Jude rolled her eyes. “I know. But you’re fun even without the alcohol, so just order something virgin .” She grinned at me with that word, and I shook my head with a laugh.
“You’re going to try and get me laid, aren’t you?” I groaned. “Jude…”
Her eyes went wide, feigning innocence. “What? Me? No. It just sounded like you needed to get out and socialize with real people for a night. So here we are. Surrounded by real people.”
I blew out a sigh. “You’re right about that.” After all, I’d just spent three whole weeks locked up inside a safe house while waiting for my gunshot wound to heal, then went home to my isolated cabin in Iceland with no company other than Stanley the house plant. Holy hell, Jude was right. I was bordering on recluse level. The only people I’d interacted with face-to-face in over a month were job targets and assets. And Leon.
No wonder I’d been crushing all over him again. I was just starved for authentic human interaction.
“You’re kinda awesome, Jude. You know that?” I shot my friend a warm look, and she beamed.
“I did know that, thanks. But you can still tell me whenever you want.” She raised her head to catch a waitress’s eye, then ordered a couple of cocktails for us along with a huge amount of food.
I gave her a pointed look, but she just wrinkled her nose. “You can have one . What time do you need to leave tomorrow anyway?”
“Early.” I pouted. I needed to get over to New York, but thankfully the time zones would work in my favor this time. That, and the fact that I could use Carlos’s private jet rather than sticking to commercial flight schedules.
Jude gave me a sympathetic frown, then shook her head. “Okay. Let’s make tonight worthwhile, then. Who knows when I’ll get to see you again?”
“Good point,” I agreed.
Our cocktails arrived and we slid into our easy conversation about anything not work-related. Which, considering I had no life outside of my job, usually consisted of me asking Jude a ton of questions about her work. It never failed to fascinate me how many interesting people she met inside a freaking library. Then again, it shouldn’t shock me. Readers were living multiple magical, fantastical lives all within their heads. It was enviable and made sense that they were vivacious people inside their happy place.
“Wait,” I interrupted Jude, laughing as she told me a story about a woman she’d found tucked up in a sleeping bag in the romance section, “she was sleeping there? For how long?”
Jude spread her hands wide. “We have no idea. She’d somehow been staying out of the CCTV line of sight, and it was in the publicly accessible area, so you know security isn’t super diligent up there. It was just so funny, because she was totally rational when she explained that she couldn’t stand the thought of leaving all her book boyfriends behind at night.”
I grinned, but hell if I could judge that logic. I talked to my fucking plant, after all.
“Hello,” Jude said, batting her lashes at a handsome guy who had just approached our table.
He flashed her a smile in return. “Hi. I’m sorry to interrupt, I hoped maybe I could ask you for a favor?” He was English and dressed nicely in well-fitting jeans and a button-down shirt.
He had a great smile, too, which Jude must have noticed. She gave me a long, pointed look, then jabbed me with her elbow in case I missed her unsubtle hint.
“What’s the favor, stranger?” I asked, teasing. Okay fine, flirting . Maybe Jude was right about a one-night stand clearing my head out. It hadn’t actually been as long as she thought since I’d had sex—it was a requirement of my job more often than I cared to admit. But it’d been a long time since I’d slept with someone for fun.
The guy grinned, his pretty eyes twinkling with attraction. “Stranger? No way. We’re good friends who just don’t know each other yet. But about that favor… my buddy set me up on a blind date with this girl, and things have turned awkward. I wondered if I might join you two for a drink until he’s, uh, done?”
He nodded his head to a booth not far from ours, where a bearded man had his tongue halfway down a blonde woman’s throat, and his hand pumping away under a brunette’s skirt while she kissed his neck.
“Oh, that kind of awkward,” I commented with a laugh. “Struck out, huh?”
The cute guy winced. “Big time.” He ran his hand over the back of his neck, making his shirt pull across thick biceps. “But I’m staying at his place, so I can’t leave without him.”
“Well, in that case, you’d better take a seat,” Jude announced brightly. “I’ll go order us a round of drinks and give you two some time to work on that friendship .” She winked at me, as tactful as a sledgehammer, then grabbed her cane to stand up.
The guy waited while she shifted past him—the bar had gotten busy in the time we’d been eating—then slid into the booth beside me. Closer than a friend might sit, which gave me excited flutters of sexual anticipation.
“She’s a smooth matchmaker,” he joked, nodding at Jude making her way to the bar. She used her cane to walk, leaning heavily on it to compensate for her left leg.
I smiled. “Ultra smooth. I’m Danny, by the way.” I put my hand out to him to shake.
“Danny,” he repeated, making it into a sexy sound. “I’m Thom. Single, no kids, no drama.”
I coughed a laugh. “Oh wow, just laying that right out there, huh?”
He grinned, knowing perfectly well what effect that smile had. “American girls usually like the direct approach, don’t they?”
I didn’t correct him on my nationality, because general American was my default accent. I spoke multiple other languages fluently, and technically I was born French, but American suited my anonymity. Particularly with the number of jobs I was assigned to in the States.
“You’re not wrong,” I murmured, taking a sip from my drink. I’d swapped to non-alcoholic after that first cocktail, but I didn’t need the buzz of liquor when I had arousal lighting me up instead.
Jude returned to us with a tray of drinks balanced on her hand, and my new friend jumped up to take them from her. She sat back down in the booth and introduced herself to Thom, and he turned on the charm for her as well. I did notice that his gaze kept drifting back to me, though, sending me flirty glances and deliberately brushing my hand on the table as he reached for his drink.
Classic flirtation. It was kind of nice not to have to initiate for once. I was so used to being the aggressor, being the assertive one in a flirtation, that I quickly found myself having an amazing time letting him take the lead.
So much so that I didn’t even notice how late it was getting until Jude waved her phone under my face and reminded me that I had to be up early tomorrow.
Reluctantly, I peeled myself out of the booth when she got up.
“Danny, wait up a second,” Thom said, heading out of the busy bar with us, “Uh, maybe… could I grab your number? Maybe next time we’re both in town, we could meet up?”
Tempting. So damn tempting .
“I’ll just… go call a cab,” Jude told us, waggling her brows suggestively and heading further down the street to give us some level of privacy.