Beautifully Decadent (Beautifully Damaged Book 3) (23 page)

“Yeah. How are you, Tara?”

“Good. Staying busy.”

“Are Darcy and Lucien here?”

“Nah, they skipped out early, had some preschool thing for Emily. Oh, someone’s signaling me. I’ll be back.”

As she made her leave, a man settled next to me. Glancing over, my eyes collided with his. He was hot, kind of like Elijah from
The Originals
.

“Hey.”

He had a nice voice. “Hi.”

“Can I get you a drink?”

The point of being here was to forget the situation with my dad. If a sexy man wanted to help me with that, who was I to argue? “Sure.”

“What are you drinking?”

I had been drinking wine, but I wanted something more potent. “A mind eraser.” They were good, tasted like liquid sweet-tarts.

He signaled the other bartender working with Tara and placed my order before he turned his dark eyes on me. “I’m Marco.”

“Avery.”

“Did you just get off work?”

“Yeah. I needed to unwind.”

“Where do you work?”

“A restaurant not far from here.”

“With a face like that, you must be the hostess?”

He was a good-looking man and he was trying, but in my head all I saw was Rafe. His laugh, his smile, the way his eyes twinkled when he was being mischievous. This poor guy didn’t stand a chance, but conversing with him would keep thoughts of my dad at bay. “Pastry chef.”

“Really? Is that job as interesting as it sounds?”

“And then some. It’s like art with sugar.” Liam’s description of my job was very fitting.

He chuckled and it was a nice sound.

“What about you? What do you do?”

“Security specialist.” He must have seen the question in my expression when he added, “I work for a firm installing security systems.”

“I bet you have a huge client-base in this area.”

“Our biggest. So you said you were here to unwind, is that code for a bad day?”

“Not a bad day, just a bad situation.”

“How bad? On a scale from one to ten, ten being totally shitty.”

“An eleven.”

“Oh man, I’m sorry.”

“Sadly, it comes as no surprise. I have become entirely too used to bad situations of this kind.” I flashed him a smile as I finished off my mind eraser, “A little help forgetting, always a plus.”

“How are you getting home?”

“Cab.”

“Then I’ll get us another round.”

I woke face down on my bed, still dressed in yesterday’s clothes. My mouth was dry, I had to pee and my head was pounding. Damn those mind erasers, had the name for a reason. Climbing from bed, I realized the pounding wasn’t my head but someone at the door.

“Stop pounding.” A sharp pain stabbed my aching brain, which only served to spark my temper.

Pulling the door open, Rafe stood there and he looked dangerous.

“It’s too early for this. Come back next week.” I tried to close the door, but his foot stopped that action.

Focusing on his foot was hard since I was still slightly drunk. “Could you move that?”

“Who was the guy?”

“What guy?”

Now he looked both dangerous and really freaking mad. “The one who saw you home at three in the morning.”

Someone saw me home? Wait, my car wasn’t here? Moving past Rafe, I peered over to the drive and, yep, my car wasn’t there. Well, that was good; I didn’t drive while drunk.

“Avery?”

Focusing on the question, the night started coming back to me. Marco. Right, we shared a cab. I had been so far gone he’d hadn’t been comfortable with me in a cab alone.

“Marco.”

“Who the fuck is Marco?”

Surprised at the anger coming from him, I didn’t answer immediately. He didn’t like my hesitation because he got up in my face, so close his breath fanned out over my cheeks and as hard as I tried to bite down on the moan, it couldn’t be stopped because he smelled so good. Edible.

“Who’s Marco?”

My thoughts were a bit scattered because instead of answering him I asked a question. “How do you know someone brought me home?”

“I saw it on the cameras, the alarm buzzed when the gate opened.”

Ah, good to know.

“Who’s Marco, Avery?”

“A nice man I met at a bar.”

I was still in a bit of a haze, so I wasn’t picking up on the subtle nuances coming from Rafe. “Were you on a date?”

Bile burned the back of my throat, damn mind erasers…wait, what? A date? And even feeling like death, I couldn’t help the grin because Rafe looked jealous. It was tempting to tease him a bit, but then had the roles been reversed I wouldn’t have found the situation funny in the least. “No. I went to Allegro to drink my troubles away. He was nice, didn’t want me in a cab alone in my condition. Come in, I’ll put on some coffee, since I didn’t set the machine last night, but first I have to pee.”

I didn’t wait for him to accept my invite and disappeared down the hall to take care of business and to change from my work clothes to my comfy sweats. When I returned, Rafe was already brewing the coffee. I settled at the counter, Rafe leaned over it, right in my face.

“Call me the next time you find yourself needing a ride.”

“But it was late. You—”

“Avery, don’t fucking argue. You call me the next time. Understand?”

High-handed, absolutely, and still every part of me loved that he was being high-handed. “I’ll call you.”

“How about an omelet?” Gracious too, Nat would have ridden my ass for an hour on my poor judgment. And I could admit that I’d been reckless last night. Luckily for me it all ended well.

My stomach growled in answer. “Please, I’m starving.”

As he walked to the fridge, he asked, “What troubles were you drinking away?”

“Just stuff with my dad.”

“What stuff?”

“He called me out of the blue yesterday and invited me out for a bite to eat. Foolish little me thought he was finally reaching out, but he was there at the request of his wife. They’re pregnant and they were hoping I could arrange to have her baby shower at Clover since I work there. The sad part is he doesn’t see it, her manipulation and worse how her manipulation hurts Nat and me.”

“Assholes. What did you tell him?”

I didn’t answer right away, just took a moment to appreciate Rafe’s outrage on my behalf. “I told him it would be a cold day in Hell before Dolly had her baby shower at Clover. I even asked Trace to decline the request if one should be made.”

“Good for you.” He stopped beating the eggs, his focus completely on me. “Your car, it’s from him isn’t it?”

“Yeah.”

Understanding looked back at me, but he tried for levity when he said, “There had to be a reason you kept that ugly piece of shit.”

And despite feeling melancholy, I felt my lips turning up into a smile. “My car is not ugly.”

“Baby, your car is hideous.”

“It’s vintage.”

“Vintage shit.”

“I don’t have words.” And even as I smiled, my heart hurt because it was an ugly car and I had kept it for far longer than I should have, I had kept it for him. But after his latest parental failure, even that memory didn’t improve my opinion of him.

Rafe touched my chin, lifting my face to his. “I’d like to say one day he’ll realize what an ass he’s being, one day he’ll man up and be the father you deserve, but it’s likely he’ll never get there. The happy memory you have when you look at your car, that’s what makes your car beautiful.”

I wanted to lean into him, wanted to press my mouth to his, wanted to feel his strong arms pulling me close. He brushed my cheek with his thumb before he focused back on the eggs.

My voice was thick, husky, when I asked, “What kind of omelet are you making me?”

“Western.”

“Ham, onions, peppers, mushrooms and cheese?”

“Yep.”

“Yummy.”

The sizzle of the butter in the pan, the fragrant scent that assailed me had my stomach growling again, loud and long. A fact not lost on Rafe. “You are hungry.”

“Oh my God. How sexy am I, dressed like this and having a stomach attempting communication outside the body. Maybe you should put the oven on so I can stick my head in it.”

Rafe glanced at me, the bowl of eggs in his hand, but I hadn’t a clue what he was thinking.

“What?”

He shook his head, like in confusion or maybe disbelief, before he poured the eggs into the pan. And on cue, my stomach responded with a loud approving rumble. He was rather skilled at making an omelet, even flipping it to cook the top. Another pan was sautéing the onions, peppers, mushrooms and ham. Scooping the filling onto the egg, he sprinkled cheese, cracked pepper and a hint of salt before folding it. He slid the omelet onto a plate and placed the heavenly concoction right in front of me. Digging a fork from the drawer, he set it next to the plate.

“Avery?”

Drool pooled in my mouth, smelling the incredible scents wafting up in the steam, so it took effort to move my focus from the omelet to Rafe.

“You’re the sexiest woman I’ve ever seen, even more so dressed like that.”

If I weren’t sitting, I’d be on the floor right now. Did he just say that? I never felt sexy before, but I felt it now with those green eyes looking with such unabashed heat. To cover just how much those words meant to me, I teasingly replied, “I think the heat from the stove has fried your brain.”

“And I think you should just shut up, understand that I’m right and eat your omelet.”

“All right, Mr. Bossy.” But I was grinning like a fool.

“It’s incredible. I’m only limited by my imagination, literally. If I can think it up, cost is no issue. I have a team, two sous chefs.” Sitting at the local café, taking my meal break, I chatted on the phone with Jessica.

“You have a team?”

“Crazy right?” An odd sensation caused the hair on my arms to stand on end, the sensation so powerful I actually peered over my shoulder to see who was staring at me. Distracted, I missed Jessica’s question.

Picking up on my inattention, she jarred me from my scan of the place when she practically bellowed, “Avery!”

“I’m sorry.”

“What’s going on?”

“I don’t know, probably nothing, but it feels like someone’s watching me.”

“Where are you?”

“Down the street from Clover.”

“Maybe someone’s just checking you out.”

“Maybe.”

Her voice went from teasing to serious. “Are you getting a bad feeling?”

“A little.”

“The city scares me.”

“I’ve never had an issue, doesn’t mean I won’t, but this is definitely a new experience. A little creepy.”

“But you don’t see anyone outwardly looking at you?”

“No, but the place is pretty crowded and there are a lot of tables concealed from me.”

“Are you worried?”

“Worried, no, but definitely wary. As long as I don’t go walking to the rest room alone and I don’t inexplicably say
I’ll be back
because, as you know, in movies—outside of Arnold—those people never come back, I should be okay.”

“You’re so weird. Maybe it’s a customer from Clover, a woman who you’ve increased her dress size and now she wants payback.”

“I’m weird? Have you and Nat been spending time together? You’re beginning to sound just like her.”

Her only response was a laugh. Focusing on Jessica, I tried to ignore the prickling my skin was doing. “Did you get a hotel?”

“Yep. Kit plans to take Aidan to a football game on one of the days. So tell me about Rafe?”

“He’s not with Melody anymore.”

“He told you that?”

“We were flirting and in the middle of it I remembered Melody, it kind of put a damper on it for me. I feigned a headache, he saw right through me. Told me he wasn’t with her anymore and really wanted to taste my scones.”

“You’re scones?”

“Code for wanting to taste me.”

“Oh my God.”

“Yeah. I’ve been kind of floating around since, my head isn’t functioning as well as it should. But when you’ve got a man like that wanting to taste your scones, I think I’m entitled to be a bit loopy.”

“You can say that again.”

“What was weird though, I saw Melody a few days before that attempting to get onto his property. If they aren’t together, why was she there?”

“Good question. What did he say?”

“I didn’t tell him. I intended to but then my dad called.”