“You okay?” she asked curiously.
I swallowed and looked away from her too-aware eyes, my gaze focusing on Booth and his son.
“Little late for him to stay out, right?” I asked curiously.
Our meetings usually lasted a couple of hours, and by the time we got out of here it’d be well past ten o’clock.
And since Asa was in school, I highly doubted that he’d need to be out past ten on a school night.
“Delanie is coming to get him,” Booth said, answering my question with a grin. “Had to order it now so it’d be ready when she got here.”
Delanie was Booth’s baby mama. Dillan was the one that Booth had the hots for, though.
“Mama!” Asa yelled, abandoning Booth.
Delanie and Dillan came in moments later, and it was the most comical thing in the world.
Where you would’ve expected Booth’s eyes to go to Delanie, they didn’t. They went to Dillan. And where you would’ve expected Delanie’s eyes to go to Booth, they went to Bourne.
“They’re so screwed,” I muttered low under my breath.
Ares laughed. “Welcome to their world. Both of them are so in love with the other person that they’re practically blind to it. And poor little Asa is confused right along with us. I think he sees more than they do sometimes.”
I looked away from the train wreck in front of us to stare at the woman beside me.
My hand on her upper thigh shifted when she did, getting perilously close to other, more non-acceptable places for a work meeting. But neither one of us moved to fix it.
“There’s so much you need to learn, Hayes Romine.” She grinned wickedly. “You haven’t met my best friend yet, but Calloway is in love with Louis. Yet Louis doesn’t even see her. They used to date when we were younger. They broke up after about a year of dating, though. Louis is over her, Calloway is not. At least, he tries to act like he is.”
I frowned.
“And then Saint over there met my other friend, Caro, last year. Caro and Saint now dance around each other every time they see each other,” she continued. “Then there’s…”
I didn’t let her finish. Instead, I placed my lips directly over hers and kissed her.
She gasped, stilling completely underneath my hands.
“Why do I have the feeling that you are trouble?” I asked when I pulled away.
Her eyes were fever hot when they met mine, and there was no way in hell she could hide what she was feeling at that moment.
She wanted me.
Almost as much as I wanted her.
I shifted in my seat to try to hide my erection, doing a piss poor job of it.
Luckily, I had a linen napkin that did a pretty good job hiding it once I unrolled it and put it in my lap.
Ares sat very still next to me, her mouth closed tight as her cheeks blazed.
She was also receiving quite a few stares around the table. Yet none of them said a word.
I didn’t know if that was because they didn’t want to embarrass her more, or because they thought I’d jump down their throats if they gave her shit.
Probably both.
“All right, let’s get our orders in,” Bourne announced as the last of our group arrived, soaked to the bone.
Dax walked through the doors like he was on a mission. Rowen, his wife, followed him like he was nuts.
“Swear to God, Dax,” Rowen said as she leaned her umbrella against the wall by the door. “You’re so annoying.”
Dax did nothing but smile, and I had a feeling we’d missed half the story.
Dax took his seat at the end of the table since that was the only place he could sit. But Rowen walked right up to Louis and tugged on his hair. “Move down there by Dax so I can talk to Ares.”
“No. I’ve already ordered and gotten comfortable,” Louis denied. “And what if I wanted to talk to her?”
“You’re not talking to her right now. You’re looking at some stupid safe and talking about how you’re gonna get it into your house without tearing out the walls,” she said to Louis. “Which, might I add, aren’t your walls. I wouldn’t buy a safe if I couldn’t get it into my house. And if I had to tear the house down first to even get it inside, I’d look for a smaller one. And if you’re mad about the size, just get two. Problem solved. Now will you move?”
“Ugh,” Louis said. “Your man smells weird. I don’t want to sit next to him.”
“I do not!” Dax barked, scaring the young woman that was putting hot sauce in front of him.
Everybody laughed at Dax, but the poor girl thought that we were laughing at her and her inability to serve hot sauce, so she started to apologize.
“It’s okay,” Dax soothed. “They’re just assholes. I apologize for scaring you.”