Page 2 of Unburied

He returned her card, and she added a tip to the receipt before signing it and passing it back to him. She lifted the drink to her lips and took a sip, then settled back in her seat as the sweet liquor exploded over her tongue. She could feel a set of eyes on her, and she glanced around again. An older man, dressed in a wrinkled collared shirt with a light brown stain in the region of his breast pocket, stared at her like he wanted to devour her.

It was bad manners to meet someone’s eyes without acknowledging them, but she forced down the urge to flash him a polite smile. She wasn’t there to encourage anyone. Studiously avoiding him, she turned her back and tuned out the older gentleman to her right.

Her gaze slid over the sea of faces seated sporadically around the room. She was scanning the back wall when she suddenly froze, stunned by the sight of a gorgeous man tucked away in a corner booth. Her insides tingled as heat raced through her, and she shifted on her barstool. Focused on the plate of food in front of him, the man didn’t seem to be aware of her presence. Story of her life.

Suddenly, as if feeling her eyes on him, his gaze lifted. She immediately ducked her head, her heart thundering in her chest as she stared at the green liquid sloshing precariously in her glass. She forced her hand to steady as she drew in a deep breath. He’d almost caught her ogling him.

Heat crept into her cheeks, and she flicked a glance up through her lashes to see if he’d noticed her. Her chest tightened a little with disappointment when she found his attention once more focused on the plate in front of him.

She turned her body a bit, keeping him in her peripheral vision as she sipped on her own drink. She took the opportunity to look him over as he drank deeply, his Adam’s apple bobbing with the motion. The sleeves of his black button-up shirt were rolled up, exposing corded, veiny forearms that her fingers itched to touch.

He had a chiseled jaw, dark hair that was cut close to the sides but left longer on top. Broad shoulders and thick biceps. She couldn’t see the color of his eyes from there, only the dark look in them, warning everyone else away. Sitting all alone in the corner booth, he practically had the words “piss off" stamped across his forehead.

A rail-thin blonde approached, and her hip bumped into his table. Her giggle lilted on the air, and Vivi’s insides tightened with something like jealousy as it reached her. How ridiculous was that? She didn’t know this man at all. But you’d like to, her subconscious spoke up. That was true enough. She couldn’t tear her gaze away as she watched the interaction between the man and the blonde across the room.

He offered her a tight smile, then redirected his gaze to the glass in his hand. But the blonde didn’t get the memo. Drink balanced in one hand, she leaned toward him and ran her fingers over his arm. Even from there, Vivi could see him tense. It took guts to hit on a guy who looked like that, so she gave the girl props. But he obviously wasn’t having any of it, and he was too nice to tell her to pound salt.

Vivi watched in rapt fascination as the woman jerked away from him and made an agitated gesture with her hand. Her movements became wilder, more pronounced. She was obviously furious about something. The man started to shake his head, but the woman’s voice grew louder and louder. The man in the booth looked incredibly uncomfortable as people around them turned to watch the show unfold.

Vivi bit her lip, then made a split decision. She didn’t know this man or what had transpired between him and the beautiful woman next to him, but she felt compelled to intervene. Adjusting her purse over her shoulder, she slid from her barstool and made a beeline toward the booth.

Halfway across the room, her steps faltered. What was she doing? Her gaze flitted around, looking for the bathroom so she could change her course and escape inside where no one would be the wiser. But the door she sought was nowhere in sight, and she dimly remembered passing it on her way into the bar.

Drawing in a deep breath, she steeled herself as she continued along her trajectory, straight toward the man seated in the booth and the leggy woman next to him. The closer she got, the more her stomach twisted. Oh, God, this was a terrible idea.

“You just left me!” the woman practically wailed. “I thought I meant something to you!”

A lover’s quarrel. Even worse. Vivi couldn’t tell why, precisely, but she felt bad for both of them. She felt bad for the woman who obviously believed she and the man had shared something special, only to have him leave. But she felt bad for him, too. She was making an unholy scene—and no one deserved that, regardless of the situation.

Her eyes flew back to the man in the booth. He was doing a good job of keeping his emotions in check, but she saw the hard lines of his face, the tight clenching of his jaw as she railed at him. She swallowed hard as she stepped up next to the woman. Her head barely came up to the blonde’s shoulder, and not for the first time since she left her spot across the bar, she was swamped with a sense of insecurity.

The man’s eyes flicked to where she stood next to the beautiful blonde, and she could practically read the question in their depths.

Who are you, and what are you doing?

Instead of responding, she cleared her throat and brushed lightly against the woman, silently prodding her to move. Still wrapped up in her ongoing tirade, the woman didn’t even notice her.

“You jerk! I can’t believe you,” she fumed. “You promised you would⁠—”

Vivi tapped her on the shoulder. “Excuse me.”

“What?” The woman whipped toward her, eyes wide and slightly crazed-looking.

“I, um…” Vivi swallowed hard and tried again, forcing herself not to cower under her intense glare. “I think you’re mistaken.”

Her wide blue eyes flew toward the man in the booth, then back to Vivi’s, still filled with a mixture of hurt and anger. “About what?”

Vivi smiled, praying that neither could see her unease. “I think you have the wrong guy.”

“No.” The woman shook her head and pointed a finger his way. “He⁠—”

“Trust me.” Vivi drew a deep breath. “He’s my boyfriend.”

CHAPTER

TWO

Mason knew his past would eventually come back to bite him. He’d just hoped it wouldn’t be somewhere public where a woman was making a scene and drawing attention from everyone in the room, including the man he was tailing.