“Nah, that movie Lawless. Now that is a fucking movie.”
“I don’t think I’ve seen it.”
He smiled and even before he said the words I knew I’d just fallen right into his agenda. “Thursday night, your place, me, you and Lawless.”
I opened my mouth to shoot him down, but stalled when I saw the glimmer in his eyes. He was expecting me to say no, and it suddenly occurred to me that my refusal might reinforce the idea that I was scared of spending time with him. And he could only assume that my fear of spending time with him stemmed from my attraction to him.
I jutted my chin out defiantly. “It’ll need to be later on in the evening. I teach an adult literacy class on Thursday after school.”
Marco chuckled. “I know that. And there’s no need to sound so excited about spending time with me, by the way.”
“Spending time with you doing what?” a familiar voice asked.
I whipped my head around, tilting it back to stare up at Suzanne. I hadn’t seen her since our last night out together, but I wasn’t surprised to bump into her out on the town on a work night.
She raised an eyebrow. “Hi, stranger.” Her eyes moved quickly to Marco and lit up. “So who’s this then?”
“Suzanne.” I hurried to think of something to get her to leave. She was the last person I wanted around Marco. She had no filter whatsoever. “Uh… aren’t you with someone?”
“Date.” She jerked her head in the direction of the bar and I saw a good-looking blond guy watching us. Her gaze was still fixed on Marco as she leaned across the table, deliberately showing off as much of her cleavage as possible. Holding out a hand for him to shake, she said in a faux husky voice, “I’m Suzanne.”
Marco quickly shook her proffered hand. “Marco. I’m an old friend of Hannah’s.”
I stiffened as Suzanne froze at the name.
Right then I cursed our nights at university together, especially the night we got rip-roaring drunk and Suzanne asked me if I was a virgin because I hadn’t slept with any boys at college yet. Drunk and overly emotional I told her about my night with Marco and how I never wanted to let myself be vulnerable with the wrong guy again.
Suzanne’s gaze swung back to me, surprise in her pretty eyes. “No fucking way.”
“Suzanne.” I pleaded silently for her to shut the hell up.
But did she pick up on my signals?
Nope.
She shot Marco a dirty look. “You’ve got a lot to answer for. My girl has so many issues because of you.”
Floor, open up and swallow me. Please.
“Suzanne,” I leaned forward, my voice thick. “Now’s not —”
“No, he should know.” Her eyes widened. “Oh, my God, is he the reason you’ve been such a complete and utter boring bitch lately?”
I was suddenly very disappointed in my taste in friends.
“Watch it,” Marco growled, and Suzanne and I both snapped to attention as if we’d been bitten by the crack of a whip. Marco’s eyes had darkened. I could feel the irritation vibrating from him. “We’re in the middle of a private conversation. You should leave.”
Affronted, Suzanne’s lips parted. Her eyes flew to mine, as if she expected me to stick up for her.
Unfortunately, I didn’t take too kindly to being called a boring bitch in public or in private. In my teacher voice I said, “I’ll speak with you later, Suzanne.”
She made a small harrumph sound, then turned sharply on her five-inch heels and marched toward her date, grabbing his arm and hauling him out of the bar.
“She’s a friend?” Marco asked quietly, incredulously.
“We met at uni. I grew up. She didn’t.”
He pushed his half-empty pint absentmindedly away from him. “Issues?”
I shrugged. “I honestly don’t know what she’s talking about.”
“Anisha told me she didn’t think there was a guy in your life and that you haven’t spoken about any from the past. Maybe that’s what she was talking about?”
My blood was suddenly hot with anger. I took a moment to calm. The last thing I wanted him to believe was that he’d done such a number on me I hadn’t been able to move on. I hadn’t been with anyone else by choice.
Sort of.
I exhaled slowly. “No guy at the moment.”
He appeared to relax at my reply.
I stared at him, letting my eyes connect with his and I felt the power of my attraction to him take hold. He was beautiful in a masculine way, sexy, charismatic. There had to have been many women in his life these last five years. The thought depressed me. “I’m guessing with the way you’ve been with me these last few weeks that there’s no one special in your life at the moment, right?”
Still holding my gaze, Marco’s lips turned up at the corner and I realized I wanted to kiss them right there on that seductive spot. “There’s someone. I just have to convince her of that.”
Yup. Definitely wanted to kiss him.