Page 49 of Wrecked By You
Hands on my hips, I pivoted. “I don’t have time for dinner.”
Her face softened. “Please, Johannes. For me.”
I ground my teeth. Goddamn woman knew which buttons to press. I was awful to her, yet she read me easier than anyone in my family. It was like she knew, on an instinctual level, that my sniping attitude was the only thing holding the crumbling walls inside me together.
“Fine. Seven it is. But I have to be back at the club before ten.”
“Done.” Gia dusted off her hands. “Can’t wait to spend time in your sparkling company.”
Penn snickered. Gia grinned. I grimaced.
Fuckers. Both of them.
***
“I hope you’re hungry.” Gia sashayed into my office, trailing a finger over my desk as if she were checking for dust. “So this is where the Johannes Kingcaid magic happens, huh?”
I grabbed my jacket off the coat hanger. “Where are we going, anyway?”
“Ask Gia,” Penn said. “She booked it, but she won’t tell me where.”
“We are going…” She paused theatrically. “To Hard Rock Cafe.”
“No.” I shook my head. “I hate chain restaurants.”
“Yes,” she insisted. “It’s the most amazing place. So much fun, and Lord knows, you need to have some fun.” Gia linked her arm through mine, tugging me toward the door. “Have you even been to one?”
“No.”
“Then you can’t judge, can you?”
Damn woman is intractable.
“Fine. On your own head be it.”
“That’s the spirit.”
“Has anyone ever mentioned that you’re the most frustrating woman in the world?” I drawled.
Penn chuckled. “Yeah. Me. Regularly.”
He received a sharp dig in the ribs for his troubles. “You love me.”
Catching her around the waist, he kissed her hard on the lips. “Yeah, I do.”
“Jesus,” I muttered. “Can we just get this fucking dinner over with?”
I pointed to the door, and at that exact moment, it opened and Ella walked in. She startled when she realized I wasn’t alone. “Oh, sorry to interrupt. I wasn’t aware you had company.”
My stomach flipped, and my pulse increased to double time. God, she was beautiful with her windswept ebony tresses and her makeup-free face. I yearned to kiss her again, to feel those plump lips against mine, to taste her if only to remind myself of what I could never have.
“What are you doing here?” I snapped. “You don’t work Saturdays.”
“I-I know. I just…”
She trailed off, her eyes falling away from mine and staring at the floor. The air around me stilled, silence cloaking me. The only sound was my thunderous heartbeat pounding in my ears. I hadn’t expected to see her, and now here she was, standing before me, a sight I’d begun to crave.
I caught Gia raising her eyebrows in my peripheral vision, her gaze volleying between me and Ella. And then she nodded as if she’d found an answer to an unasked question.