Page 48 of Revenge Puck

Her lips twitch—she’s fighting a smile—but the server appears, refilling our waters and waiting for our orders .

I nod at him. “Whatever she’s having, I’ll have, too. I think we’re done pretending this dessert hasn’t ruined our appetites.”

“Not mine.” Beside me, Juliettehuffs. “Are you always this bossy?”

“Sometimes.”All the time.

Her mouth turns down. “Well, stop. I don’t take orders from men.”

“I should hope not.”

Juliette glances between me and the server. “Diet Coke, please.”

I blink. “That’s it?”

She lifts a brow. “Youjustsaid you weren’t the boss of me.”

Touché.

“Diet Coke,” I repeat to the server. “And I’ll take mine with extra ice.”

She laughs, shaking her head. “You’re not what I expected.”

“That good or bad?”

She considers. “Inconveniently good—but you’re a little hard to read.”

“Occupational hazard.” I shrug.

She smiles at that, but it doesn’t quite reach her eyes. “You joke a lot for someone who looks like he takes everything seriously, and you pretend to be uncomplicated but you’re not.”

I lean farther back into the booth. “You’re very observant.”

“It comes from being overlooked.”

Overlooked?

“By who?”Are people fucking insane?

Her shoulders rise, up and down. “Uh, by most people. Not very difficult when your brother is a professional athlete and your parents spent all their waking time driving him to and from practice—not that I’m resentful. It’s…” She shrugs again. “You know how it is.”

No, I don’t know how it is.

“That’s not the same thing,” I say quietly.

She blinks. “What isn’t?”

“Being overlooked and being overshadowed.” I tilt my head. “They feel similar, but they’re not. And for what it’s worth, you’re not easy to miss.”

Juliette’s lips part, and she shifts her body on the seat, moving closer. Tits brush my arm, branding my bicep through my shirt as her mouth presses a kiss to the column of my neck.

She slides her nose along my skin until her lips graze my earlobe. “For what it’s worth, thank you for saying so.”

My dick stiffens almost immediately.

My brain? No longer functioning.

And that? That isnotgreat.