Slipperless Series (Book #1)(3)

Just once.

Of course I could say all of those things to him. But what would be the point? It’s not as if I would ever see him again, or if I did, he would remember my name, or hell, even talking to me.

So instead, I did the sensible thing.

I lied.

“Well, when I was a child, I won a lot of beauty pageants,” I began. “The attention I received in those early years scarred me for life. So nowadays, I much prefer to keep to myself. I’ll leave the attention-getting to the other girls.”

I raised my arms, clutching my sweater-clad fingers for emphasis. For an instant, Gabe tented his eyebrows at me in confusion before a smile came to his face.

“Good one, Fiona,” he said, with a wink and a bit of a chuckle. “That was clever. Well, in any case, congratulations on beauty contest victories and the interview.”

“Thank you.”

I nodded and prepared to speak, but before I could, Gabe gestured across the room to a group of men as they entered the bar.

“My buddies are here,” he said, just before he polished off the last of his beer.

With that, he stood from his barstool and after reaching in his pocket, he tossed some money on the bar for his drink. He walked by me and pressed his palm into the small of my back. He leaned in towards me, stopping only six inches or so short of my ear. He lingered there for a moment and his scent caught my attention—and my breath.

“Good luck at your interview, Fiona. Congratulations again.”



GABE

As I walked away from her, I dragged my fingertips across Fiona’s lower back for a fraction of a second. My gesture didn’t go unnoticed. I felt her twitch into an upright position but true to the shy behavior she'd shown me so far, she didn’t turn to look at me.

Fiona wasn’t ordinarily the type of woman I found myself attracted to, of course. I was all but sure the guys wouldn’t let my interaction with her go unnoticed. I wouldn’t have, if the situation was reversed.

But in this case, I didn’t care.

She had an angelic face, with absolutely perfect lips, the most spectacular ones I’d ever seen on a woman. And believe me, I’d seen my share. Beyond that, she had flawless, creamy skin, bright powder blue eyes and silky blond hair.

I’d never seen anything like her, in spite of her covered up appearance. If I was a betting man, I’d say maybe she’d lost some weight and hadn’t quite adjusted to her new look. And anyway, she was young. I guessed early twenties at the most, so that would explain her awkwardness to a degree.

But all that was okay by me. I liked her feisty attitude. It was so much different than the other women in my life. Yet, that’s the advantage of meeting someone like her in a place like this, anonymity. No pretense. I get to just be myself and not the person everyone imagines me to be.

So yeah, it was pretty obvious she didn’t get hit on much. But I didn’t see things staying that way for long. Once you got past her gruffness, it was pretty obvious there was someone worth getting to know beneath all that clothing and standoffishness.

I made my way across the restaurant, dodging waiters and waitresses as I went.

“What’s up?” I nodded as I approached my friends.

“Man, I should be asking you the same question,” my friend Brad replied, as I stepped towards him.

“What are you talking about?”

He nodded, lifting his chin in Fiona’s direction. “Not really your type.”

“Mmm, yeah,” I began as I glanced towards her. Without turning back to face Brad, I continued, “You’re right, she doesn’t look anything like your mom does she?”

“Fuck off, Gabe.”

I chuckled when Brad gave me a small shove to go along with his insult. As I did, the rest of the fellas laughed right along. A few seconds later, the hostess approached and led us towards our table. Walking across the room, I glanced at Fiona and caught her doing the same at me. Her eyes widened as my gaze locked on hers and almost as soon, she turned her attention back towards that ridiculous planner.

I bet she slept with the damn thing.

We’d been seated for about ten minutes or so when I noticed Fiona headed in my direction, surrounded by what I guessed were her friends. I glanced up over the top of my menu and got my first good look at her body. She was a bit bigger than her friends, who were more like the type of woman I typically preferred.

Even so, I was familiar with women like Fiona.

Ten times out of ten, she was usually the woman I had to get close to so I’d have a chance to seduce her attractive friends without having to worry about her cockblocking me at two o’clock in the morning. In my experience, it was always worth the time investment to get women like Fiona on your side.