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Even without the heels, she would’ve been half a head taller than him, but wearing those stilettos?

He stared up at her, nose wrinkling. That’s what got me out of my own car and marching towards the door.

Dickhead seemed to accept that even if Harper was taller than him, she was still a smokeshow, so he strolled in through the front door with her on his arm.

I followed at a safe distance behind them.

Just in time to see the server greet them at the door, then lead them towards a table at the back.

“Good evening, sir.” The man’s voice broke through my reverie. “Did you have a reservation?”

“Nope.” I fished out my wallet and then pulled out a fifty dollar bill. “But if you can get me a table beside the lady that just walked in here, I’d appreciate it.”

Greed and professionalism fought a battle inside the man, so I helped even the odds, offering him another fifty.

“Right this way, sir.”

It was the wolf that walked across the restaurant floor, not the man.

He had our mate’s scent in our nose, her floral perfume doing little to mask it.

That little flippy skirt of her dress, it was like a rag waved to enrage a bull, steam pouring from my nose as Dickhead sat down without bothering to pull out Harper’s chair.

I wanted to move forward and do it for her.

I wanted her to turn around and see me, realising I’d meant every damn word I said last night.

That I, we, were the right guys for her, not this idiot.

Instead, I nodded to the server, then sat down at the seat offered to me and made a show of consulting the menu.

“Something to drink first, sir?” the server asked me.

“A beer if you’ve got it.” He sucked in a breath, ready to ask me which kind. “Whatever you’ve got that’s cold.”

“Very good, sir.”

He left, and that allowed me an opportunity to eavesdrop.

“Your mum didn’t mention that you were…” Dickhead waved his hand vaguely in her direction.

“A brunette?” Harper asked drily as she consulted the menu. “A C cup?” Pretty sure she was a D, but the jury was out until I had a chance to confirm that after a hand’s on inspection. “A Capricorn?”

“What?” Men are idiots, something I’d been forced to accept, but this guy…

? He had one of the most beautiful women in the place sitting opposite him, but he was too busy getting in his feels about the height difference.

He could be a short king or a short whiny little bitch, and it looked like he chose the latter.

“No, tall. What’d you wear high heels for? ”

“Because you told me to wear something sexy.” She leaned forward, and I barely suppressed a growl as he gazed at the cleavage propped up on the table, ready to be devoured. “Stilettos are sexy.”

“Right…” His eyes looked like they were going to pop out of his head, quickly followed by a sloppy smile. “So, your mum tells me you own a cafe?”

Own? Harper might’ve owned the place we visited yesterday, but I didn’t think so. By the sound of her sigh, I was right.

“I don’t…” She was going to tell him the truth, open up and be vulnerable, but the way her walls locked down tightly around her was familiar. “Sure, I own a cafe.”

“Not as nice as this place though, right?” He looked around himself, as pleased as if he owned the joint. “And look at this menu. Prime rib, steak, lobster…”

Harper did the same thing I did, looking him up and down, though she looked a little embarrassed at the fact she was scoping him out. I wasn’t. Unless the guy had some seriously lucrative investments, he couldn’t afford that kind of shit.

We were about to find out exactly what he was investing in.

“So have you heard of crypto investment?” he said.

“As in the whole digital currency thing people use on the dark web?” she said, pulling out her phone and unlocking it.

“Dark web?” He sprayed his words rather than said them. “This is the start of a new era of investment, away from the prying eyes of an authoritarian government.”

Where the fucking hell had she found this guy?

He was a cooker as well? That was a term we used for people that seemed intent on living outside the confines of government, all the while using government infrastructure like roads and hospitals.

There had been some spectacularly stupid videos recorded of people trying to pull sovereign citizen shit on the internet.

“People can actually make full use of their own money, reaping all the benefits in an unregulated…”

“Your drink, sir.” A beer was placed before me in a fancy glass. I nodded to the waiter, forced to smile politely, when he grabbed his order book. “Are you ready to order?”

I glanced at the menu, looking at the biggest steak they had and then ordered that.

“Along with whatever the lady is having,” I said, shooting him a meaningful look. He glanced at Harper, then nodded, taking off to deliver my order to the kitchen.

And that’s when she turned around.

Dickhead was still blathering something about crypto, no doubt not really requiring input or, y’know, common sense in the conversation.

He was marinating in some vision of himself where he was a crypto-billionaire or something.

Then Harper turned around. Her eyes widened as she caught sight of me and my eyebrow rose slightly.

I raised my glass in salute and then took a sip.