Hero By Night (Independence Falls 3)

She wasn’t the only one turned on by his experiment with the pink toy. But she’d left the room satisfied, her body still tingling. She’d been trained to pay attention to details and she’d seen the way he adjusted himself when he thought she wasn’t looking.

“Are you all right?” she asked. “Do you want to turn back, take a little break before dinner? I know you’re probably eager to get your part of our deal in motion, but if you need a few minutes, I understand.”

He cast a sideways glance at her before turning his attention back to the road. “Lena, did you just ask me if I need to jerk off?”

“Yes.”

He flashed a devilish grin, his eyes lit with amusement. “Would you like to watch?”

Yes. No. “Maybe?”

Chad laughed. “If you’d said yes, I might have turned the truck around. But I think I can keep it together long enough to get you fed. I appreciate the thought.”

“You’re welcome.” She folded her arms across her chest. “And I think I might like to watch one day. I think there are a lot of things I might want to try.”

“Stop teasing the man with the hard-­on who wants to buy you dinner.”

She smiled at the playful note in his voice. “I’ll do my best. Where are we going?”

“What do you like to eat?” He slowed the truck as they approached Main Street. The strip was lined with storefronts, a church on each corner, and a few restaurants. On one side of the street, the buildings touched, but across the pavement the lots had green spaces in between. And many of the restaurants used the grassy areas to set up outdoor seating.

“I’m not picky,” she said. About food. Cramped indoor seating might ruin his plan. It would be hard to date a woman who refused to enter the restaurant—­or worse, caused a scene when she bolted two minutes after entering, a full-­blown panic attack nipping at her heels along with her dog.

“Pizza? A Slice of Independence has picnic tables outside.”

“Outdoors would be nice.” Lena exhaled, feeling as if she’d been holding her breath, waiting to take a shot at a target. One orgasm courtesy of a pink penis did not mean she was ready for a crowded restaurant on a Saturday night. “And I like pizza. Is it good?”

“It’s the only pizza joint in town, so I’d say it’s the best there is.” He turned into the half-­filled parking lot, cut the engine, and hopped out. He was at her door opening it before she’d released her seat belt. “Why don’t you grab a table and I’ll go inside and place the order? Any requests, or are you willing to take a gamble on the special pie of the day?”

“The special. Unless it has mushrooms.”

Lena selected an empty red picnic table on the outskirts of the grassy seat-­yourself area. A family with two young kids, one barely walking and another that looked to be about the same age as Nate, Eric’s nephew, sat close to the door. Nearby, a young ­couple, probably still in high school, were splitting a pie. The seating area was visible from the street and cars occasionally slowed down to wave.

Lena had to give him credit. Chad had picked the perfect spot. No crowds or noisy interior, plenty of space for her dog to lounge in the grass, yet still in full view of Independence Falls on a Saturday night.

About ten minutes later, the screen door attached to the side of the brick building swung open and Chad walked out carrying a pizza, a stand, and a ­couple of plates. He smiled and called out a greeting to the family as he made his way to the table.

“Trish is the only server working tonight and she’s slammed with customers inside, so I offered to play waiter.” Chad set up the stand on one side of the table and placed the pizza on it. “Sorry to keep you waiting.”

“I don’t mind.” She reached for a plate. “What are we having?”

“The special had mushrooms, so I went traditional. Plain cheese on half and pepperoni on the other side,” he said. “Dig in. I’m going to run inside for our waters. Unless you want something stronger. A soda maybe? Or a lemonade?”

“Water is fine.” She selected a slice of plain cheese and let it cool on her plate.

Returning with the waters, Chad sat on the bench across from her. The young ­couple and the family stared at her, as if trying to figure out who she was. On the street, a car slowed, the raven-­haired twenty-­something driver nearly swerving off the road.

“I feel like I’m eating in front of an audience,” she said, her voice low.

“It’s been a long time since I’ve brought a date here,” he said.

“How long?”

“Freshman year of high school.”

She froze the pizza at her lips. “You gave up on dating that early?”

“I’m kidding, Lena. It hasn’t been that long. A ­couple of years maybe.” He nodded to her dog. “Does Hero need a slice?”