Free Huddle With Me Tonight by Farrah Rochon Page A

returned with their drinks, and Paige pulled her hand away. What was it that passed between them every time they touched? The mystifying current of electricity had continued to thrum through her body long after he’d left her apartment, and the same was happening again. Her wrist tingled where he’d touched it.
    “Have you decided on what you would like for dinner?” the waitress asked.
    Paige asked Torrian about his preferences, but he conceded the ordering to her. She ordered shrimp tempura, a platter of assorted sashimi and a spicy yellowtail roll.
    “So,” Torrian asked. “What are we going to do about the blog?”
    “I’ve been considering your proposition from the other day.”
    “You agree that we should just say this was one big publicity stunt?”
    “Yes…and no,” she said. She stopped him before he could say anything. “Pulling this ‘publicity stunt’ may be acceptable in your line of work, but not for me. I would lose credibility with my readers if they thought my review was part of some big hoax to drum up attention for your book. I can’t allow that to happen.”
    “So what do you suggest?” he asked. Their food arrived in record time, and Torrian dived in, using his chopsticks to expertly lift a sliver of raw tuna from the rectangular dish.
    “I’m not completely sure yet,” Paige answered honestly. She dipped the tempura in soy sauce. “I still believe this will die down soon. Now that we’re no longer fueling the flames with our remarks, interests will wane.”
    “Don’t you think I’ll still need to do some damage control?” Torrian asked.
    “How much of a hit do you think your reputation has taken because of this?” she asked. Although it shouldn’t matter to her in the least, Paige didn’t like the thought of people not liking him because of what had transpired on her blog over the past few days.
    He shrugged. “I’m not sure.” He placed the chopsticks on his plate and wiped his mouth with a napkin. He had a set of the most decadent lips imaginable. Same went for his eyes. “There have been a lot of comments on your blog,” he said.
    “Yeah, but not all of them have been bad. Your die-hard fans have stood up for you. And when you think about the number of fans you have around this city, those comments on my blog are only a drop in the bucket.”
    “The thought of even one fan being disappointed in the way I behaved on your blog is too many for me,” he said.
    “I’m impressed that you care so much,” she admitted. “At first, I thought it was all about your book and restaurant; that you didn’t want fans to think negatively of you because it would affect your sales.”
    His eyes softened. “At the risk of losing the drop of respect I seem to have earned from you, I’ll admit that the book and restaurant factor into it.”
    His honesty had the opposite effect. Between his visit to her apartment and their conversation here, her opinion of him had changed dramatically.
    “Can I ask you something?” Paige asked, using one chopstick to stir up the bowl of sashimi dipping sauce. “You have a successful football career. Why is the success of this book so important to you?”
    “It’s not so much the book; it’s the restaurant. It is my sister’s dream.”
    “The sister you mention in the book? The one who raised you?”
    He nodded. “I owe Deirdre everything. She sacrificed her future to make a better one for me. This restaurant is the one thing she’s always wanted. It scares the hell out of me to think that her dream could be crushed because of all of this.”
    His concern wasn’t for himself, but for his sister. Paige’s heart melted then and there.
    “And here I thought you were a jerk,” she said, allowing her own grin to travel along her lips.
    “I don’t like the thought of you thinking I’m a jerk. If you give me a chance, I’d like to prove to you that I’m not.”
    Paige’s breath caught somewhere in her throat. The zing that had only