town is due to the “magic” water.