Page 64 of Born for Starlight

She was sexy without trying. Or was she trying?

Fuck if I knew.

That was the problem with falling for an actress.

Dammit, I read people for a living, and with her I couldn't tell the difference between a woman enjoying her lunch and a performance of a woman enjoying her lunch.

“How’d you know to order this? Is this something that you remembered from your childhood?”

Her fork stopped in mid-air. “Hardly. I can’t remember anything from those first couple of years, and from what Mom and my brothers told me about that place, it’s a blessing.”

I’d done some research, and she was right.

“So how did you know to order this?”

“We were in the same car when Beto was talking about his wife’s cooking, weren’t we?” She shook her head like I was a few bricks shy of a load.

“Oh yeah.”

She had me so twisted up, I didn’t know whether I was on foot or horseback.

Get it together, Grainger.

She finished her bite of fish stew.

“You seem out of sorts. No, that’s not quite right. Distracted. That’s it,” she observed. “How long have you known Layla?”

“Years.”

“I figured. You seemed to have history.”

This time my fork stopped. “What are you trying to say?”

“Nothing.”

“Bullshit, you’re definitely saying something. Just spit it out.”

“Layla was definitely trying to mark her territory. Seems to me you two might have been lovers in the past.”

“The past is the relevant part of that sentence. It was hot and heavy for a while, but we soon realized we were better business associates than lovers.”

“Hmm.” She took another bite of stew.

I didn’t like that ‘hmm’. “What do you mean by that?”

“I’m thinking you were the one who thought you were better work associates, not her, am I right?”

“I can’t remember.”

“Then that makes you a piss poor operative. Maybe I should have brought Code or Jase, even if they couldn’t speak Portuguese.”

Shit, she had me there. “Fine, it was me. Are you satisfied?”

“Not since early this morning.” Her grin was slow and sexy.

“Why the third degree?”

“She knows that you're asking for a favor on behalf of your new lover, right? I’m just wondering how invested she’s going to be to help you… To help me.”