Chapter Twenty #2
It had been hard when Eli left, but I’d gotten over him. Time had a way of dulling those edges. And if I was being honest with myself, truly honest, I would have gone with him to Detroit if I’d really loved him enough.
I hadn’t. And I didn’t now.
“I’m sorry, Eli,” I said gently, sliding my hand out from under his. “I’m seeing someone.”
Simon and I still hadn’t put a label on what we were, but it didn’t matter. There was no one else I wanted. No one else who made me feel the way Simon did.
Eli’s brows rose with surprise. “You are? Who?”
“Me.”
I jolted at the sound of Simon’s deep voice, my heart leaping into my throat.
I’d been so focused on Eli’s unexpected confession that I hadn’t noticed him approaching our table.
But there he stood, tall and imposing, his expression more than a little territorial as he glared at Eli with barely concealed hostility.
Eli’s eyes went wide, darting between us as he tried to make sense of what was happening.
Simon didn’t wait for an invitation. He pulled out the chair beside me, scooted it close enough that our thighs pressed together, and draped an arm over the back of my seat.
There was nothing subtle about the way his hand curled around my shoulder, or the challenge blazing in his eyes as he stared Eli down.
Oh, my God. He was staking a claim. Being a possessive caveman about it, really.
I should have been annoyed. Instead, I found it amusing. And, if I was being honest, more than a little arousing. It was amazing how one small gesture from Simon could affect me so deeply, could make heat pool low in my belly and my pulse skip erratically.
“Uh, Eli, this is my—” I’d been about to say boss because we didn’t have a girlfriend/boyfriend label on whatever we were doing, but I caught myself just in time. That would raise all kinds of questions I didn’t want to answer. “This is Simon.”
Eli straightened in his chair, visibly recalibrating. “Oh, yeah. I saw you in a picture online with Raina.” His voice was carefully polite, though I could see the discomfort creeping into his posture. “You guys went to a hockey game, right?”
I smiled, suddenly grateful I’d posted that selfie. “Yeah, we did.”
“I hope you don’t mind me showing up like this,” Simon said, his tone making it abundantly clear he didn’t care whether Eli minded or not. “I happened to be in the neighborhood and couldn’t resist the opportunity to meet a man from my girl’s past.”
The emphasis he put on that word—my girl’s—was unmistakable. A line drawn in the sand. And he just happened to be in the neighborhood? Absolutely laughable considering he lived nowhere near this part of New York.
Eli swallowed hard, his earlier confidence evaporating, and I actually felt sorry for him. He didn’t deserve to be intimidated like this.
But when I looked at Simon—really looked at him—I saw more than just territorial posturing. He’d come here because he was worried. Because the thought of losing me to someone from my past had been enough to drive him across the city on a Sunday afternoon. Who knew?
For a man who struggled to express emotions verbally, for right now I suspected this was as close to a declaration as I was going to get.
“You really didn’t need to come here, honey,” I said, subtly nudging Simon in the side with my elbow. “I already told you, I’m just catching up with a friend.”
“That’s not what it sounded like when I arrived.” His jaw tightened, his gaze still fixed on Eli.
Eli held up his hands in a gesture of surrender. “Oh, no. That… that wasn’t anything to worry about. I just didn’t know she was dating anyone. Honestly.”
“Well, she is.”
“She is sitting right here,” I cut in, a note of annoyance in my voice.
Simon’s mouth curved into a smirk, amusement flickering in his eyes as he finally looked at me. “My apologies. I didn’t mean to talk about you like you weren’t present.” He lifted my hand to his lips and pressed a kiss to my knuckles, his gaze holding mine. “Forgive me?”
The gesture was so unexpectedly tender that my irritation melted away.
Eli cleared his throat awkwardly. “I… I think I’m going to go.” He stood, coffee clutched in his hand like a lifeline. He didn’t even bother making up an excuse. He was that desperate to escape the tension. “It was nice seeing you, Raina. And… nice to meet you, Simon.”
He was gone before I could say goodbye, weaving through the crowd and disappearing out the door like the building was on fire.
I turned to Simon, crossing my arms over my chest and leveling him with a glare. “What the heck was that?”
He shrugged one shoulder carelessly, reaching over to pick up my iced coffee. He took a sip, and his face twisted with distaste—too sweet, just as I’d predicted. He set it back down with a grimace.
“Seriously, Simon,” I said, not letting him off the hook for his extreme behavior. “What are you doing here?”
His eyes met mine, dark and intense. “I wasn’t going to let some guy from your past swoop in and try to take what’s mine.”
What’s mine. The words sent a shiver down my spine. We hadn’t defined what we were, hadn’t put labels on this thing between us, but Simon had just made his feelings abundantly clear. To Eli. To me. To anyone within earshot.
I was his. And he wasn’t willing to share.
“I didn’t realize you had such a caveman side,” I said, fighting back a smile. “Should I expect you to throw me over your shoulder and carry me back to your cave?”
“Don’t tempt me,” he said, the low rumble of his voice making my stomach flip.
“You know,” I said, leaning closer, “Eli was never a threat. I told you it was just a friendly catch-up.”
“I heard him say he’d love for you to give him another chance before I interrupted the two of you.” Simon’s jaw tightened at the memory. “That didn’t seem like a friendly catch-up to me.”
I exhaled a breath. “He didn’t know I was seeing someone.”
“He does now.”
I laughed, shaking my head. “You’re impossible.”
“And yet, here you are.” His hand found my thigh under the table, squeezing gently. “Still sitting with me instead of chasing after your friend.”
I found myself smiling, despite everything. “Maybe I like your impossible personality.”
His expression softened, something warm and genuine breaking through the possessive exterior. “Yeah?”
“Yeah.” I covered his hand with mine, threading our fingers together. “So,” I said, tilting my head with a teasing smile, “since you scared off my coffee date, I guess you’re obligated to keep me company now. What do you say, caveman? Buy me another drink?”
Simon’s lips curved into a genuine smile, rare and beautiful and just for me. “I think I can manage that.”