Bewitching You (4 page)

“You know him?” Gray asked, and guided her into her seat.

“Um, sort of. We went out once or twice a couple of years ago.” Her voice faded as she spoke, but he heard every word.

“Really?” He sat across the table and watched as she continued to glance at the piano man, who probably got his last tattoo in a nine-by-nine cell from a guy named Snake. “He doesn’t look like your type.”

“My type?” Her brown eyes fluttered as if being cleared from confusion, then quickly veered up at him. “You’re my type, Grayson.”

“Huh.” So, there was a side to his virginal bride-to-be he didn’t know about. “You said you went out once or twice?”

“Well, three dates, but it was a long time ago.” She clasped her hands together on top of the table.

“Maybe we should talk a little more about our past relationships. Sometimes I feel like I don’t know you as well as I should. And we are about to be married. It couldn’t hurt.”

“I’d rather not. It’s not a big deal.” Her cheeks flushed as she made busy work of tugging the napkin onto her lap and straightening it, avoiding his stare.

Gray wondered what she was hiding. “It’s important to me,” he said. “I don’t like surprises. You know that.”

“You’re being ridicu—” Her eyes narrowed as she glanced over Gray’s shoulder.

“What? See another ex?”

“No, there's something wrong with the waitress. She's staring at us. Very strange.”

~ * ~

Sofia balanced the glasses of water on the tray as she slowly walked up to the man who could only be
her
Gray and the woman he was with.

Maybe she was his cousin or sister or...or his maid.

Why would he take his maid to dinner, Sofe
?

The tramp had a nice-sized ring on her finger. No way was he married to her. That wasn’t possible. At no point in her visions did he ever wear a ring or speak of another woman.

No, when she closed her eyes and dreamed of Gray, they were completely in love. No other woman existed. It was only the two of them.

She stopped behind him. Inches away. If she weren’t sane, she’d think she felt an unknown force luring her to him. Of course, this was the man who she would inevitably and passionately fall in love with. She knew that. How could she not be drawn to him?

One small step farther and she was standing beside him, looking at his strong profile. His clean-shaven jaw was clenched. His full lips frowned. His thick, dark lashes hovered heavily over his eyes, and his large hands pressed down on the table in front of him.

He made it obvious he was avoiding her as she walked up beside him. But why?

The water glasses on the tray Sofia held clinked together. She realized she was trembling.

“Are those ours?” the woman sitting across from him asked.

Sofia ignored her. Whoever the woman was wasn’t important. She’d be out of the picture soon anyway. Trying to gain composure, she cleared her throat and remembered Nana’s words from that morning.

He doesn’t know you like you know him
.

It wasn’t fair. She couldn’t call out his name, jump into his lap and kiss him like in her dreams. She was a complete stranger to him.

Which didn’t explain his reaction when he crooked his head to peer up at her. His dark eyes widened and his lips parted.

“Who…?” He stood too quickly and bumped the tray she was holding.

Sofia didn’t have a tight enough grasp on the tray, so it wobbled in her hands. One glass of water tipped over onto the table. It rolled and crashed onto the tile floor. The other glass took its time, almost in slow motion, as it toddled and leaned toward Gray.

“Oh, shoot.” She watched the water splash up against his chest.

Smooth move, Sofe. Way to make a man fall in love with you
.

She stood paralyzed for a moment, as did the rest of the restaurant, it seemed.

So here he is. My destiny. Now what?

She couldn’t help but ogle the way his wet light blue shirt clung to the muscles in his chest. The way his shallow breaths lifted his pecs. Per her dreams she knew exactly how solid those pecs were to the touch. Solid. Powerful. That was Gray.

Yeah, she had it bad.

With all the courage she could muster, she met his gaze. Why would she be afraid of a man who was kind and loving, anyway? Who treated her with respect and compassion?

She noticed his Adam’s apple bob, and looked up farther to see his face pale. She held back the urge to reach up and press her mouth to his. To taste him.

To love him.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered as she met his searching eyes.

His gaze swept over her, but stopped at her name embroidered into her vest. She’d never felt more naked but, oddly, in a good way—in a heated, passionate, make-love-to-me-right-now way.

“You should be,” he finally said, with the deep voice she knew so well.

“What?” Sofia shook her head out of its hazy state.

“You should be sorry.” He flicked at her name on her vest. “Sofia, this is the worst service I’ve ever received.”

“Excuse me?”

“How much do you get paid to work at a snail’s pace?” He picked up the tipped over glass lying on the tray she somehow still held outright. “And drench the customer in the process?” He set the glass down on the table, making a clinking sound that echoed throughout the otherwise silent room.

Sofia peeled her eyes away from Gray to see that everyone within viewing range was staring at her, including his dinner date, who only had pity in her eyes. Pity for Sofia.

“Grayson,” the woman whispered, “it wasn’t her fault.”

No, not my fault I’m in love with a man I’m only just meeting
, Sofia thought, before Gray’s rough finger under her chin stole her attention. He guided her to look up at him.

“This was entirely her fault. She’s intrusive and clumsy. What else do you have up to, Sofia? Are you trying to ruin my dinner date?” He sneered down at her. He actually
sneered
. His lips curled wickedly, as if she didn’t mean anything to him and never would.

Her chest squeezed as she choked on a breath. Seriously? In all the scenarios that had filled her fantasies, she’d never thought her first meeting with Gray would go like this. Heck, she’d never dreamed he’d act like an arrogant, rude bully.

And for the first time in her life, rage filled her.

Not heartbreak. No, he didn’t deserve that. Not with the way he was acting. The woman had called him Grayson, but the man from her dreams would never treat Sofia this way.

“Look,” he said, and tapped his finger on her chin. “She can’t speak either. Is she even really here?”

That was it. A person could only take so much ridicule. She swiped his hand from her chin with one hand and slammed the tray against his abdomen with the other.

It wasn’t enough. He deserved more pain, so she stomped one of her Mary Jane’s down on his foot as hard as she could.

“Fuck,” he yelled, and inhaled sharply.

Good
. Now maybe he’d wise up.

“Sofia,” André shouted from behind her.
Oh, shoot
. Sofia twirled around to face the angry Frenchman.

"He started it,” she said, and immediately wanted to kick herself for sounding like such a child.

“You’re fired, Sofia. Clock out and leave.”

“But—”

“There’s no excuse for harming a customer. Leave. Now.”

Gray’s date stepped forward. “She’s not to blame, sir. My fiancé is, I think, having a bad day.”

“Fiancé?” Sofia spun back around at the word. She looked up at Gray. “You’re engaged?”

He didn't answer, but the rigid expression on his face was enough of a reply.

Okay, now it was time for the heartbreak.

Sofia cheeks blazed. How could she have gotten it so wrong this time? The man she was in love with wasn’t a jerk…and he certainly wasn’t engaged to a beautiful woman.

“Of course not,” she whispered, feeling defeated. “Only in my dreams.”

“Your what?” He grabbed her forearm.

An extraordinary surge of heat rose through her body, and Sofia wondered if he’d felt it too. He closed his eyes for a moment and then opened them halfway, staring at her with a strange intensity.

“Grayson,” his fiancée said, “what is wrong with you? Let her go.”

Sofia wasn’t afraid of him. She met his stare with an angry one of her own…which melted quickly when he leaned in and brushed his lips against her ear.

Her skin prickled at the mere touch, how his breath warmed her ear. Maybe he realized what a jerk he’d been and was going to apologize. She breathed in his familiar scent and reached her hand up to caress his cheek. Welcome him home.

He grasped tighter to her arm, pulling her hand back down to her side. “Get out of my head,” he said in a low growl, and released her.

Before she could gather her wits and her pride to respond, he threw a bill on the table and guided his fiancée out of the restaurant.

~ * ~

Rachel stared out the window, apparently giving Gray the silent treatment for behaving so poorly. He’d been an asshole, he knew, but how else was he supposed to react when the woman from his dreams showed up as their server? When she stared at him with those striking blue eyes that dug into his very soul? When she dared him to kiss that silly, lovesick expression off her face?

She wasn’t supposed to be real. She was a dream, and dreams couldn’t threaten your future. They couldn’t materialize in front of you and your fiancée and make you second-guess every decision you’d ever made.

But that was exactly what she’d done in a matter of seconds.

He gritted his teeth and clenched tight to the steering wheel. Shit. The mirage, the hallucination…the whatever you wanted to call her, named Sofia was not a part of his plan. No, not a woman who haunted him, stalking his dreams and making him want her more than he’d wanted any other woman.

To know she existed blew his mind. How could it be possible?

“I’m sorry,” he said, trying to sound like he meant it. He reached for Rachel’s limp hand and gripped her palm.

Sure, he was sorry for causing a scene, and even more regretful for being the reason Sofia lost her job. Not for a second did he like knowing he’d hurt her in any way, but he hoped it had worked. He hoped the woman hated him enough to make her stop torturing his mind. How she did it, he didn’t know, but maybe now the dreams would end.

“Do you know her?” Rachel asked.

The question surprised Gray. Had he been that obvious? “I’ve never met her before,” he said.

Even though he’d made love to the woman every night for the past month, kissed every inch of her sweet skin, he’d never actually
met
her in real life.

“Why do you ask?”

“The way she looked at you. It was odd. I see women staring at you all the time when we’re walking down the street or eating out, but never like that.”

“She was definitely a whack job.” Gray cringed at his own words. When had he become such an ass?

“You looked at her the same way.” Rachel wriggled her hand from his grasp and shifted a lock of hair behind her ear.

“Don’t be silly, Rache.” He didn’t bother arguing with her. He knew the look. He’d seen it on Sofia’s face. But he refused to believe he’d been giving it back. “She’s no one to me.”

Chapter Three

The oxygen masks hung above their lifeless heads.

How many?

Sofia walked down the aisle, counting the slumping bodies. Just counting. That was all she could do. They were already dead.

She was able to hold back her sobs until she saw the child. A little girl. Maybe three years old, bent over a woman’s lap. Sofia assumed the woman was her mother. They both had long black hair and pale skin. Blue lips.