The young man working behind the counter grinned widely as Willow approached, and greeted her with much more enthusiasm than he had greeted Ethan with.
“What are you getting?” she asked casually.
Ethan glanced over at her, attempti
ng to keep his eyes on her face, but the temptation to look down at that damned see through shirt was very real. “Uh…I don’t know. What about you?”
“I think I’m just going to get the teriyaki steak-on-a-stick appetizer.”
“That’s it?”
“Yeah, that’s fine.”
Looking at the menu, he suddenly didn’t understand why he had picked a Chinese restaurant. Garlic and various other heavily scented sauces—he was not going to have fresh breath, to say the least.
“If I get fried rice, will you eat some?”
Nodding solemnly, she said, “You will never see the day that I turn down fried rice.”
Finally going with sweet and sour chicken, they ordered their food and drinks, Ethan paid, and the smiling young man told them it would be a few minutes.
Ethan sat down on the red wooden bench against the wall and Willow walked over to join him, but apparently noticed that her boot had come untied. Seemingly without a qualm, she hiked her leg up on the bench beside him and leaned over that long leg of hers to tie it.
It was physically impossible to look away. Her smooth, toned leg was right there, inches away, and there was sexy on each side—sexy suede boots on her feet, an irrationally short skirt at the top. When he finally managed to force his gaze away from her legs to glance at her face, he thought he saw a hint of amusement there, just the slight curve of a smile.
She was doing it on purpose to torture him. She had to be. It was a genius punishment if that was her game. It also meant she trusted him enough that she wasn’t afraid to tease him, which was somewhat reassuring.
She had been dressed the same way on her date earlier that night though, so maybe she just liked to dress provocatively. Effectively dulling his arousal, he considered that she might even be dressing like that because of what had happened to her at his hands.
He hoped not. As long as she had waited to have sex—and would have likely continued waiting—he imagined it wasn’t something she would take lightly, and he didn’t want to see her get hurt.
Knowing what shitheads teen guys could be—or really guys of any age, if he was being honest—he was afraid that would happen.
When she pulled her leg down and flashed him a smile before taking a seat, he cleared his throat and remarked, “You don’t seem very hungry.”
“Snack-hungry. I actually went out to dinner tonight, so…”
“You should have said something, we didn’t have to come here.”
“That’s okay,” she assured him. “Like I said, I love Chinese food. This is a great snack. What about you, miss dinner tonight?”
“Yeah, I had to work through dinner.”
Her expression changed slightly as she nodded, looking less light-hearted than she had a few seconds earlier. “Ah. Saving more people?” She smiled, but it looked forced.
“No,” he said. “The opposite, really. Potentially cheating spouse, so… more like destroying marriages.”
Her expression lightened and she rolled her eyes. “You’re a real-life superhero, you know that?”
A self-deprecating smile tugged at his lips. “Nah, I don’t look good in tights.”
“I’m sure you do,” she returned with a playful smile.
Ethan quirked an eyebrow in response, but caught himself before he could toss back a response he would have to feel guilty about.
Deciding to get the conversation back on track, he allowed his eye to casually travel over her outfit. “So, you’re awfully dolled up for a night in.”
Glancing down at her outfit as if she hadn’t noticed, she said, “Oh, this? Yeah, I wasn’t at home tonight, I actually went out with a friend.”