Uncontrollable Temptations (Tempted #3)(41)

He glanced down at his ticket as they called a number. Moments later he was standing before me balancing a tray full of cheesy goodness. He set the food on the table, placing an order of cheese fries and a roast beef sandwich loaded with onions and cheese in front of me. It didn’t take us long to dig in.

I was three bites in and Jack was swallowing the last bite of his first sandwich, taking a long sip of his lemonade before he spoke.

“What do you think?” He said, motioning to the sandwich.

“It’s delicious,” I responded, licking the cheese off my thumb. “Messy, but delicious.”

“Don’t be afraid to get a little messy, Reina,” he suggested. “Messy can be good.”

I looked at him for a moment, watching as he loaded his fork with fries and shoved them into his mouth.

“You look like you’re in Heaven right now,” I joked. “Bet I could get you to do anything right now.”

“I don’t know about anything…” he said, taking a sip of his drink. Leaning back against the booth and stretching his arms across the back, he asked, “What is it you’re looking for, Reina?”

“Let’s play a game, we each tell one another two truths and one lie. If the other can guess which one is the lie they win,” I suggested, taking a bite of my sandwich.

“And what does the winner get?” He questioned, narrowing his eyes at me.

“A scar,” I murmured.

“And if we both guess correctly?”

“Then it’s going to be a long night,” I answered simply.

“It’s going to be a long night anyway,” he said huskily, his eyes dropping to my breasts. “Christ, Reina you look good enough to eat,” he growled, before leaning forward. “All right, let’s get this over with.”

“Really?” I asked. “Okay, okay, you first,” I demanded, pushing aside the food and giving him my undivided attention.

He ran his fingers through his hair and the lines that marked the corners of his eyes became more profound as he squinted. Then he went perfectly still as he decided which truth he’d share.

“I served ten months in Ryker’s three years ago,” he began, holding his index finger in the air, signaling that was the first admission. “I used to have a drug problem,” he added, lifting his middle finger up, indicating two. He cleared his throat, cocked his head to the side slightly as his eyes bore into mine. “Had a brother once.” He brought his thumb up to join the other two fingers. “There’s your three, Sunshine.”

I frowned. “You suck at this Jack, two is definitely the lie,” I said, taking a slurping sip of the lemonade.

“You sure about that?” He asked, his eyes darkening as they looked at me.

I pulled the straw from my lips and placed the plastic cup back on the table and leaned forward, meeting his wary eyes.

“I’m sure as the day is long that you’ve been arrested more than once, and with that being said odds are you’ve been to jail,” I remarked.

“How perceptive of you,” he grunted.

“And you’ve got a band of brothers, albeit some of them are quite despicable, that Wolf guy? I’m not a fan,” I said, curling my lip.

Jack’s features relaxed and he leaned forward, tucking a strand of hair behind my ear as his gaze softened.

“Am I right?”

“Tell me yours first,” he insisted, reaching down taking my fork and popping a mouthful of French fries into his mouth.

“Fine, I’m afraid of the dark,” I paused when he smirked. “What?”

“You’re not afraid of the dark,” he stated, while stabbing more French fries with my fork and trying to suppress his laughter.

“And how would you know?”

He lifted his eyes to mine.

“You’re eating cheese fries with the king of fucking darkness,” he said, with a shake of his head before giving into the laugh he was trying to hold back.

“You don’t seem so dark right now,” I pointed out.

He shrugged his shoulders, reached out and trailed his fingertip along the bridge of my nose.

“Wonder why that is,” he said softly, then dropped his hand and picked up his drink. “So, you lost,” he said, as he sipped his drink.

“What? How? I didn’t even give you the two truths,” I said, quickly realizing what he had just done. Feeling stupid I slapped the palm of my hand to my forehead. “Shit!”

He laughed, distracting me from my anger. His laughter touching something deep inside of me causing goosebumps to spread over my arms. He looked so handsome when he laughed, less tortured, even younger. I wanted to make him laugh more.

His laughter died slowly as he started to clean the table, throwing out the leftovers. After emptying our tray at the trash can he walked back toward the table and held his hand out to me.

“C’mon, time to go,” he announced, pulling me to my feet.

“Where are we going now?”

“You’re coming home with me and I’m going to give you what you earned and hope like hell that maybe I earned another one of your scars,” he said, roughly against my ear as he splayed his palm against my lower back and ushered me out of the restaurant.

We stepped outside of Roll N’ Roaster, Jack holding the door for me, and I reached down for his hand, lacing my fingers with his.