Page 1 of Going Deep (Odyssey #3)

G inger watched Lola’s face. She’d seen her friend laughing, she’d seen her crying, she’d seen her happy and sad. But she didn’t think she’d ever seen her this pissed off.

Her whiskey-brown eyes were blazing, her cheeks flushed with temper as she stalked across the room where Ginger stood near the stairs with the bride. She shot Anna a look. “ Well , she’s not sad anymore.”

Anna shook her head, her brown eyes wide. “ No , that’s not a sad face.” She lowered her voice as Lola drew to a stop in front of them. “ What just happened?”

“That asshole,” Lola began through gritted teeth, “wants to talk.”

Ginger blinked. “ Um . Okay . And you don’t?”

“I’m just starting to feel like I might be able to move past this. Plus , this is really not the place. I’m not screwing up your wedding with our personal drama.”

Anna waved that away. “ I don’t care about that. I just want to make sure you’re okay.”

Lola drew a deep breath. “ I’m going to be fine.”

“Just don’t think you have to—” Anna broke off when her fiancé appeared beside her.

“Babe, there are a couple of people I want you to meet.” Grant slipped his arm around her waist and smiled at Ginger and Lola , pale blue eyes twinkling. “ Ladies , if you’ll excuse us.”

“Oh, but—” Anna’s protest faded as he drew her away, leading her to a cluster of people on the other side of the room.

“I don’t want anything to fuck this up for her,” Lola said.

“I don’t think anything can,” Ginger replied. “ She’s so happy she’s practically got cartoon birds and woodland creatures flitting around her feet.”

“I just want to make sure my bullshit with Simon doesn’t interfere with tomorrow. Why the hell would he pick now to do this?”

Ginger hesitated, then blurted out what she was thinking. “ Maybe you should. Talk to him, I mean.”

Lola’s mouth dropped open in shock. “ What ?”

“It’s been nearly a week since you broke up,” Ginger pointed out. “ Maybe he’s had time to think?”

“I don’t care if he’s had time to write a three-act play. It’s not the time .”

Ginger opened her mouth to reply, then shut it with a snap when Michael O'Reilly stepped in front of her.

She couldn’t help but give a little sigh. He was, without a doubt, the most strikingly handsome man she’d ever seen in her life. Not that her life thus far had been chock-full of hot guys, but she’d seen her fair share since moving to Chicago at the beginning of the summer.

He put them all to shame.

He was tall and fit, with the kind of body that spoke of power and strength even in the tailored dress shirt and slacks, both in unrelieved black.

His hair was black too, or almost, thick with a hint of curl that should’ve made him look boyish, but there was nothing boyish about this man.

His green eyes gleamed like emeralds against his olive skin, and his face, with its squared-off jaw—clean shaven today—and sharp-edged cheekbones, was a study in geometry—all planes and angles.

But his mouth was a different story—full, soft, sensual.

The kind of mouth that gave a woman ideas and was, at the moment, curved in a charming smile.

She had dreams about that mouth, and remembering exactly what those dreams had entailed, she blushed. Then she blushed harder when his gaze settled on her.

“Ms. Dowling ,” he said, his smile broadening in a way that made her feel like he knew exactly what she was thinking, and held out a glass of champagne. She took it automatically. “ Would you give me a hand with something?”

“Oh. I —” She darted a glance at Lola , but before she could do more than blink he had her elbow in one firm hand and was guiding her away.

She frowned at him and tried to lean away, only to freeze when he leaned down.

“Simon needs to talk to her,” he murmured softly. “ A moment alone to grovel.”

“Oh.” She shot a glance over her shoulder at Lola , saw Simon approaching her from behind. He met her eyes and gave her the faintest of nods.

Okay, she thought and, relaxing her arm in Michael’s hold, let him pull her from the room. “ I hope he’s good at it. She’s going to be pissed.”

“Undoubtedly,” Michael agreed, amusement sparkling in his eyes. He drew to a halt just outside the dining room. “ You’ve become very close with Anna and Lola .”

She smiled, thinking of the two women. She’d been worried that moving to Chicago for the summer meant she’d be lonely. She’d never been so happy to be wrong. “ They’re good friends.”

He was watching her face, those sharp green eyes missing nothing. “ You haven’t been in the city long.”

She heard the unspoken question. “ Sometimes , you just click.”

“Yes,” he agreed. “ Sometimes you do.”

Her belly gave a little clutch at the light in his eyes—not unpleasant, but not altogether comfortable, either.

“I feel I owe you an apology.”

She blinked, nonplussed. “ What ? Why ?”

“For the way my staff treated you when you visited the club.” He lifted his glass to his lips, watching her over the rim.

“Oh.” She winced, remembering the hell she’d given his security when she’d come storming in a few weeks back. She’d been worried about Lola , and frantic to find Simon . To say she’d been rude would be an understatement. “ I’m the one who ought to apologize. I was upset, and not very polite.”

“You did apologize,” he reminded her. “ After I instructed my man at the door to call for Simon .”

“Did I ?” She shook her head. “ I don’t remember. It’s all kind of a blur.”

“It was a stressful night.”

“All around,” she agreed and smiled. The wine and the innocuous conversation were relaxing her. “ No apology necessary.”

“Nonetheless, I hope you’ll visit us again sometime. Give us a chance to make a better impression.”

“Oh.” She cleared her throat. “ Well .”

“That makes you uncomfortable,” he observed, and she got the distinct impression he was trying not to smile.

He seemed to require an answer, so she gave him the only one she had. “ Yes .”

“Why is that?”

Christ on a cupcake, was he kidding? “ Because it’s… I’m not used to that kind of thing.”

“You’ve never been to a BDSM club before?”

She suppressed the hysterical urge to laugh as she pictured her tiny town in Ohio . Two taverns, a roadhouse, and bingo night at the local Methodist church made up the sum total of the available nightlife. “ No .”

A curious light came into his eyes. “ That’s a funny question?”

She shook her head and took another sip of liquid courage. “ No , but thinking of my hometown having a BDSM club was.”

“Ah.” Curiosity eased into amusement. “ You’re from Ohio , correct?”

She nodded, faintly surprised that he would know. She assumed either Lola or Anna had mentioned it, but she couldn’t imagine how it had come up. “ Comfort , Ohio . A very, very small town.”

“And what do you do there?”

“I’m a high school English teacher.”

“Do you like teaching?"

She started to give her standard polite answer, but she found herself strangely unwilling to lie. “ Not really.”

“Then why do you do it?”

An easy question for a man whose clothes probably cost more than her rent. “ Because I like eating and paying my bills.”

“Fair enough,” he allowed, and though his eyes had darkened at her snapping response, inclined his head in apology.

Shit. “ I’m sorry. That was uncalled for.”

His gaze remained steady, his mouth unsmiling. “ Perhaps I touched a nerve?”

“Perhaps,” she admitted and, eager to change the subject, gestured with her wine. “ What about you? Do you have a job besides the, um, the club?”

For a moment she wasn’t sure he would answer. Then he shrugged, and his lips curled in a slow smile. “ It keeps me fairly busy, but I do have some other interests.”

“Oh?” she managed. God , that smile was lethal .

“Mmm.” His smile deepened. She looked away in self-defense—it was that or start drooling—and saw Anna waving at her from across the room.

“Oh. Um . Excuse me, but I think Anna needs me.”

Michael glanced over his shoulder. “ Well , I guess I’ll see you later, then.”

“Right. Later .” Relieved , and maybe a little disappointed, Ginger hurried over to Anna . “ What’s going on?”

“That’s what I was going to ask,” Anna whispered, her eyes darting to Michael’s retreating figure. “ Since when are you so chummy with Michael ?”

“He was distracting me so Simon could talk to Lola .”

Anna’s eyes flashed with annoyance. “ Grant did the same thing. He said Simon took her up to the attic. Come on.”

Ginger started up the stairs after her friend. “ We’re going up there?”

“We damn well are. I want to make sure he’s not keeping her there against her will,” Anna replied, then winced. “ And also that she’s not killing him.”

Ginger remembered the fury on Lola’s face. “ Valid .”

Anna glanced at Ginger as they topped the stairs. “ What were you and Michael talking about?”

“Just stuff,” Ginger said breathlessly and told herself it was because they’d just run up the stairs and not because of that slow, sexy smile. “ Small talk, chit-chat.”

“Really?” Anna’s lips pursed, a teasing light in her pretty eyes. “ Because it looked pretty flirty from where I was standing.”

“I think flirty is his default,” Ginger evaded.

“Well, that’s certainly true,” Anna muttered and hurried to the door at the end of the hall. “ Okay , let’s make sure Simon’s not being eviscerated.”

Happy that the focus was no longer on her, Ginger followed. And put her decidedly flirty thoughts of the man with the green eyes and sexy smile out of her mind.