Free Darken (Siege #1) by Angela Fristoe

said.
    “About what?”
    “About Anything. Lela, Hailey, you … me.” She squeezed her eyes shut and shook her head, sending her curls fluttering across her face. “Talking between us doesn’t work.”
    Her eyes opened, settling on him, and the sorrow he found in their blue depths made his chest ache.
    “Then what does work?”
    “Nothing.”
    “Both of us know that’s not true,” he said, wondering if she could deny how right it had felt to be pressed against each other, feeding the embers of lust to a degree he’d never experienced before.
    “We definitely shouldn’t talk about that .” She threw the straw onto the table.
    Six weeks before, he would have agreed. Now, though … He knew how she tasted, how snugly she fit into him. As much as he wanted to go back, he couldn’t.
    “Maybe that’s all we need to talk about.”
    Her struggle played across her face in the tightening and relaxing of her lips, the way her cheeks warmed to a soft pink.
    “You both good for another?” Keeley stopped at the edge of the table. He hated the escape she provided Cora.
    “I’m done,” Cora replied and handed Keeley the cash to cover her tab.
    “Put her stuff on my tab,” Gavin said. He didn’t worry about paying, a bonus of being a brother to the owners. He was certain Logan kept track so one day he could collect for some huge ass favor.
    Cora looked about to refuse, but changed her mind and gave Keeley a grin. “Then consider it all a tip.”
    Keeley rolled her eyes and said, “That only works if I don’t know what you’re getting paid, girl.”
    She pulled out a ten and passed the rest back to Cora. Then she turned to Gavin, leaning in and poking him in the chest with a sparkly-blue manicured finger.
    “I’m trusting you.”
    He didn’t ask what she meant. He didn’t need to.
    “How are you getting home?” he asked Cora when Keeley had gone.
    She kicked up her feet. “These boots were made for walking.”
    “Alone at this time of night?”
    “Phff. It’s Thompson Creek.”
    He thought of the pictures of Sinclair Caleb found on the surveillance cameras. She wasn’t the one Sinclair was after, but her connection to him and his brothers made her a possible target.
    “I’ll walk you home.” He stood, looking down at her gaping face.
    “What? Why?”
    “Because it’s dark and you’re drunk.”
    “I’m not drunk. I only had … three Bamamamamas.”
    “Yeah, three triples. More than enough. Let’s go.”
    Out came the cute little pout. “Fine, but not because you said so.”
    She rose and walked to the door, leaving him to pick up the purse she’d forgotten and follow her outside. When he caught up with her, she stopped and spun around to face him.
    “You’re really bossy. You can’t tell me what we need to talk about.”
    “I merely suggested that maybe we need to talk about what happened today.”
    “No. We don’t need to talk about it. That’ll only make me think about it.” She started walking again, only to turn around a few feet away. She stomped toward him. “You made me go the wrong way.”
    He held up his hands. “I don’t even know where you live.”
    “I know. You don’t know anything about me.” She took her purse from him.
    “Not true,” he said, walking beside her. “I know lots of things about you.”
    “Okay. Give me the top five Cora facts.”
    “Top Cora facts? Is that what you have for me? Top Gavin facts?”
    “Five. You pretend you’re a loner, but you really like being with people. Four. You’re super smart, and if you weren’t so determined to waste away, you’d be working at TanTech with Caleb. Three. Your brothers are your best friends, even when you complain about them. Two. You look at me and see everything that went wrong with your life.”
    She picked up her pace and he was surprised at how quickly her short legs ate up the distance.
    “You forgot one,” he said.
    “One. You don’t know anything about me, or the person I am, or what