Free Claiming Magique: 1 by Tina Donahue Page A

at him, opting instead on checking
her hair in one of the mirrors above the sinks. Once she’d smoothed the wayward
strands down, she walked past him to the door.
    “Hey, wait a sec.” He grabbed her
hand. “No goodbye? No see you next time? No let’s make a date? A real date? Dinner. A movie. The theatre. Dancing. Whatever you want.”
    Her expression grew guarded, her
eyes veiled. “No. We won’t be seeing each other again.”
    Hunt frowned. “Why?”
    She seemed lost, unable to answer, then stroked his cheek, her thumb grazing his lips. “Thank
you.”
    Hunt heard sadness and something
else, an invitation for more. He gathered her to him. Alexa molded her body to his as if she’d been born for this, her arms slipping around
his shoulders, clutching him as tightly as he did her.
    With his cheek pressed to hers, he
murmured, “I need to see you again.”
    She shook her head.
    Screw that. “I know what you’ve been
doing,” he said. “I’ve been coming to this restaurant on the same days of the
week for years. Like fucking clockwork. This is the
first time I’ve seen you here, not too long after our night on R Street. I
don’t give a shit about what you claimed with that professor guy. He didn’t
suggest you two coming here. You’ve been following me. Don’t deny it.”
    She didn’t. She pulled out of his
embrace and went to the door. “I have to go.”
    “No, you don’t. You’re running from
me. Why?”
    “What you want wouldn’t work out.”
With that, she left.
    He followed her to the terrace. She
slipped around a group of people. By the time Hunt got past them, she was two
tables away.
    As intent on escape as she was, he
was as determined to catch her, continuing until David stood in his path.
    “What are you doing?” his friend
asked. “Our table’s back there.”
    Hunt glared at him.
    “We can move to another if you
want,” David said.
    Not the one where Alexa sat with that guy, her made-up professor, pretending
that nothing had just happened in the ladies’ lounge.
    “You okay?” David asked. “What are
you staring at— whoa. ” He did a double take, then whispered, “Is that Magique ?”
    Hunt returned to their table and
took his seat, watching her, drinking her fucking in. The color in her cheeks
belonged to him, no other man. The softness in her eyes, the submissiveness was
his too. He smiled, proud as hell of himself no matter what she’d said or
claimed, especially the part about them never seeing each other again and a
relationship not being possible.
    “It is her,” David murmured, taking
his seat. “So you two worked things out?”
    Huh? “What are you talking about?”
    “Tomorrow night. What else?”
    “What about it?”
    David made a face that said he
wasn’t following. He regarded the others around them, then leaned forward and
kept his voice low. “Tim and I have another, ah, date with her. Tim set it up.
He’s richer than Bill Gates, he can afford it. He didn’t want to book you
too—he said you were a hog about it the last time—but I talked him into it. He
went ahead, until the lady making the reservations said Magique didn’t want to see you again. Did you straighten it out with her?”
    Hunt’s gut continued to churn.
    She was having a luncheon date with
that old guy, she was willing to entertain Tim and David again, but she refused
to do the same with him? She’d just given herself willingly, eagerly in the
ladies’ lounge, but she wouldn’t let him book another so-called date or make a
normal one like he’d just tried?
    Uh-uh. She wasn’t getting away with
that. She was his now. She’d settled the matter with her “yes” and “thank you”,
the way she’d softened in his arms.
    Their time together wasn’t at an
end. It was just beginning. He was going to prove it to her.

Chapter Five
     
    “You need to relax,” Alexa said to Wallace.
    Advice she should have heeded
herself. No matter what had just happened at the restaurant,