Page 16 of Tiger Bitten

“So, the rules are we are doing this as friends.” She pursed her lips. “Stranger friends. Pretend dates. So, I’m not showing up as a single while Abe has a plus-one.”

“Sure.”

She rested her chin on to the palm of her hand, her elbow on the table. “Do you want to see the dress I’m wearing to it?”

“You have it here?”

“No, I have a picture of it. I can send it to you so you can wear something that compliments it. If you want.”

The slow smile that stretched his lips felt nice. “Oh. Yeah, I would like to see the dress.”

“Great. What is your number?” she asked, pulling her phone from her purse.

He recited it from memory while she created a contact for him, and then she put her phone down and waited, eyes expectant on him.

His phone vibrated in his back pocket, and he pulled it out and checked the text.

There was no hello, no fanfare. Just a picture. In it, she stood in front of a dressing room mirror, taking a selfie. The dress was a dusty rose color with cream-colored floral print. It was fitted up top and showed up her perfect cleavage, and flowy to her ankles. There were two little cut-outs at her ribs, where triangles of her skin were exposed. She wore her hair down in the picture, and he couldn’t look away. God, she looked gorgeous.

He cleared his throat and forced himself to set his phone down. As nonchalantly as he could manage, he murmured, “I can work with that.”

“I’ll text you the information and when to pick me up.”

“Sounds good.”

Ren wiped her hands on her napkin, then offered one for a shake. “So, it’s a deal?”

Mars tried to stifle his smile as he slid his much bigger hand against hers. “It’s a deal.”

Chapter Five

Ren blamed the whiskey shot she’d taken at that lunch.

She had lost her mind doing this. For the fifth time, Ren checked her outfit in the mirror and smoothed out the front of her dress. It had a giant wrinkle down the middle, but she didn’t have time to steam it. Mars would be here any moment.

Maybe. She frowned at the kitchen clock. He was already late, actually.

She checked her phone, but he hadn’t texted her back all day. She’d sent him a message this morning with a meme of a couple who were double-fisted drinking at a wedding. She’d giggled over it, but apparently he hadn’t thought it was funny.

Her nerves were out of control, and she wiped her sweating palms on her skirt. He had texted her most of the day yesterday and seemed funny and engaged. She wouldn’t call it flirty, but they had an easy rapport, which was pretty important if they were going to spend an entire evening with her family in the general vicinity of her ex.

She blew out a steadying breath and called him, knowing damn-well he was standing her up.

No answer.

“Shoot,” she whispered to herself as disappointment flooded her middle.

She’d been kind of excited to hang out with him and get to know him a little better. Spending time with a Cat was so interesting. He was answering questions for her about the culture before she even had to ask. That and he was hot.

Like…really really hot.

Like a super model had a baby with a Greek god and they pooped out Mars.

Should she call him again?

No.

She shook her head at herself. Ren needed to have some pride in herself and accept the rejection.