Game (Gentry Boys, #3)(34)

CHAPTER ELEVEN


Stephanie



Shoes were a problem. I had thrown on a simple black dress I hadn’t looked at since shoving it in the back of my closet, but I didn’t have any nice shoes. It hadn’t mattered at Saylor’s wedding because Truly’s long gown masked the fact that I was wearing flip-flops. This dress was casual enough to wear flip-flops but the strap on the left one had broken the other day and I didn’t have any others. Truly’s shoe size was smaller so I couldn’t go plundering her closet.

I’d promised Chase five minutes and five minutes were almost up. My heart was pounding at the idea of him sitting out there in the living room, waiting for me. When I’d heard the knock on the door a little while ago I stopped breathing for a minute. I wanted it to be him.

After settling for a fairly clean pair of grey Converse sneakers, I rooted around in my desk drawer to find the few makeup items I still owned. I squinted into a small compact and fluffed my hair out, glad that it was nearly dry from my earlier shower. After carefully applying a little bit of eyeliner and a touch of lipstick I picked up the purse Truly had lent me for the wedding. There was no full-length mirror in the apartment but I figured aside from my odd footwear I probably looked all right.

The look Chase gave me when I returned to the living room confirmed it. He was right where I’d left him. “Five minutes thirty seven seconds,” he said. He smiled but there was a fire in his blue eyes that let me know he was taking this occasion completely seriously.

I swallowed and nervously smoothed my dress down even though it didn’t need to be smoothed. Chase stood up and walked over. I thought he would kiss me or touch me, maybe make some lascivious sex joke, but he did none of those things. He held out his arm and raised an eyebrow.

“Shall we, pretty girl?”

Chase was determined to take me out for a nice dinner. I told him fast food would be fine because I didn’t want him to blow a bunch of cash he didn’t have.

“No,” he said, evidently insulted. “This isn’t a burgers and fries kind of an outing. This is a steak and caviar event.”

“Have you ever had caviar?”

Chase drove with one hand. He let the other hand hang out of the window of his truck. “Nope. Have you?”

“Yes. It was disgusting.”

“It’s fish eggs. It’s supposed to be disgusting. But we’re supposed to lap it up anyway and marvel over our own self importance because we have the ability to pay a hundred dollars an ounce for something that tastes like ass.”

“Rich people like ass.”

He glanced at me wryly. “Are you speaking from experience?”

“I’ve never tasted ass. But yes, there was a lot of money in the air when I was growing up, not that it matters now.”

“I see,” he said and then changed the subject. “How about Medley’s? And no whining about the price. I’m paying and this is a special night.”

“Is it?” I asked quietly.

Chase looked straight ahead and still didn’t make a move to touch me.

“Yes,” he said stubbornly.

Medley’s was quiet and dimly lit. Chase requested a table in the back. I let out a low whistle when I saw the meal prices.

Chase heard me. “Shut up,” he ordered, looking over the menu.

“Fuck you,” I grinned.

He grinned back and there was a naughty edge to his words. “Told you I wouldn’t try that again, at least not today.” He glanced up when the clean-cut waiter approached. “Surf and Turf for two, please.”

“Chase,” I sighed after the waiter scurried away.

“What? Are you going to get all bent out of shape because I ordered for you? Please use a lot of foul language if you’re going to scold me.”

“How did you know?” I asked quietly.

Chase was confused. “That you like steak and lobster? Doesn’t everyone? Besides it’s the priciest thing listed so of course that must mean it’s the best.” He winked at me.

I squirmed and spread my napkin on my lap. “It’s a slightly chauvinistic move but it doesn’t bother me. I was asking about something else though. Is that all right?”

He was paying close attention now. Something you had to notice about Chase is that when he decided to listen he really listened. He’d put away his bad boy smirk and he laced his fingers through mine. “You can ask me anything, Stephanie.”

I paused when the waiter brought our water glasses. There were no other diners in close proximity but it was still galling to ask Chase Gentry, a walking prototype of sexuality, about a comment he’d made this afternoon.

I cleared my throat and got on with it because I needed to hear the truth. “You said earlier that after we were together in Vegas you could tell that I hadn’t been around much. So how’d you know? I mean, was it just that terribly obvious?”

Was I a rotten screw?

Chase looked at me thoughtfully. The he got up from his chair and came around to my side of the table, slipping his arm around my shoulders as he leaned in close to whisper in my ear. “Steph, it was so f*cking good that I can’t think about anything else.”

He quickly returned to his side of the table and took a drink of his water while I sat there and tried not to shake on the outside like I was shaking on the inside. What the hell was I letting this guy do to me?