Delicious - Page 45

“My staff told me you were here,” she greets, reaching out and cupping his cheeks affectionately. “Celebration, or pity party?” Her eyes flit between everyone at the table before finally landing on me. She glances between us, looking down at his hand on my leg, before beaming even wider. “Celebration I see. It’s so good to see you, Jed. The bourbon salmon isn’t on the menu anymore, but you don’t need to worry about that.” She pets his cheek. “I’ll make one up special for you.” Then her attention turns on me, and I canfeelher assessing me like she’s his mother and I have to meet with her approval.

“I’m Saylor,” I introduce, wondering if I should curtsy or announce my sub bar lineage. “I’m?—”

“You must be special if my Jed has been able to take his nose out of his cookbooks for you,” Sophia Piccola interrupts, still beaming. “It’s a pleasure to meet you. Tell Jed to bring you around more often. He knows how much I love him and his friends.” She turns and winks at Cass, who grins back at her, and then promptly walks to the back of the restaurant, a pep in her step that belies her age.

“She feels…” I trail off, watching her go as I look for the right word.

Jed rubs his cheek, grimacing. “Terrifying?” he supplies. “Dictator-ish?”

“Kind,” I say, and turn my smile on him. “Why in the world is she terrifying?”

“She threw him in a dunk tank once,” Cass mumbles from around a mouthful of bread. Wren barks out a laugh, and even Hazel snorts. “Go on, Jed. Tell her how she got mad about your chicken being dry and carted a dunk tank here to throw you in.”

“Oh my god,” Jed groans, head in his hands as his elbows hit the table. “I’m not telling her that. This is so embarrassing, you guys.”

“Okay, no problem.” Cass looks at me, and I can tell by the glint in his eyes this isn’t over. “So it was four years ago, and Jed here was so sure he was cooking chicken the right way. Anyway, he wasn’t?—”

Jed’s moan of despair in my ear makes me snicker into my hand, but I give Cass my full attention, needing the entire story for my curiosity to be sated.

The moment Jedgets rid of Cass and Wren, finally telling them under no uncertain termsgoodbye and goodnight, he pulls me around the building toward the staff parking lot, his grip on my arm tight enough that I couldn’t break free if I wanted to.

Luckily for both of us, I absolutely don’t want to.

But when he turns and I see the uncertainty in his face, my heart sinks.

“You…don’t want me here,” I assume automatically, my heart freezing in my chest. I should’ve known, or guessed, this was an act so his friends don’t think he’s an ass. He could get any girl he could ever want. Why would I think he wantsme?

“What?” He stares at me in shock, eyes wide. “No! I…please don’t say that.Whywould you think that, Saylor. I—” He cutsthe words off with a click of his teeth. “I’m scaredyoudon’t want to be here.”

It takes a moment for his words to sink in. I blink at Jed, confused, and run our conversations through my head. “Why would I be here…if I didn’t want to be?” I ask, eyes narrowed. “I could’ve told the cops. Or not stalked Wren to his work. Or not come here. Or, hell, I could’ve chickened out and gone home. I surprisedyou. You didn’t have those options. If anyone here is in a place to reject someone, it’s?—”

He doesn’t let me finish. Jed grabs my hips, pulling me round until he can shove me against the side of his Jeep as his lips slam into mine with all the finesse of a badly tuned piano crashing down from a fifth story roof. I gasp at the contact, and Jed takes the opportunity to slip his tongue between my teeth, tasting every part of me like he doesn’t know what I had for dinner.

“Fuck, princess,” he purrs, finally pulling away. “Fuck.I just don’t want to force you, or make you think?—”

This time I’m the one who closes the distance between us, with my hands looped around his shoulders to yank him back to me. I kiss him hard, nipping at his lower lip in a way I know will make him moan. He does, of course, and I swallow the sound happily.

“I missed you,” I tell him, glad the darkness hides my blush. “I feel crazy, because I’ve only known you for, what, a week? Like, I shouldn’t feel this way about you, right?”

His laugh is low and grating. “Don’t ask me that, Saylor,” the serial killer growls against my jaw. “Because I’ve wanted to keep you since the moment I laid eyes on you. I don’t know if it’s love. Maybe I’ve always been too fucked up for that. But whatever this is? I’ve known it since the moment I met you. And it’sforever.”

“You say that,” I murmur, hating how unsure I feel. “But you don’t know?—”

“I know,” he assures me. “Trust me, okay? Iknow.” When he talks like that, I have no choice but to believe him. Not with the certainty that laces his tone.

When I pull away, however, whatever I was going to say is lost in my shriek. That’s the only thing that saves Jed from getting smacked by the baseball bat being swung in his direction. He whirls, one hand out, and somehow catches the bat, then wrestles it away from the man. His other hand grabs mine, pushing me behind him so I’m up against the wall.

“You did it.” The man wavers, looking drunk and unsteady on his feet. His voice is somewhere between a whine and a growl, and I can see him bare his teeth in the low light. “You fuckingkilled him.”

The smell of alcohol hits me and I recoil, nose scrunched in disgust, but Jed doesn’t move.

“Get lost,” he states, one hand still on me as if he needs to know where I am at all times. “I don’t know who you are, but you’re drunk and lost. So keep moving, okay? Before I make this the worst night of your fucking life.”

The man sways harder, his eyes unfocused. He’s drunk as hell, and the bat seems forgotten, now that it’s no longer in his flexing hands. “Fuckyou, man,” he growls. “I know what you did. I know how fucked up you…monstersare.” He spits the word at Jed, who doesn’t flinch. “If Tyson were here…” Jed stiffens at that, but the man takes that opportunity to stagger into a brighter part of the parking lot, away from the two of us.

“The police told me about him,” I whisper, my fingers wrapped around Jed’s wrist. “I think that’s the guy’s brother. From the preserve.”

“Yeah,” Jed agrees, his eyes trained on the drunk man. “Yeah, I think it is, too. They certainly smell the same.” He bares his teeth like a dog, then shakes his head as if to clear it. “Come on. I’ll take you back to your car, and?—”