Page 17 of The Disputed Legacy

Oh, fuck.The voice. His eyes. That cocky smile.

I let out a brief sigh, not catching it, and he grinned in triumph.

“I’ll take whatever you think I’d like,” he said as I schooled myself from fawning over him any further. That sigh was a mistake. Letting him know that he was getting to me was silly.

Not happening, buddy.Denying myself the mere notion of seeing where this immediate attraction could go, I nodded once and stuck with business. “Chicken BLT it is, then.”

I turned to put his order on the ticket wheel.

As soon as I gave him my back, I closed my eyes tight and internally cringed at how unfair it was that I’d never be able to act on any form of desire toward a man. Even one as wickedly sexy and smug as him.

8

SAUL

Afew days later, before the cooks could start bringing out the dishes for dinner, I handed Isabella back to Sloane.

“There you go, back to your mama,” I told the baby.

Sloane smiled as she took her, but Maxim remained stone-faced next to her and arched one brow. “You’re taking off?”

I nodded and stood. “Yeah.”

“Going back home?” he asked.

“We’re just about to eat,” Grandmother said as she entered the dining room where I’d been talking with Sloane and Maxim.

“I know.” I shrugged, not swayed to stay. Usually, I would be here and enjoy the extended time with my family before I’d start to feel left out or excluded, with just myself to offer them and not a wife or a child. I’d never felt this singled out before, and it wasn’t anything they were doing to make me feel that way. It was simply how it was with them all settling when I wasn’t.

“Hmm.” Maxim nodded once, as if confirming his thought.

“What?” I asked. “It’s been a long day. It’ll be nice to go home. Especially with the plans for tomorrow.” Hugo and I were counting on another stakeout at the Romanos’ casino, and thatwould be a tediously long night. One I wasn’t looking forward to. It’d be boring, but it would also put a dent in my new routine.

The new routine of going to Tiny’s diner as often as I could when “my” waitress would be there.

“You’re going home?” Maxim asked, repeating himself.

I stared him down.

“Not anywhere else?” he asked.

Sloane laughed once. “Why are you acting like he’s got a curfew or something?”

“Home,” I told him, daring him to question me further.

“To meet someone?” he asked.

Sloane laughed again, incredulously. “Maxim! What’s it to you?”

“And here I thought you were over that phase of…” Grandmother sat and rolled her hand, as if searching for the word.

“Whoring himself out to the entire city?” Maxim finished for her wryly.

She shot him a stern look. Sloane swatted his arm, too.

“I’m just going home,” I said, playing along with his suspicion. “Alone.” I didn’t need to tell him any details. It wasn’t any of his business. Admitting that I could be hooking up with someone wasn’t a dark secret I’d keep, anyway. I wasn’t ashamed of telling him what I was up to, despite his not needing to know everything about my life. But there wasn’t anything to hide or share.

I was merely going to stop at a seedy dump of a diner just so I could have another chance to see Red, as I’d nicknamed her when she wouldn’t tell me her name.