Intimate Seduction - Brenda Jackson [27]
Telling herself it would serve no purpose to argue with him, she glanced over at Farrah and quickly recalled her manners. “I’m here with my friend from high school. Farrah, this is Donovan Steele.”
Donovan quickly took up the introductions by taking the hand Farrah offered him and said, “It’s nice meeting you, Farrah, and I would like the both of you to meet a friend of mine, Xavier Kane.”
Pleasantries were exchanged and handshakes were made. “Do you mind if we join you?” Donovan asked.
Natalie was about to say yes, she did mind, but Farrah spoke first. “No, of course not. We’d love for the two of you to join us.”
Donovan, Natalie noted, was already pulling out a chair before Farrah had finished issuing the invitation. She also noted that he took the chair closer to her while Xavier sat beside Farrah.
“So, have you ladies ordered yet?” Xavier asked, smiling at everyone but especially at Farrah.
“No, we were checking out the menu. We’ve never been here before so what do you guys suggest?” Farrah asked. Farrah glanced over at her, and Natalie merely raised an arched brow—her way of sending a silent message that she was not happy. Instead of being bothered by her soundless threat, Farrah merely smiled sweetly over at her, and at that moment Natalie knew Farrah was up to something. That had her worried.
“Since you asked,” Donovan said, “for appetizers I would suggest their coconut shrimp if the two of you like seafood.”
“We do,” Farrah quickly spoke up for the both of them. “And especially shrimp.”
Donovan smiled. “Then you’re in luck because for the main course it’s all the fried shrimp you can eat tonight. They also have a variety of other seafood dishes that are just as delicious.”
Natalie pretended to concentrate on the menu. Out of the corner of her eye she saw that Donovan had leaned back in his chair as if listening to the getting-to-know-you conversation between Farrah and Xavier. He was also pretending, because she was fully aware his attention was focused on her.
“How is your aunt?” he asked.
His question made her glance at him over the top of the menu, and she wished she hadn’t. Tonight he was sitting under a light fixture that seemed to highlight all those features she had tried forgetting this week but had found herself dreaming about anyway. He had a beautiful pair of eyes. She had noticed them before, but for the first time she allowed herself time to literally drown in their dark depths.
“She’s fine. Thanks for asking,” she heard herself say before returning her attention back to the menu. Suddenly feeling hot, she reached for her cold glass of water and took a sip.
“Better?”
She glanced over at him again. “Excuse me?”
He smiled. “I asked if you felt better. Did the water quench your thirst? Cool you off?” he leaned over closer and asked silkily.
She stiffened at the underlying assumption. Okay, it was true that she was hot but not necessarily in the way he assumed. Although he was probably right. “As a matter of fact, yes, I do feel better.”
At that moment the waitress returned to take their order, and Natalie had a feeling before the night was over she would be drinking plenty of cold water.
Given the way that he and Natalie had parted on Tuesday, if anyone would have told them that on Friday night they would be sitting next to each other sharing a meal he would not have believed them.
She didn’t have a lot to say; her friend was the talkative one. She seemed satisfied just to eat and listen. And he was content just to sit and watch her. She was affecting him more than he’d ever imagined any woman capable of doing. In a way that bothered him; actually it frustrated the hell out of him.
The only reason he could come up with for his obsession was the fact that he’d found her in his bed. The same bed no other woman had ever lain in. Relying on his memory of those psych classes he’d taken in college, he knew there had to be an underlying meaning, a valid connection, between his fixation and her in his bed. His theory?