A Baby And Lunch
Dahlia
“Are you sure you want to eat here?” Vex eyes the fast-casual restaurant in front of us.
It’s packed.
There are only a couple of empty tables inside.
We just walked a block to find out where the delightful scent was coming from. Of course, I want to eat here. “It’ll be fine.” I pat his arm. “The food smells fantastic.”
“Did you just pat my arm?” His voice gets rough.
Um… “Sort of.” I shrug.
“It’s a good thing you’re cute, or you’d be irritating.”
“At least you didn’t say I’d be dead.”
He stares at me for a second and bursts out laughing loud enough that people turn their heads to stare at him.
Not that I blame them in the least, Vex personifies sinfully sexy with an edge of lethal.
He even looks good carrying our trays to a corner table that one of his guards managed to hold for us by sheer force of will. Vex sets the food down and pulls out a chair for me.
Do men even do that anymore? There hasn’t been one guy that’s done it since we entered the place. He also took the chair in the corner with his back to the wall.
Vex is a gentleman and a crime lord?!?
The dichotomy messes with my head.
Maybe Mindy and Diane were wrong. The man in front of me must be misunderstood.
The delectable scent of fried chicken wafts up from my plate, distracting me from the man in front of me. “It looks as good as it smells.” I’m such a brilliant conversationalist.
Vex unrolls his fork from inside the cloth napkin.
What casual restaurant uses embroidered cloth napkins? Custom embroidered cloth napkins at that, since they match the wallpaper on the accent wall behind Vex. They’re prettier than the ones in my house.
Maybe I should get embroidered napkins.
The owner of this place must be making a boatload of money here.
“Are you going to eat the food or do you just stare at lunch?” Vex teases.
Ummm. “It’s almost too pretty to eat. But I guess I can sacrifice.” The breaded crust on the chicken crackles as I cut a bit off. “Are you sure you don’t want some?” I hold out the first bite to him.
“Dahl, just eat. I’m good.”
“Your food is too healthy.” I set the juicy morsel in my mouth and sigh silently. The salty, sweet tea brine leads the flavor profile. Whoever created this menu knows how to cook.
We eat in blissful silence for a long minute.
This is nice .
Really nice. “I haven’t spent a day like this in far too long. Not since I moved to Urbium.”
“How long ago did you move here?”
“A couple of months ago. I lived in the burbs north of Urbium for my entire life. How about you? How long have you lived here?”
Vex sets his fork down. “I grew up here.”
“And you stayed?”
“Where else would I go?”
Everywhere. “Anywhere.”
“Why? I know Urbium. It’s safe.”
Hardly. No big city is ever completely safe… for a woman.
“Why did you move here?”
“Because it wasn’t safe.” Which sounds even stranger.
“Huh?”
“I’m not crazy.” Mostly. “Have you ever been too safe?”
He stares at me incredulously. “There’s no such thing.”
You’re wrong about that, but there’s no way I can explain my life back home without sounding nutty. “The burbs are quiet, boring almost. There’s nothing to do for a single woman. It’s all families taking their kids to activities and lunching.”
“And you didn’t want that?”
That wasn’t an option for me back home. Everyone knew me. There was no future for me there. “No.Though I did enjoy shopping and going to lunch on occasion.”
“If you want to live on the wild side, why did you show up at my club looking like you did?”
Wild side? Me? “Um… I’m not looking to be wild here. I want to just—I don’t know—live a little. They said we were going out for drinks. I thought my coworkers were taking me to a nice bar. Where we would drink a glass of wine and listen to some guy play the piano for an hour and get to know each other.”
“Then they took you to my club. ”
I nod.
“And would you ever want to go to one again?”
After I was drugged and passed out on a bathroom floor? “No.”
“Even if I promised you’d be safe?”
“How could you promise that?” It literally happened at his club.
“Dahl, nothing bad will ‘ever’ get near you again at my club. I can promise you that.”
Vex can’t know that. Bad things happen… and they seem to happen to me more often than most.
“You don’t look convinced.”
I shrug. “Bad things happen. No matter how intimidating you are, you can’t fix the world.”
He opens his mouth to say something and snaps it shut as his gaze moves sharply to a point behind me.
What could be bothering him in a place like this? I turn and follow his gaze to a man stepping out of an SUV in front of the restaurant.
The size of the man alone would be enough to draw attention, but the men in suits around him are probably what Vex noticed. They’re clearly security.
Is this guy a crime lord like Vex?
Before I can get a glimpse of his face, the man shifts to offer a hand to someone inside the car. A tall woman with honey-blonde hair and a smiling face steps out. Her hand curves around her abdomen… more like her almost nonexistent baby bump. The man pulls her in close, setting his hand on top of hers. Together, they’re cradling their unborn child as tears fill her eyes.
Why is she crying?
“Aren’t they beautiful?” the words slip out unbidden.
Vex makes an indistinguishable noise, and I turn to look at him. “What?”
“They’re the Kentworths.”
“Huh?” I’ve heard that name before, but I’m not quite sure where.
“He’s a billionaire from one of the richest and oldest families in the world. ”
Ahh. Everyone knows the Kentworths. Their relationship was all over the television and in every tabloid.
“He’s stupidly in love with his wife and lets the world know it.”
“They’re so romantic.”
“Stupid. He’s stupid.”
“Why would you say that?”
“Because love makes a man stupid and weak.”
The man we’re watching hardly looks weak.
“He showed the world that he’d give anything for that woman, making her his Achilles heel.”
What a jaded thing to say. “Love is beautiful.”
“You’re a woman. Of course, you’d say that.” Vex’s eyes follow a big black man as he breaks off from the group of guards.
“Being a woman has nothing to do with it.”
“It has everything to do with it. How many times since we left the penthouse have you thought about ways to defend me?”
“Um…” Bone Crusher scares the world.
“Exactly my point. Even now in a relatively safe location, I’ve identified several exits and thought about how to extract us from a situation if needed.”
Oh. OH.
Before my mind can fully process Vex's words, the Kentworth’s security guy makes his way to our table. Why is he here?
“Vex.”
“Taylor.”
They know each other?
“Is there some trouble I should know about?”
Trouble! “How many times do I have to tell you people I’m not trouble!”
Both men turn to gawk at me.
“I am not trouble. Things just sort of happen to me.”
“Dahlia. ”
There’s a warning tone in Vex’s voice, but I’m too irritated to notice it. “Whatever Vex told you, it isn’t true. I’m not trouble and I can go anywhere I like.”
A slow smile spreads across Taylor’s face.
What does that even mean? Men are irritating. They probably have a little club that meets once a week, where they all confer to talk about women.
“That’s good to know, ma’am.”
I’m not a ma’am. You only call old women, ma’am, and I’m certainly not old.
“It’s not what you think it is.” Vex bites out.
“Doesn’t matter what I think. The old man is going to have a lot to say.”
Old man?!?
“Only if you tell him.”
Taylor smiles. “I’ve never told the old man anything that he doesn’t already know.” Taylor turns to face the windows and nods at a man standing near the still-cuddling couple before turning back to us. “Don’t be surprised if you get a visit soon.”
“Noted.”
Taylor leaves as fast as he arrived.
“What was that about?”
“Nothing.”
Yeah right. “Who’s the old man?”
“Taylor’s father.”
Oh. OH. These two know each other well.
How?
Why would a crime lord know a security guard for a billionaire?
More importantly, why does Vex know the guy’s father?
They didn’t seem like friends.
Would Vex explain his relationship to me if I asked? I shift my gaze back to find him eating his vegetables.
Do I want to understand the puzzle that is Vex?