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I liked the fact that he asked rather than just telling me what to do. “Just tell me the address, and I’ll meet you there.”
Less than half an hour later, I walked into the Taste of Texas with Davin. In Denver or New York or L.A., a steakhouse wouldn’t have been the first choice for a…whatever this was. But we were in Texas, and steak was a thing down here.
Actually, I appreciated the fact that we were at a nice but not pretentious restaurant. He could’ve played up how much money and influence he had, but he just seemed to want a good steak. And the people here didn’t give me any funny looks, so that was a point in their favor, though it might’ve been because of who I was with, but I’d take it.
We made small talk where he asked about places I’d lived, and I asked what the CFO of a real estate company actually did. Then, after we’d ordered, I brought us back around to the reason I’d come to find him in the first place.
“By the way, I told the cops that if those thugs agreed not to sue you, I wouldn’t press charges against them.”
He stared at me for a minute before asking, “Why would you do that?”
I tried not to be offended by the hint of suspicion in the question. He didn’t know me, and a guy with his money probably dealt with a lot of assholes.
“Because you helped me,” I explained. “If people think they’re going to be sued for helping someone, fewer people would do what you did.”
“I appreciate that.” He looked like he couldn’t quite wrap his head around my reasoning. “But you deserve to have them answer for what they did.”
“It could’ve been worse,” I said with a shrug. “Besides, they probably wouldn’t get in much trouble anyway. Aside from some bruises on my arm, it’s not like either of them managed to hurt me.”
“They bruised you?” His voice dropped to something dark and dangerous.
And so fucking hot.
“It’s okay.” I smiled at him and turned my arm so he could see it. “See, not that bad.”
He reached out like he wanted to touch me, but then pulled his hand back, a faint flush creeping under his tan. “I would’ve hit him harder if I’d known he’d done that.”
Oh, yeah. This protective thing he had going on wasdefinitelyhot.