Rake (Wolfes of Manhattan 4)

The invisible ones were worse, to be honest.

When I saw myself in the mirror, I didn’t see beauty.

I saw pain.

I saw brokenness.

I saw scars.

I saw someone trying to hide under garish black hair and darkened eyebrows and lashes. My natural hair color was dark blond, and my eyebrows and lashes were dark brown.

How long had I been hiding?

So very long.

Maybe it was time to pull my head out of the sand.

Maybe…

Maybe, in the morning, I’d make an appointment with my stylist.

Maybe I’d have her bleach the black out of my hair and then give me something close to my natural blond.

Maybe I’d throw away my black eyebrow pencil and mascara.

Maybe…

Or maybe not.

“I think I’ll make a quick getaway.” Mo pressed her lips together to distribute her gloss.

She shocked me out of my thoughts. “No. Please. Stay.”

“He’s obviously into you. I’m just in the way.”

“You’re selling yourself short, Mo.”

She sighed. “I wish I could agree, Zee, but I’m not. His gaze hasn’t left you all night. Whatever he wants, you’ve got it.”

I had it, all right, but it wasn’t my looks. It was a story. A story that could shed light onto who his father truly was. A story that could take the focus off Reid and his siblings…

…and onto me.

I hadn’t killed Derek Wolfe. I’d been here, in Las Vegas. Though I didn’t have an ironclad alibi, because the show was dark that night. But I could easily prove I hadn’t made any trips to New York. I didn’t own a gun. In fact, guns scared the hell out of me.

This wouldn’t fall on me, no matter what I did.

Still, I didn’t want to be dragged into the middle of the Wolfe family dysfunction. Hadn’t I been through enough at the hands of a Wolfe?

“…so attracted to you.”

Again, I jerked out of my thoughts.

“Sorry, what?”

“I’ve never seen a guy so smitten,” Mo said.

“Smitten?” Smitten meant…well, smitten. Reid Wolfe might find me attractive, might even like me as a person, but smitten? No. He simply wanted something from me.

Not that I didn’t want to help him and his siblings, especially Riley. I’d watched her modeling career since she came on the scene. Though modeling never interested me as much as it did my mother, I admired those who did well. Riley Wolfe was the best.

She seemed the most real to me of all of them, almost as if she understood. But how could she? Surely Derek Wolfe never hunted his own daughter.

“Please don’t go,” I said to Mo again.

She nodded.

We left the ladies room and headed back to the table, where Jason was setting down the chocolate crème brulée Reid had ordered. I slid into the booth, and—

“Thank you so much for including me tonight, Reid,” Mo gushed, “but I just got a phone call and I have to go.”

My jaw dropped. Seriously, Mo? You just lied to me?

Reid stood and gave her a chaste kiss on the cheek. “You’re most welcome. I enjoyed meeting you.”

Mo whisked away, fingers pressed to the spot Reid had kissed, and was gone in a flash before I could even stand.

Reid sat back down quickly and smiled. “Alone at last.”

My stomach fluttered.

I was in big trouble now.

16

Reid

Finally.

Finally, I could begin to work my magic on the lovely Zee. I tapped my spoon on the burnt sugar topping of the crème brulée and spooned a modest portion. Then I held it to her lips. “You first.”

Her cheeks reddened, but she parted her lips and licked the cream off my spoon.

My groin tightened.

Damn.

She was so sexy, and she had no fucking clue.

I wanted her badly.

“So?” I asked.

“It’s delicious.”

A smudge of chocolate lay on her upper lip. I leaned in closer, closer…almost…

She backed away abruptly.

“You just have a little…” I brushed the chocolate off with a finger, wishing I were licking it off instead.

“Oh.” Embarrassed again, she dabbed at her lips with her napkin.

I stared at her for a few timeless moments. She was really quite lovely. Her face was a perfect oval and her chin was slightly prominent, giving her an aristocratic profile. Her eyes were big and blue and long-lashed, her nose perfectly aquiline. And those lips. Full and pink and luscious.

“Zee…” I began.

She lifted her eyebrows.

“I’m dying to kiss you right now.”

Her eyes widened, which of course didn’t surprise me.

What did surprise me were the words that had just come out of my mouth. I never asked a woman if I could kiss her. I never even mentioned it. I was a doer. When I wanted to kiss a woman, I did it.

Zee was different, though. I got some signals from her, but I also knew what she’d been through. Even though my original intention had been to seduce her, I was having second thoughts.

And third thoughts and fourth thoughts.

I had faith in my ability to seduce any woman, but for the first time, I wondered if it was really the right thing to do.