Chapter 11
Pyre
We sat down at the table the hostess showed us to and picked up our menus.
I gave her a few minutes, eyeing the dishes they offered here and settled on a steak.
It was hard to fuck up a good chunk of meat.
Especially in a ranching town like this one.
You wouldn’t survive if your steak was bad.
Some places in other towns managed it, but I was hoping this wouldn’t be one of them.
Focusing back on my date, I found her pretty brown eyes watching me.
She looked a little wary. Couldn’t say I blamed her.
I was scowling down at my menu like it had personally insulted me.
I’d been reliably informed by other women, in this case Ainsley, that a nice girl might think my scowls were aimed at her.
I made a mental note to check myself. Clearing my throat, I set the menu down and leaned back in my chair. “What did you decide on?”
“I’m going to have the mushroom risotto,” she told me with a small smile.
I loved the way she smiled. Like she had some kind of secret she wasn’t sharing, but not in a cruel way. Just like she had something she knew that made her happy and she wasn’t ready to tell you what it was yet. “Sounds good. I’m going for the steak.”
She nodded and we both fell silent as the waiter walked up. He announced the specials, we put in our orders, and then he left us alone together again.
“So. What made you want to become a medical examiner?”
She looked up at me with wide eyes. “Oh, um, I was always fascinated with biology.” I nodded, waiting for her to continue, but she rushed on, changing the subject. “Does the rest of your family live here in Sentinel?”
She knew about my cousin, his wife, and his kids because she’d arranged the funeral for my cousin’s kid Brandon a couple months back.
I frowned at the way she pivoted the conversation, but humored her.
I wanted to get to know her, not talk about myself, but it was a two-way street and if she wanted to get to know me that was probably a good thing.
“No. My parents live down south and my two sisters live in Washington and Nebraska,” I told her.
“All spread out,” she replied. “Do you see them often?”
“Us kids try to make it home a couple times a year.”
She smiled and searched my face. “You don’t have a southern accent. Where is home?”
“Well, we moved all over when I was a kid. My dad was in the military. But once he retired they settled in Georgia.”
“That’s nice.”
“How about you?”
“Oh my parents are in Cheyenne,” she replied. “And my brothers move too often to keep track of.” She laughed and we waited as the waiter dropped off house salads in front of us.
I scowled at the green concoction in front of me.
“You don’t like salads?” she asked with a laugh
“Hardly worth it to chew it,” I muttered. “I like my food more calorie dense.”
“You can’t tell,” she said.
I looked up and caught her eyes on my chest. When she felt my stare, she glanced up and a blush worked its way over her cheeks. I grinned. She liked my muscles. Strength and impressing women was the entire motivation for me busting my ass in the gym, so I was glad she approved.
“I mean…” She trailed off, not knowing what to say since that thought had apparently escaped without her permission.
“Thanks,” I said, then moved on before she steeped in her embarrassment too long. “What do you like to do for fun?”
“Um…I read.”
I nodded, shoving a forkful of lettuce in my mouth. Chewing, I waited again for her to elaborate, but she just looked down at her plate and started eating. It was like pulling nails.
Frowning, I tried to figure out why she was being so mysterious. It was like she didn’t want to talk about herself. But wasn’t that the point of these dates? Testing my theory, I said, “Warrant mentioned you were a medical examiner in Boston. Did you like the work there?”
“It was okay. I like it here better. When did you move here?”
She was being evasive. She was good, too. In the military you had to be trained to be this evasive, to naturally change subjects without it being too obvious.
“Couple years before you.” More like ten. “You ever kill anyone?”
Her head snapped up. “No. Of course not.”
She didn’t ask if I had, which let me know she was likely aware of our reputation as a MC.
“How about your favorite color?” I asked. If she wanted surface level chit chat, I could do that. For now.
The waiter dropped off our food. “Green,” she answered when he’d left again. “How about yours?”
I shrugged. “One’s as good as another.” I kept the conversation light.
Easy, first date kind of questions, even though I would rather be finding out more about her.
Not just her favorite of everything and her sign.
Stupid astrology bullshit. But I didn’t want to scare her off either.
I was unwrapping a bomb here, only instead of exploding, she might up and run away.
And it would be my own fucking fault if she did for waiting so long to make up my mind and change directions with my life.
We spent the evening discussing trivial things.
I could easily have Glitch run a background check on her.
Find out some of what I wanted to know. Hell that guy could figure out pretty much everything about her, right down to the brand of deodorant she wore.
But I didn’t want to give any of my brothers a free pass to interfere.
Glitch may spend most of his time with his nose pressed to his computer screen, but he was still a Berserker. And he was just as much trouble as the rest of those assholes. Not me, of course. I was practically a fucking saint.
I was relieved when we finished dinner. Not because I was tired of spending time with her, but because I was irritated I couldn’t ask the things I wanted to. That I needed to be patient. She’d be worth it though.
Plus, I was about to get the answer to one of my questions at least. I drove her home and I enjoyed the ride in the cool night air. It gave me a minute to relax and not have to come up with anything else to talk about. There were only so many irrelevant questions I could ask her.
“Thank you so much. I had a wonderful time,” she told me as she got off my bike.
“Good. So did I. I’ll walk you up.”
“Oh you don’t need-”
I was already striding up the walkway with her. She walked beside me, watching me with those gorgeous eyes. I couldn’t read the emotions I saw in them, but she seemed to be trying to figure me out. That made two of us.
We reached the door and I waited as she dug around in her purse for her keys. Once they were in her hand, I reached out and cupped her cheek. When she looked up at me, I kissed her.
She didn’t seem to be expecting it. I wasn’t sure what kinds of dates this woman had been on in the past, but I had a feeling they were somehow influencing how tonight had gone. Hopefully it was that, and not that she’d decided she didn’t like me.
She let out a little hum and then—praise everything divine—she opened her mouth a bit. It was enough.
I wrapped my arms around her, pulling her closer to my body, and sank my tongue into her warm wet mouth.
Fuck. She tasted delicious. Sure, a bit like the chocolate cake she’d had for dessert, but something else, too.
Something uniquely her. I promised myself right then and there I was going to kiss her as often as I could for the rest of our lives.
Forcing myself to let her go, I broke the kiss off and smiled at her. “I’ll see you soon.”
“O-okay. Thanks again,” she called out as I walked back to my motorcycle.
I waited until she was inside before I reached down and adjusted my hard-on so it wasn’t digging into my zipper.
I doubted she knew how she affected me. She’d been breathing hard and had that glazed look in her eyes a woman got when you’d made an impact on her, so I knew she’d enjoyed our kiss, too.
Wondering if she was going to go inside and take care of what I started, I backed out of her driveway. I groaned as images flashed in my mind. That wasn’t going to help my dick behave. I tried to shove the images out of my head.
Soon. She wasn’t going to be able to redirect my questions and attempts to get to know her.
I’d give her some time, but not much because I wasn’t nearly patient enough.
The only time I was, happened to be when I was operating on someone.
You didn’t rush it when you were cutting someone open or sewing them shut.
I let my mind wander, coming up with a plan for how I could win over and seduce my little reaper.
My brows drew together. Where had that nickname come from?
I mean, it fit, considering she ushered souls into their afterlives.
In a manner of speaking. And it was way better than death chick.
I wasn’t about to admit to my brothers that I’d given her a name though. I’d keep that to myself for now.