Read Online Burn for You by Annabel Joseph - Free Book Online Page B

looked up again. He was just so...lively. He was
sunny
. He had to know by now she was peeking at him. She forced herself to look elsewhere, to gaze around the room. A mother wrangled a toddler in the corner, while a group of college students huddled over their smart phones in a booth. Two older men, a father and son from the looks of them, argued at the table behind hers. She should have brought a book. She had nothing to do but keep looking at the smiling man. He wasn’t her physical type.
He’s no Mephisto
, she thought.
    Maybe that was why the guy fascinated her so much. He wasn’t imposing like Mephisto. He wasn’t brooding or studying her like some puzzle he was trying to figure out. He didn’t have an ounce of dominance on the surface, and she doubted he had much underneath. He was still sexy in a wholesome, normal type way.
    He caught her eyes again. Her face burned as she dropped her gaze to the tabletop and stared at the lettuce scattered over her plate. How long since she’d known anyone outside the BDSM universe? How long since she’d had a friend, just some normal person she knew, someone to laugh and be natural with? There was Mephisto, but he’d always been more protector than friend. There was Mrs. Jernigan... No. Not a friend. Mrs. Bobo, the woman who’d come to do her waxing? Ugh, she’d been an enemy, the sadistic bitch. Molly had spent time with Master’s sisters, but she wouldn’t consider them friends by a long shot.
    Molly wasn’t even sure she knew how to have a friend anymore, and that idea really troubled her.
    “Hey. Why so sad? Not enough tomato?”
    Molly’s head shot up, and there he was, sitting down across from her. She clasped her hands in her lap. “What?”
    “They’re stingy with the tomatoes here, huh? I always get the BLT too. But there are never. enough. tomatoes.”
    Molly looked down at her plate. “I— I didn’t notice. I don’t know.” Brilliant. She was a scintillating conversationalist. Not. His easy smile and flirtation suddenly saddened her, and she didn’t know why. Because she couldn’t keep up, maybe. Because he would definitely find her weird. His eyes were blue, the same blue her Master’s had been.
    He leaned closer. “You look so down. What’s wrong? I think you need a piece of pie.” Molly gaped at him. “Have some pie with me. You can’t have pie and stay sad.”
    That was a lie, but Molly didn’t have the heart to call him on it. She cast about instead for something cute to say in response to his suave banter. “Um. Okay. If you buy.”
    She couldn’t meet his eyes now, not with him so close, but she stared at his smile as it widened. Clean, straight teeth. Sensual lips. “Of course I’ll buy,” he said. “Cherry or apple?”
    “Cherry.”
    He went to the counter. His friends ribbed him, but he ignored them and returned a couple minutes later with some pieces of pie and some forks. He’d chosen cherry too. Molly took a drink of water and gave him a belated thank you. He was already tearing into his piece. This restaurant had the best pie. Flaky, oozing with fresh filling that was obviously homemade, not pulled out of some freezer. They were like the pies Master’s cook used to bake.
    “My name’s Eliot,” he said. “I know, it’s awful.”
    Molly heart hammered with nerves, but she forced herself to smile at him. For a moment she considered giving him a false name in return, but why? She wasn’t doing anything wrong, and he wasn’t dangerous. He was a sweet, flirty delivery guy who’d just bought her some pie to cheer her up.
    “My name’s Molly.”
    “Fighting with hubby?”
    “What?”
    He nodded down at her hands on the table. “You’re twisting your wedding rings and you seem upset. Nice diamond, by the way,” he said, eying her engagement setting. She put her hands back in her lap. “Thought maybe you were on the outs with your husband.”
    “My husband died.” God, almost half a year ago. Had it been that