“
Jeff’s expression changed from confused to mad to upset as he looked from one of them to the other. When he appeared to have made up his mind, he tossed down his napkin and rose. “Well.” It was all he got out. Delilah got her only satisfaction from the fact that the goon was in a booth, and he didn’t make it all the way to standing before he hit his thighs against the table and had to scoot out, ungracefully, to the side. “Goodnight.”
He raised his weak chin high and stamped out of the bar like a child.
Delilah let loose in a low growl, and it cost her every effort to keep her response to mere words. If she’d had her way, her focus was strong enough to create a small wind around her and make her eyes burn red. But her witchcraft had cost her enough already where Brandon was concerned. Even though she was mad enough to burn all bridges and say to hell with it, she kept it in check. “What are you doing?”
He laughed. “What, you don’t remember Tiger and Muffin?”
She drew a deep breath and held her emotions on tight rein.
The waitress chose that moment to saunter her bare belly up to their booth and ask if they wanted anything else. Delilah merely ground out the word ‘no.’
The waitress didn’t seem to notice, simply smiled and said ‘thank you,’ instantaneously producing a check and sliding it to the middle of the table, before she sauntered away.
Great, Delilah thought, the obnoxious Jeff had downed five very over-priced snobby beers and she was stuck with the bill. She didn’t think this could get any worse.
/> But Brandon had her pinned into the booth, the fake sad look gone from his face. The humor now missing as well. Which was just fine, since she didn’t have any of her own.
She asked him again. “What are you doing here in my booth?”
“Running your date off. Sparing him memory loss and who knows what.” He reached out and snaked her mojito away, before taking a healthy gulp.
“That’s mine!”
His smile resembled a shark’s. “After everything else we’ve done, sharing a glass isn’t going to kill you.” He took another drink, draining half of what remained and a lot of her sanity. “I had to save the dweeb from you.”
“He didn’t need saving.” She tried again to push past him, but he didn’t budge.
“So you weren’t going to take him home and screw his brains out and make him forget everything?”
She was so shocked by his blunt but accurate assessment of their first night together that she didn’t think, just blurted out, “No!”
That startled Brandon, and he asked, “why not?” out of genuine curiosity, before she could regroup.
“I didn’t like him.” Crap, that was a whole other can of worms. She sat back, at last resigned to this going from bad to worse.
It was Brandon’s turn to be startled.
”
”