Lost and Found (Masters & Mercenaries: The Forgotten #2)(46)

And she was left alone with Owen. Not alone, exactly. They were in one of the apartment’s corners, but River, Ariel, and Ezra were already talking animatedly across the room. Jax and Robert walked in, bringing more drinks.

It was a party. A normal thing.

She could still feel her heart beating.

“Give me that,” Owen ordered.

She realized he was talking about the drink in her hand. The one she hadn’t touched. He took it and downed it in one long swallow before setting it on one of the coasters River had set on the tables in the room.

“Jax will pour you another one and you can watch him do it,” he said, his voice low but gentle. “We’ve been drinking from that bottle all night. He opened it in front of me. Now tell me what I did between Wednesday and tonight to put that look in your eyes and make you worry I might hurt you.”

He thought she thought he’d tried to drug her drink? She was about to protest, but she had considered it. She’d looked at him and wondered honestly why such a gorgeous man would want her the way he seemed to. She’d thought about the fact that two weird, frightening things had happened in the days after she’d met him.

But he’d been here for over an hour, according to River. He’d come early because his laptop wasn’t working and Jax had offered to fix it for him. While she’d been terrified, he’d been trying to get better Internet.

She was being utterly paranoid.

He’d seen right through her.

She stole his glass and took a long swallow, the whiskey burning through her in a pleasant way. “I had a rough day.”

“And walking in on your…it wasn’t even a one-night stand was it? Walking in to find out you’re having dinner with me couldn’t have helped.”

“That wasn’t exactly how I viewed it.”

“Robert said you were probably embarrassed,” he said with a frown. “I don’t understand what you have to be embarrassed about.”

She felt her cheeks heat and she forced herself to swallow her second mouthful of whiskey. “You told Robert?”

It was his turn to blush. “I did. I wasn’t supposed to? I guess I didn’t think about it. It was the best thing that happened to me in a long time. I wanted to talk about it.”

Those words did strange things to her heart. And he was right. A little of her tension seemed to seep away. Maybe it was the whiskey, but she kind of thought it was the man. Now that she was standing here alone with him, she remembered how comfortable she’d been with him. They’d been stuck in that dumb elevator for hours, and it had been easy to be with Owen. He hadn’t flinched at all over her dweeby talk about science fiction shows she loved or rolled his eyes when she started feeling tight in her own skin. He’d shared her dinner gratefully and offered her half of everything he’d had.

And when she’d needed it, he’d kissed and fucked away every ounce of stress in her body.

“I told some people too,” she admitted with a half-smile. She would probably tell Cathy. She’d definitely talk to Melissa about it. “Well, I told one person and this other guy overheard, but I didn’t really care because I would tell anyone who asked. Your friend is wrong. I wasn’t ashamed.” She glanced over at Robert and frowned. “Is he unhappy? He looks angry.”

The man had the fiercest frown on his face and he seemed to be staring at Ezra, Ariel, and River like he might murder one of them. Or all of them.

Jax had walked over with a plate of crostinis. “Who’s angry?”

Owen’s brows went up and he looked over at his friend with a grimace. “Robert. And not at all. That’s just his face, love. He’s one of those guys who can’t seem to smile much. I’m absolutely sure it’s not because he can’t stand to look at a couple who’s obviously in love because that would make him a crazy man.”

Jax sighed. “Definitely just his face. I’ll tell him to watch the resting bitch face. Dinner’s in ten.”

He turned and walked back to the other group.

She wouldn’t call it resting bitch face. Maybe resting serial-killer face. She watched as Jax walked up and whispered something to the man and his face flooded with red. He sighed and turned to his friend.

“So you’re not afraid of me then?” Owen’s words brought her attention back to him. “When you walked in, I thought you looked scared. I couldn’t stand the thought of you being afraid of me.”

She wasn’t. Well, not in a physical way. Emotionally she was worried he might wreck her in a way her ex never could, but she wasn’t going to let that happen. Maybe they could enjoy each other. Why not? As long as they were both open and honest about what they wanted, why couldn’t they have some fun?

Of course, she might be reading him wrong. He might be simply trying to be friendly.

“Not afraid. Not of you,” she admitted. “Something weird happened at work and it freaked me out a little.”

“What happened?” His gaze sharpened and she could buy that this was a man who’d been honed in battle.

“It was nothing. The lights went out when I was about to come home. I was alone and it scared me,” she replied simply.

“Was it the darkness that frightened you?”

She shivered as she remembered that feeling. “It was nothing. Primal fear of the unknown, I suspect. It’s weird. I don’t hate being alone. I like it most of the time. I’ve lived alone here for two years and I’m usually one of the last people out of the office at night, but today something felt different. Like I said, it was dumb instinct.”