The Billion Dollar Bachelor(37)
She’d heard a lot about the club—one of the only private establishments her father hadn’t been able to gain membership to no matter how hard he tried—and she had to admit it was pretty amazing, with a quiet, luxurious, and very, very expensive vibe.
The maître d’ fussed around with seating them but Jax ushered him away, doing it for her instead, leaning down to lay the snowy white napkin over her knees. She could smell his aftershave, the warm, familiar scent of musk and spices, which made her heart contract in her chest. She swallowed as he spread the napkin, but his fingers didn’t touch her, not even a fingertip brushing the thigh revealed by the nearly hip-high slit in her dress.
He straightened, then slid into the seat around the other side of the table, picking up the menu and frowning over it, his expression once more as transparent as a granite slab.
Ah, screw it. She hadn’t done anything to deserve his curtness on the phone or this cold, silent treatment, and she was so done with not saying anything. “Jax.”
“What?”
“Did I contract some hideous disease or something?”
He didn’t look up. “No. Why would you think that?”
“Because you haven’t looked at me once in the past half an hour.”
Jax’s blue gaze finally came to hers. “I’m sorry. Work stuff.”
“Bullshit. You’ve been like this for days.”
He looked down at the menu again. “It’s nothing.”
At that point the waiter approached for drinks orders.
“A bottle of Kristal, please,” Jax said curtly.
“He can have the Kristal,” Pandora said to the waiter. “I’ll have a martini. A dirty one.” Once the man had gone, she said, “It’s not nothing. Talk to me.”
His jaw tightened. “This isn’t a real date, don’t forget.”
Anger coiled down low in her gut. Jesus, now she felt like a kid being told off by a stern parent. “Yeah, the only problem with that is that I’m a real woman, not a doll you can play with when it suits you and ignore when it doesn’t.”
“I’ve never treated you like that.”
“So, why won’t you tell me what the problem is? You think I’m not hurt when you won’t even look at me?” Pandora’s fingers curled tightly in her napkin. She shouldn’t make a big deal out of this. She shouldn’t. And yet she couldn’t stop the words from tumbling out. “You could at least have said something about my dress.” It sounded so ridiculous now she’d said it, but shit, she wasn’t taking it back. She wasn’t.
His gaze flickered. “It’s beautiful.”
“You’re not even looking at it.”
“I don’t need to.” He reached for the menu again. “I know you have great taste. And speaking of which, we should order food.”
Damn him. Perhaps she should close the distance between them in a different way. Move over there next to him and put her hand on his cock, see just how uninterested he really was. Then again, this was a restaurant and they were in public.
“Don’t be an asshole and don’t ignore me like I’m not even here.” She smoothed out her napkin on her knees. “This is about yesterday, isn’t it?”
He didn’t say anything for a long moment, then he lifted his gaze from the menu. “In a way. I’ve decided it’s not happening between us again, Pandora. I’m not going to let it.”
Well, that sure as hell didn’t make any sense “What you do mean it’s not happening between us?”
“Sleeping together for a start.”
Sharp hurt slid through her. “Why? You want me. I know you do.”
Behind his blue eyes, she caught glimpses of the tiger prowling and it made her mouth go dry. “I do want you. All the time. And that’s the problem. You’re making me feel like I’m losing control and like I told you yesterday, that can’t happen.”
At that point the waiter came with their drinks. She sat there, stunned and silent, while the guy fussed around with the ice bucket and went into a long spiel about the menu.
So he did want her. All the time. Beneath the shock satisfaction gripped her.
She ordered something—she didn’t really pay attention to what—and then finally, when they were alone again, she said, “You don’t have to be in control all the freaking time, Jax.”
He put his hands flat on the table, his wineglass sitting between them. “Yes. I do. Because when I’m not in control, I fuck up. I make bad decisions.”
“What? Because of what happened with your mom and little brother?”