Love Restored (Gallagher Brothers #1)(18)

She let out a little scream and then winced as an older woman glared at her. “Sorry,” she mumbled. “I don’t know what I want.”

“One measly salad outside a grocery store shouldn’t hurt.”

“Why are you doing this?” she asked.

“I don’t know yet.”

Well, at least she wasn’t alone in the unknown. “Fine. But I’m also getting a piece of chocolate cake. I need it.” She didn’t mention why, and that was for a reason. She didn’t mention Rowan. Ever. It was too dangerous.

“Can I have a bite?” he asked, his voice smooth and sexy.

A bite of what? She wanted to ask, but didn’t. She wasn’t ready for that level of flirting. “Get your own slice, Gallagher.”

“I can do that, Blake. I’m in the mood for something sweet it seems.”

She rolled her eyes at that line and picked out her salad before going to get herself a slice of cake. She was going to need all the sugar she could get tonight.




By the time they’d paid for their things in the express line and made their way to the tables outside, the sun was just setting. Since it was heading into summer, the days were longer, and she loved watching the colors play on the sky. She sighed as she opened the case on her salad and met Graham’s eyes.

“What are we doing?” she asked softly.

“I don’t know,” he said as he stabbed his salad with his fork. He took a bite and chewed, his face serious. After he’d swallowed, he took a drink from his water bottle and kept his gaze on hers. “Why do we seem to hate each other?”

“I don’t hate you,” she said stiffly. “I don’t know you, and you don’t know me. But you seem to hate me just fine.”

“I don’t know if that’s the case,” he said solemnly. “I think I’m an * for many reasons, and one of those reasons is that I treated you like shit before you’d even spoken a word. I’m sorry about that.”

Her eyes widened. “Really?”

“Really.” He sighed. “I don’t hate you, Blake. I don’t know you, like you said. And you don’t know me. But I’d like to get to know you.”

“Are you sure about that? Because you don’t sound sure.” Hell, she wasn’t sure about anything at the moment.

“I don’t know what I’m sure about, but I want to see if this…tension I feel around you is something I can work with. And I know that probably makes me even more of an *, but I can’t seem to help it.” He looked up at her. “Go out with me, Blake.”

“I am out with you.” She wouldn’t let that little clench in her belly lead her down the wrong path. It had done that before, and she’d almost lost everything because of it.

“Do it again.” He stood up and walked to her side. When he tugged her hand, she let him pull her up so she stood next to him. “Go out with me, Blake. Let’s see what this is.”

She had so many reasons to say no, so many reasons to walk away just then. So she answered with the only answer she had.

“Yes.”

“Good.” He lowered his mouth and kissed her again, this time without the chanting of a stadium full of onlookers. Her mouth parted, and his tongue swept against hers. Her body shook, her mind going in a thousand different directions before it settled on just one thing: Graham.

He tasted of his salad and Graham, and she knew she could become greedy for his taste. She wanted more, wanted the feel of him, wanted to wrap her arms around his body and kiss him harder.

So she didn’t and pulled away instead. “Okay, then,” she said softly.

He gripped her chin and forced her gaze to his. “I’m going to want to do that again, Blake. A whole hell of a lot.”

“And maybe I’ll let you.”

When he grinned, she knew it had been the right thing to say, only she didn’t know if it had been the right thing for her. She prayed she didn’t end up in pain again, didn’t break everything she had just for one man.

She’d done that before, after all, and she’d be damned if she would do it again.





5


Graham shot back the last of his coffee and already wished he had another one. After a long, sleepless night, his body and mind weren’t quite in the game when it came to his workday. Thoughts of Blake in his bed, in his arms, had kept him tossing and turning until almost daybreak.

He still couldn’t believe he’d not only seen her once more at the grocery store but had also gone on a weird ass date outside the damn place—and then kissed her near a parking lot. What had he been thinking? He’d asked her out, asked her to be his if only for the moment. The fact that she’d said yes and had sunk into that kiss surprised the hell out of him.

And yet, at the same time, it didn’t. They’d been circling around each other from the moment he’d first seen her at the house on the hill, and then later when she’d had his brother’s dick in her hand.

Despite the lack of coffee, he grinned at that thought. Yeah, he probably should be jealous as hell, but that was one story to tell if he were honest. Of course, now he couldn’t help but get a little jealous that she’d touched Murphy’s dick—however clinical—and not his own.