Code Name - Rook (Jameson Force Security 6)

“Are you tight with them?” I ask instead.

“Yeah,” she replies fondly. By her tone, I can tell it’s in different ways. “We fight as any siblings do, but on the whole, I wouldn’t trade them for the world.”

Something else we have in common—our love of family. It seems it should be a given, but I know it’s not. I’ve met plenty of people in my life who have proven that blood ties don’t mean much.

The waiter comes with our dinners—steak for me and scallops for Jaime. She offers me a bite, and I take it.

I offer her one in return, but she declines. “I don’t eat meat. Principle only.”

Interesting, but not off-putting.

“I’d like to eat you,” I reply, my voice low and rough. “Tonight.”

She blinks at me in surprise, but instead of looking offended, she gives me a sly smile. “I wouldn’t be averse to that.”

The tone of our conversation definitely took a sharp veering into the sexual, and I really hadn’t intended that. But she looked so damn beautiful there, eating tiny bites of her scallops while declaring her distaste for meat.

“That’s good to know,” I reply with a wicked smile, giving her a warning. “I’m going to be forward again.”

She cocks one perfectly formed red eyebrow.

“Would you go out with me again?” I ask.

She blinks just once in surprise before giving me a blinding smile. “I admit,” she drawls mysteriously, “that this date is going well. And while I realize it’s still not over, I do feel safe in accepting your invitation for another date.”

“Tomorrow.” Might as well get her pinned down. “I can get tickets to the Pitt game.”

I know Kynan has the ability to get tickets. Damn good ones, too, but in keeping up with my ruse as a moderately successful car salesman, I’m going to ask him for some in the nosebleed section.

“Do you like college football?” I ask.

“Love it,” she replies with a laugh. “It will be a great time.”

I think any time with Jaime will be great.CHAPTER 5JaimeI love football. It’s impossible to grow up in Pittsburgh and not be continually exposed to it. The Steelers fanaticism is practically transferred through DNA from parent to child. Over the years, I’ve been lucky to attend a few games.

Not a lot, mind you. The tickets are pricey and not something my family could afford on a routine basis. It was sort of like our version of Disney—Mom and Dad put aside money for a few years to take the entire family to a Steelers game. One year, we actually were able to see both a Pirate’s and a Steeler’s game as they were played on consecutive days, and my parents had budgeted just a little more.

That being said, there is something about college football that is inherently more exciting when watching the game live. The fans are younger and more intense. There’s an actual energy that sort of buzzes from kickoff until the clock winds its final seconds down.

I’m decked out in a Pitt sweatshirt—a gift from Laney this Christmas—but that’s the only gear I have to show I’m cheering for them against the University of North Carolina. I wore my hair loose, but it’s covered with a yellow Steelers knit cap. It’s in the mid-to-high forties today so under my sweatshirt I wore an Under Armour cold-weather running shirt, my hands covered with toasty gloves. For a Pittsburgher, it’s all that’s really needed for the nippy weather.

On the other hand, Cage is bundled up. I suspect a man from the South isn’t used to cold weather like this, but the way he’s wearing a puffy North Face jacket over a sweatshirt, hat, gloves, and a thick scarf around his neck is adorable.

He had unzipped his coat when we first met up today, proudly sporting a University of North Carolina sweatshirt. I gave him a stink eye, informing him that he was going to be in hostile territory with that. That’s when he zipped his coat back up, proclaiming it too cold to show it off yet.

The Pitt Panthers play at Heinz Field, which is home to the Steelers. It’s an amazing stadium, and they say there isn’t a bad seat in the house.

We met at Gate C as Cage had to work in the morning, and timing prevented him from picking me up. But I didn’t mind as I love people watching, so I happily hung out until he came strolling down the sidewalk that runs the border of the stadium along N. Shore Drive, scanning the crowd for me.

Yeah… made my belly flip a little when, as soon as his eyes landed on me, they lit up with something far more intense than appreciation. He looked at me as if he’d never seen anything better before, and sadly, I realized no man has ever looked at me that way before.