He smiled at me again as I pushed the hem of my black dress back down. It had shimmied up while I was sitting in the taxi. “You look stunning.”
I flushed. When he looked at me like that I felt stunning. I was wearing a plain black sleeveless dress that should have been somewhat modest considering its high neckline and mid-thigh hemline. However, the dress hugged every inch of my body leaving little to the imagination. It was a sophisticated dress with a splash of “hot”.
I’d bought it earlier that day specifically for Christian.
We’d met a week ago in the student union. Christian was pre-law, two years older than me and from an obviously wealthy and well-to-do family. They had an actual “estate” in the highlands. That had nothing to do with what attracted me to him of course. I was attracted to him and how he’d acted upon our first meeting— with a fresh and open honesty that really appealed to me. It made me feel like I could be just as open with him. It made me feel like I could be myself.
Christian had told me that although his family had the estate, they also had a home in Corstorphine, a busy suburb out in the west of the city. His parents had bought it when his sister had moved to Edinburgh and started popping out children. She was pregnant with her third and the entire family was living in Edinburgh to be closer to her. I thought that spoke volumes about them and was more than a little excited to meet them already.
To my delight, Christian had booked us a table at La Cour for our first date. I didn’t even get a chance to tell him it was Braden’s restaurant. He inherited it from our father. As we entered I opened my mouth to tell him but Christian started speaking about the menu and what he thought I should order. I was going to tell him I knew what I wanted to order, since I’d eaten at La Cour more times than I could count, when I heard Adam call my name.
Christian and I drew to a halt as the maitre’d led us to our table, and I turned my head to see Adam sitting in the center of the restaurant across a small table from a gorgeous brunette.
I ignored the flare of jealousy, squashing it, and reminded myself I was on a date with a fabulous man, and that the gorgeous brunette was just one of many sexual partners for Adam.
He was a manwhore.
But he was my manwhore, and I couldn’t help but walk over to him, Christian at my side, with a huge smile on my face, because as always I was delighted to see him.
Adam grinned up at me, his smile dimming slightly as his gaze flickered to Christian. He gave Christian a once over and then turned those beautiful eyes of his back on me. He perused me with a small smile and when his eyes hit mine they were full of tenderness. “You look absolutely stunning, Els.”
I didn’t just flush at his compliment, I burned. “Thank you,” I murmured and then gave his date a polite smile. “Hullo.”
She glared at me.
Oh well.
“Adam, this is Christian.”
Adam gave Christian a taut nod and then flicked his hand to his date. “This is Megan.”
“It’s Meagan,” she corrected him waspishly, pronouncing it like ‘mee-gan’ instead of ‘meh-gan’.
I saw Adam stifle a long-suffering sigh. Uh oh. His date obviously wasn’t going well.
“We better get to our table.” Christian gently pulled on my elbow.
I gave Adam another smile. “Enjoy your evening.”
“You too, sweetheart.” I moved to follow Christian but had only taken a step to walk away when I felt a tug on the hem of my dress. I glanced down, frowning, and watched Adam pull off the price tag. I blushed as he winked at me.
I closed my eyes briefly. I’d left the price tag on. I was always doing stuff like that. God, I hoped Christian hadn’t seen it. Opening my eyes I deliberately ignored Adam’s date and mouthed a heartfelt “thank you”. He grinned at me and I smothered a laugh at myself before hurrying to catch up with Christian at our table across the room.
“Who was that?” Christian asked casually as we were seated.
“My brother’s best friend,” I replied equally casually. “We grew up together.”
Christian nodded and then ordered us white wine. I preferred red.
We chatted as we waited for the waiter to return, and Christian told me all about a charity he was organizing. He stopped talking when the waiter came back and he began to order my food for me. Deciding to think this was charming rather than overbearing I informed him this was my brother’s restaurant and that I knew what I wanted. He was impressed that Braden owned La Cour and for five minutes I told him about Braden’s other businesses.
After that we were back onto Christian.
By the time the second course arrived, my hope for this being “it” was diminishing rapidly. Not once did my date appear to take any real interest in me, and the more I realized how self-absorbed he was, the more aware I became of Adam sitting across the room from me. Adam whose eyes glittered with interest every time I opened my mouth.
I had just picked up my fork to take a bite of my steak when a phone rang. Debussy.