A petite young woman with short blond hair made her way over to their table. “Hi, Trevor. Great to see you.” She turned to Haven. “Hi, I’m Lauren, and I’ll be your server tonight.”
“Hi, Lauren. I’m Haven.”
“Nice to meet you. What can I get you all to drink?”
“I’ll have iced tea,” Trevor said.
“Same for me.”
“Great. I’ll bring those right out.”
She also told them the specials of the evening before she hurried away to get them their drinks.
Haven opened the menu, but Trevor put his to the side.
“I suppose you have the menu memorized.”
He laughed. “Pretty much.”
She scanned the menu. There were several items that piqued her interested. “Any recommendations?”
“The salmon is good. So is the lobster risotto. And you can never mess up by going with the scallops.”
“Okay. Thanks.”
When Lauren came back with their tea, Haven ordered the salmon, and Trevor ordered scallops.
“We need oysters, too,” Trevor said.
“Of course you do. I’ve already ordered them,” Lauren said with a grin.
“Thanks.”
“They do know you well here, don’t they?” Haven asked after Lauren left.
“They fly the oysters in fresh from the Pacific Northwest. Trust me, you’re going to love them.”
“I trust you. Mind if I ask you some questions while we’re waiting?”
He took a sip of his tea. “No. Go ahead.”
She fished her notebook out of her bag. “What happens when one team or the other says you have to choose?”
“That hasn’t happened yet.”
“What if it does?”
“I’ll deal with it if and when that day comes. But there’s no point in thinking or worrying about something that hasn’t happened yet, or something that may not happen. I’m in good shape and so far I’ve been able to help both teams during the times I’ve played with them. It’s working.”
“Is it? Don’t you feel a pull to one sport or another?”
“No.”
“You don’t have a favorite.”
“No.”
She made notes as he spoke, but she set her notebook on the table and looked at him. “But surely these teams suffer having a part-time player.”
“Have they? Tampa made the playoffs last year. St. Louis won their division. I don’t call that suffering.”
“But what could those teams do—what kind of player could you be—if you chose just one sport to play? I mean, come on, Trevor. Considering how good you are playing part time for both, if you chose just one you could potentially be a superstar at that one sport. Surely that has to have crossed your mind at some point in your career.”
She had to wait for his answer, because Lauren brought their oysters right then.
But she could tell from the smile on his face that he hadn’t taken her question seriously.
She wondered if Trevor took anything seriously. Including his career. He was so . . . laid back, so easygoing, seemingly enjoying everything about his life and his jobs.
But her question had been a serious one. And she intended to bring it up again, because she was going to push at him until she got an answer.
TREVOR ENJOYED SEEING THIS SIDE OF HAVEN, WHEN she put on her journalist’s hat and dug deep into her question box, drilling at him with probing questions.
Sure, he’d avoided her last question. It wasn’t like it hadn’t been asked of him before, and he’d given his standard pat answer.
But with Haven, he wanted to think about how to respond, because he wanted to be honest with her. Not with her network, but with her. And he wasn’t ready yet to answer.
He didn’t mind her grilling him, though. The fiery passion in her eyes was nice to see. It breathed life into her face, into every fiber of her body.
Her mother had been right. He could already see a difference in her. When she had focus, when she was fired up about something, she was much happier. He needed to keep that level of drive within her, keep her mind occupied so she wouldn’t dwell on things she couldn’t change.
“How’s your salmon?” he asked as they ate.
“It’s fantastic. Thank you for recommending it. I can see why you eat here so often. How are the scallops?”
“Awesome. Would you like a bite?”
She glanced over at his plate. “I would, actually.”
He scooped up a forkful and held it over her plate. She bent and took the fork between her lips. He caught sight of the flick of her tongue underneath his fork. Just a small thing, really, but it made his c**k tighten knowing her mouth and her tongue had been on his fork. Her lips were full and pink and he really wanted to see her tongue wrapped around his dick.
Resisting the urge to groan, he asked, “How is it?”
Instead, she let out a soft moan, her eyes floating partially closed. “It’s delicious.”
The sound of her moans, the way her eyes closed in ecstasy, only made his dick twitch and harden more. “Great. That’s great.”
He grabbed his glass and took a couple of swallows of iced tea, hoping to douse the flames that were burning him from the inside out.
“Would you like a bite of my salmon?” She held a forkful up to him.
He shook his head. “No, thanks. I’ve had it before. I know how good it is.” And if she kept leaning into him like that, letting him breathe in her citrusy scent, he was going to drag her off her chair and bury his tongue in her mouth right there in the middle of the restaurant.
And now he was hard and uncomfortable and thinking about f**king Haven. While she was completely oblivious to his discomfort while she enjoyed her dinner.
Clearly this whole attraction thing was one-sided, and he was an idiot.
HAVEN CAUGHT THE NOT-SO-SUBTLE WAY TREVOR had been looking at her over dinner. A woman would have to be blind and stupid not to notice when a man was attracted to her, and Haven was neither.
In college, she’d have been giddy over the prospect of a guy like Trevor wanting her. Now, it presented a problem. A huge, complicated problem. On the one hand, she’d love to explore a sexual relationship with him. Or, hell, even one night of awesome sex. But that would simply kill her objectivity on this project, and that was what she’d been struggling with.