His eyes went hot then, his hand once more reaching for hers and doing that trademark little rub of the thumb over her wrist. Grace let him grasp her hand just long enough to make sure the camera would catch the blatant lust on his face. And the shy nervousness on hers.
Gotcha.
Then she pulled her hand away slowly.
“If you’ll excuse me, I need to use the restroom.”
She heard one of her friends give a disappointed sigh in her ear. Grace’s retreat to the restroom was the signal that the video recorded portion of this date was over. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Emma move her camera clutch to her lap before signaling for the check.
Riley and Julie weren’t so amenable. “Grace, you little tease. We want to hear the rest.”
“Now, girls, you know I never kiss and tell. All I
wanted was one lusty look from this guy. And I got it.”
“Oh, you definitely got it,” Emma murmured.
Smiling in victory, Grace pulled out her earpiece and flicked the tiny switch to off. Okay, so the earpiece had been overkill. But it had been the easiest way for Emma to let her know if there were any unanticipated obstructions blocking the camera shot.
No remorse on that front either. Baiting him with sexy talk wasn’t exactly her classiest move, but she was pretty sure Jake Malone could withstand the itsy-bitsy blow to his ego.
Lord knew there’d be a dozen women willing to heal his wounded pride.
Which wasn’t her business, no matter how curious she was about the body under those perfectly tailored shirts.
Stalling for time, Grace paused at the vanity and needlessly touched up her makeup. She’d taken Riley’s advice and had been amping up the eye makeup a little bit from what she used to wear when she was with Greg, and she wasn’t quite used to it. Her hazel eyes had always seemed too wide to be interesting—they lacked Riley’s cat-eyed mysteriousness, or even Julie’s long-lashed flirtatiousness.
But she liked the way the extra smudge of dark eyeliner contrasted with the lightness of her green eyes and also made her chocolate-brown hair seem less blah.
A sex kitten she was not, but apparently she had enough going on to make Jake’s eyes go smoky.
And if the tug of satisfaction in her belly had nothing to do with the article and everything to do with him, well … it didn’t matter.
Grace 2.0 would have her head if she even thought about having sexy times with this guy. With any guy.
Even if she wasn’t on a six-month hiatus from men, Jake Malone wasn’t for her. When she was ready to date again, it would be with someone tame. Someone who wouldn’t have her continually checking the bed for panties not her own.
Emma was gone by the time Grace returned to the table, although a quick glance at the table by the window revealed that Julie and Riley were still there. Riley would never pass up the chance for food, even if the day’s entertainment was over.
Jake moved to pull out Grace’s chair for her.
“Nice moves,” she said, placing her napkin back in her lap. “Your army of sisters taught you well.”
“Nah, that was all my dad,” he said. “He was determined that all of his daughters be little ladies and his son be a gentleman.”
“It must have been hard on you to have to disappoint him.”
Jake let out a little surprised laugh. “You don’t think I’m a gentleman?”
Grace lifted an eyebrow. “Are you?”
“I’d like to think so.”
“So all of those articles about you … the overlapping women, the married women, the scorned women …?”
He lifted his wine and studied her over the rim of glass. “Embellished.”
Grace was annoyed to realize that she wanted to believe him. Badly. But of course, he had every reason to lie. All men seemed to find reasons to lie.