Consolation Prize (Forbidden Men #9)(89)

She sent me a dry glance. “Just say it.”

So I blurted, “Stuck-up.”

Her eyebrows lifted. “Oh really? Stuck-up, huh?” She shook her head, grinning as if amused. “But you say you know better than that, huh?”

“Of course, I know better.” I winked and whispered, “I’ve seen your underwear, remember?”

She threw her head back and laughed. “My underwear? How the hell does my underwear have anything to do with anything?”

“They’re my favorite thing you wear,” I swore solemnly.

Shaking her head, she continued to chuckle. “How? They’re boring as hell.”

“No,” I insisted. “They’re honest as hell. They’re one of the only things you put on your body that no one else sees. So they tell me exactly how you’d dress if it didn’t matter to you what anyone thought about you. They tell me you value comfort and practicality while you also like flashy colors over dull boring ones. And you keep all this tucked privately away where very few privileged people get a glimpse of them.”

Her lips parted as she studied my face. After a second of just soaking in my words, she murmured, “It’s scary how f*cking perceptive you are.”

With a chuckle, I reached out to trace my finger over her cheekbone. “And yet I think you like it.”

“Yeah, well…” She grinned and rolled her eyes, appearing rueful. “Except for the fact that now I sound boring, since I represent my plain, practical underwear, yeah, your talent of reading me’s not so bad.”

“Practical but colorful,” I reminded her as I leaned across the table toward her. “Truth be told, I like it. I like you just the way you are.”

When I pressed my mouth to hers, she pressed back, humming in her throat and coasting her fingers over my hair. “I like you too,” she admitted.

“Good.” I kissed her again.

Not far away, the sound of laughter made me pull back and glance over at the girls who’d been bothering her before. They were watching us openly and whispering back and forth.

Obviously, our kiss had sent them over the edge.

I scowled. “Huh. Maybe the interracial thing does bother them.” I rolled out my middle finger and flipped the girls off.

“Colton!” Julianna grabbed my finger and covered it with her hand, while the other table gasped and quickly looked away.

“What?” I shook my head, confused. I’d gotten them to mind their own damn business, hadn’t I?

Juli gritted her teeth. “You’re the one who told me to forget what other people thought of us.”

“They were upsetting you,” I argued moodily. That pissed me off.

She sighed. “Well, two wrongs do not make a right.”

“Yeah, but are we absolutely certain my flipping them off was really wrong?” I asked. “I mean, I was just calling them out on their *ry. You do that to me all the time.”

Her eyes narrowed. “I call you out because I know you’re better than that.”

My chest swelled. “You do? Just how good do you think I am, baby doll?”

Lifting her chin, she scowled. “Stop being arrogant.”

I laughed just as our waiter came around to discreetly set our receipt on the table next to me. He didn’t ask if we needed anything else, but sent me a tight smile and said, “Have a good night,” before darting a glance toward Juli and taking off.

I gazed after him, beginning to feel the same paranoia Julianna was; that people were judging us. Lifting my eyebrows her way, I said, “I guess that was our cue to leave.”

“Message received.” She grabbed her purse, suddenly eager to go.

I tossed down enough cash to cover the dinner and took her hand. As we walked out of the restaurant, I glanced around. A couple people watched us covertly, but most of them glanced past, thinking nothing of our relationship. It felt like I was conducting some kind of experiment; studying the social behaviors of the average Homo sapiens in their natural habitat. And I had to conclude, a majority of the population had evolved nicely, which was why the minority stood out so starkly, starkly enough to make Julianna feel uncomfortable.

I kissed her temple, and she pressed tighter against my side, holding my arm.

“I’m sorry,” I said as soon as we were on the sidewalk and starting back toward her building. “I didn’t understand how out of place this restaurant would make you feel.”

She shook her head. “Don’t worry about it.”

But I did anyway. “Did this bother you when you went on your date with Brandt?”

Briefly burying her face in my shoulder and inhaling me as if she needed my scent to soothe herself, she finally looked up. “Strangely, no.”

I frowned, tipping my face to the side as I studied her. “Why not? He’s just as white as I am.”

She shrugged, not meeting my gaze. “I don’t know.”

Unease pierced my stomach with a gnawing burn I didn’t like. “So…you just liked him so much you didn’t care what people thought?” Which meant, she didn’t like me that much.

But she looked up at me and gripped my arm, saying, “No. I think it was just the opposite actually. When he picked me up that night, it just…it felt more like two coworkers hanging out than an actual date. Friendly but not that personal. I knew we wouldn’t touch or hold hands or, you know, any of that, so I guess I just assumed other people would see coworkers together when they saw us. In fact, I never worried about the interracial aspect with him at all, and I think that was because somewhere in me I always knew it wouldn’t go there.”