Chapter 18
Chapter Eighteen
LINCOLN
Christ, that smile. That dress. All that thick, shiny hair. She was fucking gorgeous.
Keeping my hands off Eden took a feat of strength I didn’t know I possessed. I’d been fighting a constant hard-on since that first kiss a few days before, and my desire for her had been growing and clawing at my insides ever since.
And damn if that didn’t make everything I was doing for Hayes that much harder.
My instincts told me she didn’t have anything to do with what her brother was pulling, and Hayes agreed, but she was the best lead we had to catching him before this shit went too far.
All I could do was hope like hell that she didn’t find out my part in all of this, because I’d never felt this way about a woman.
And once Shepley Brenner was locked up, I had no intention of walking away from Eden.
As she hit me with that smile that lit her entire face, taking her from cute to stunning in a beat, that clawing inside me grew even stronger.
How it was possible for a man not to have snatched her up was beyond me. Every other guy in her past must have been just as big a loser as that jackass brother of hers, but their loss was my gain, and I planned on taking full advantage.
The way her light brown eyes shone as she took in The Groves, like a kid’s might on their first trip to Disney World, made me want to bring her here for every damn meal just so I could see that look on her face every goddamn day.
“Good evening.” Forcing my attention from Eden, I turned to the pimply teenager dressed in a black button-down, black slacks, and a black apron—the standard garb for the staff. “Welcome to The Groves. Could I get you something to drink?” he offered while staring at my girl’s tits the whole time.
Clearing my throat, I got the kid’s attention and gave my head a little shake, making his face blanch at having been caught.
“Beer for me. Whatever you have on draft.”
He gave me a nervous nod before turning back to Eden, this time keeping his eyes firmly on her face.
Eden pulled her bottom lip between her teeth as she scanned the drink menu.
A second later, she looked at the waiter with a smile, and it was so goddamn beautiful that the kid’s expression grew dopey.
I was willing to bet that if she’d asked him to rob a bank for her right then, he’d have gladly done it.
“I’ll have a dirty martini, two olives, hold the vermouth.”
“You got it,” he swooned. “Can I get you anything else?”
“I think that’s good for now,” I replied, reminding the pipsqueak I was there.
He jolted at the sound of my voice and flung his attention back to me, his eyes going wide. “Oh, uh… yeah. Sure. I’ll get right on that.” He scurried off, and I shook my head on a low chuckle.
“What’s so funny?”
Fuck me. She really didn’t have the first clue the effect she had on the opposite sex, and as crazy as it sounded, that made her even sexier.
“Edie, darlin, that kid was gone for you the second he stepped up to our table. Thought he’d drool all over the fancy tablecloth.”
Her head quirked to the side in adorable confusion. “Huh?”
“He wants you,” I repeated more simply with a laugh.
The expression on her face was downright comical. “What? No way!”
I leaned in closer, lowering my voice. “Oh yeah.” I took a glance around the dining room to find at least five other men with their eyes on my Edie. “And he’s not the only one. I walked in here with you on my arm and at least half a dozen of these guys wished they could be in my place. Trust me.”
She let out a nervous giggle as her eyes darted around the room. “That’s crazy.”
I spotted the waiter with a tray of drinks coming our way and told her, “He’s comin’ back. Shoot him that beautiful smile of yours and see what happens.”
“My beautiful smile?” she asked on a breathy whisper, but before I had a chance to answer, the kid hit our table. He plunked my beer down in front of me without paying a lick of attention, then slowly, oh so carefully lowered Eden’s martini to the table in front of her.
She looked at me questioningly, and I lifted an eyebrow as if to say go for it. Then her lips spread into a smile as bright as a summer day and she murmured, “Thank you,” to the boy.
He actually stumbled. He was standing completely still, but at that smile, he stumbled and bumped into the table. “O-of course. It’s my pleasure. Uh, can I—” He cleared his throat. “Can I get you anything else? Anything at all. Just name it.”
Eden’s wide gaze came to me as she pulled her lips between her teeth as if to keep from laughing.
“We’re good,” I answered for her. “We just need a few more minutes to look over the menus.”
With a crestfallen expression, his shoulders slumped and he muttered, “Okay,” before turning and walking away.
“Oh my god,” Eden whispered once we were alone, then clamped her hands over her mouth and giggled like crazy.
“Told you,” I said with a grin of my own, lifting my beer and taking a pull.
She scrunched her face in a playful glare, murmuring, “Whatever,” before opening her menu. I should have been doing the same, but pulling my attention off her was downright impossible.
“This all looks so great,” she said, scanning the menu. “I don’t know what to pick.”
“You trust me?”
Those honey-brown eyes came back to me with a warmth that burned in my chest. “Yeah,” she replied softly.
For reasons I couldn’t even begin to understand, hearing that made my dick stir behind my fly. “I’ll do right by you, darlin’. I promise.”
Her cheeks took on a rosy hue as she responded, “Like I said, I trust you.”
The waiter came back a minute later, and I ordered Eden the eight-ounce filet with a bourbon mushroom sauce and got myself the porterhouse. Once that was done, I sat back in the booth and drank my beer while Eden sipped on her martini.
“So how’s work goin’?” I asked with a smirk. “Those historical romances keepin’ you entertained?”
She grinned and shook her head, her cheeks staying that shade of pink that always took over whenever she got nervous or shy or embarrassed. “It’s good. Slow, but good.”
“Slow?” I asked with curiosity.
She swirled the olives around her glass aimlessly, and even that looked sexy as hell.
The way she rested her elbow on the table and propped her chin in her hand as she stared over at me, how she held that little toothpick delicately between her thumb and index finger and stirred her drink.
It was casual and feminine. The anxiousness that usually locked her muscles tight in my presence had melted away, and seeing that she was now comfortable enough around me to loosen up made pride swell deep in my gut.
“Yeah. I used to be all about work, but since moving here I just can’t bring myself to stay inside when there’s so much beauty to be seen all around town. I think I’ve walked almost every inch of Hope Valley since I moved here, and I still feel like there’s so much more I’m missing.”
“You tried any of the hiking trails?” I asked.
She sat up straighter, her eyes glimmering with excitement. “Hiking trails?”
“Oh yeah. You think what you’ve seen in town is beautiful, just wait ’til you hike one of those mountains.
Nothin’ more beautiful than standing on the edge of a cliff and staring down at everything God created.
It’s like Heaven on Earth, baby. You find the time, you just let me know and I’ll take you,” I offered, needing to be the one to show her those sights, to see the wonder on her gorgeous face when she took everything in.
The thought of anyone else giving that to her stung like alcohol in an open cut. It had to be me who gave her that.
“Really?” she asked exuberantly. “You would?”
“Absolutely.”
Our food arrived a couple minutes later and we both dug in, keeping the easy conversation flowing between bites.
Eden finished her martini and ordered a second, getting more talkative as the alcohol lowered her inhibitions with every passing minute.
I found I was enjoying the hell out of myself, so when an unwelcomed voice interrupted us, it wasn’t a surprise that it pissed me right the hell off.
“You have got to be kidding me.”
Son of a bitch.
Eden
“You have got to be kidding me.”
Turning my head, I saw a familiar blonde standing at the foot of our table, looking really pissed off. Thanks to the alcohol—and the fact that I was a serious lightweight—my brain was a little slow on the uptake, so it took me a second to remember where I knew her from.
Then it dawned on me. This was the blonde Lincoln had been taking out the evening of my trash bin mishap.
Well this is just great. The last thing I needed was one of Lincoln’s supermodel exes reminding me of just how inferior I really was.
“Crys, this isn’t the time or place to make a scene, so I suggest you go back to your table and let us finish our dinner.”
“You have got to be kidding me!” she squeaked, and I had to bite my bottom lip to keep from laughing at her reply. She might have had looks and height on me, but judging from her snappy comeback, I at least had the brains out of the two of us.
“Crystal,” Lincoln gritted. “Not gonna say it again.”
Clearly too dim to get the importance of heeding his warning, she crossed her arms beneath her ample breasts that were barely contained in her skimpy red dress that, I had to say, was totally inappropriate for a place as classy as The Groves.
“I asked you over and over to bring me here, and you always said it was too stuffy for you. So, what?” She threw her arms out to her sides.
“Now it’s suddenly your scene? Now you don’t mind wearin’ something other than your grubby jeans and old t-shirts?
What the hell, Linc? You mean to tell me that this chick’s worth The Groves, and the best I ever got was that crappy diner? ”