Free ROMANCING MO RYAN by Mallory Monroe

never cared if a woman he was taking to dinner showed off her curves.   Not even when his deceased wife used to do it.   Then why the hell, he wondered, was he behaving like some insecure asshole now?   And at this stage in his life?   And with her ?
    He didn’t know why he felt so protective of Nikki, and so possessive.   His style, in the last few years, had always been to avoid vulnerable women because he didn’t want any emotional attachment.   That was why he only dated women who could take care of themselves.   Nikki could too, she’d been doing it just fine, thank-you, all of her adult life, but there was still something about her that was nothing like any woman he’d ever known.
    When he sat down in his car and saw that sweet but bewildered look all over her face, his heart dropped.   He had hurt her.
    “I’m sorry, Nikki,” he said heartfelt.   “I was just being an asshole, all right?   A super-sized asshole.   You look very stunning.   Very sexy,” he added with a smile, prompting her to smile too.   “But of course looking sexy was never your intention, right?”
    “Wrong,” Nikki said honestly, and he laughed.  
    “You’re one of a kind, Nikki Tarver,” he said as he cranked up.   “One of a kind.”
    The drive to the restaurant was deliberately slow as Mo was careful to obey all speeding laws, and neither one of them seemed particularly anxious to talk too much.   For Nikki it wasn’t a question of conversation.   She was too busy wondering why was she there at all.   She needed to be focused like a laser beam on her career, not on some man.   Especially not a man like Mo Ryan.   Even Lance had heard that he was a ladies man, and the ladies he preferred were nothing like her.   She understood why he singled her out in Cleveland.   It was more her brains than her body back then, and perhaps the pickings were too slim in Cleveland.   But why was he bothering with her now when he could have the exact kind of woman he preferred?   And why, she still wondered, was she bothering with him?
    She knew Mo was different.   But she looked at him, wondering why was he different.   And why did her heart do odd things whenever he showed up?   He was no Mister Perfect.   He was good looking, no doubt about that, but so were dozens of other men who’d asked her out.   And they were young and eager men, ready to give her anything she desired if she’d only ask.   Ryan was almost fifteen years her senior, eager her ass, and wasn’t ready to do anything for her except get on her last nerve with his harsh, merciless views.  
    But nobody else made her heart flutter.   No-one else had her wishing that she hadn’t written so harshly about him in that Hero or Zero article.   Nobody else suddenly appeared in her dreams every time she lay down to sleep.
    He took her to a jazz nightclub in Mayport called The Lighthouse.   A large, maple-toned woman named EttaMae Cunningham was on stage singing oldies but goodies when they arrived.   It wasn’t exactly a senior citizens crowd, but it was close.   But even that didn’t matter to Nikki.   It was the way Mo treated her that mattered more to her.   He not only opened her car door for her, which was huge, but he assisted her in and out, as if she was some delicate flower he wanted to protect.   And when they entered the restaurant, he placed his hand in the small of her back as the waitress escorted them to their table, as if he wanted the world to know that she was his.   She wasn’t, not by a long shot, but it felt good to Nikki just the same.
    Mo was apparently a regular because the waitress escorted them to a booth near the back without asking their preference, and when it was time to place their drink orders she didn’t even ask Mo what he would be having.  
    “Sherry for me, thank-you,” Nikki said.   The waitress took her order, but then glanced at the Judge before walking away.  
    Mo leaned back on his seat and seemed