Sal (The Ride Series) by Megan O'Brien Page A

along with it, letting him take the reins and got dressed.
    “Ready,” I told him twenty minutes later.
    His eyes skimmed my body and lit with a hunger I found immensely gratifying.
    I’d chosen what I liked to call my “little red dress.” It fit me like a glove, hugging every curve of my chest and hips and then fanning out into a tulle skirt. It was short, but not too short, and had a sweetheart neckline. It was flirty and fun and I thought it suited me.
    “Why have I never seen that dress?” he demanded, standing from where he’d been sitting on my sofa.
    I blushed and shrugged, not wanting to rub it in that he hadn’t taken me anywhere I would have worn it before. He got a knowing look on his face, and I knew he understood the fact anyway, without my saying it. The truth was I didn’t care at all that he hadn’t taken me to nice places. I’d bought this dress for a girls’ night out with Scar. But I certainly didn’t mind the look on his face.
    “Ready?” he asked, his eyes doing a sweep of my body once more.
    “We could stay in, you know.” I gave him a sly smile not entirely kidding.
    “Don’t tempt me,” he muttered.
    Not half an hour later, we were seated in a beautiful booth in the posh and all together too quiet, Vincenti’s. Sal continued to shift in his seat. I could tell he was uncomfortable. The server had brought a breadbasket and a wine list, which I was pretending to peruse while shooting looks at my man.
    “Sal,” I started, putting the menu down with impatience. “When I said I wanted you to take me out I didn’t mean it had to be this.” I sighed, gesturing to the ambiance around us. “This isn’t you,” I insisted.
    His brow wrinkled with confusion. “I thought this is what you wanted.”
    I’d never felt more affection for him as I spoke in a gentle voice, “I just want us to go out and have fun together, Sal. That doesn’t mean we have to pretend we’re something we’re not.”
    He sighed and looked relieved for a second.
    I laughed. “Let’s go to Jupiter. It’s just down the street. We can have our first date in the same spot as the night we first got together,” I said as I grinned. “Seems appropriate,” I mused.
    “If that’s what you want,” he replied, eyeing me intently. He was really trying to gauge if this is what I wanted.
    I nodded. “I’m in the mood for a whiskey sour, I don’t think they make those here,” I winked.
    He laughed, losing all of his earlier tension. “Okay, baby, let’s go.”
    We had a blast at Jupiter, sitting up at the bar with Frank serving us drinks just like he used to. When Scarlet and I had waited tables here, Frank had always supplied free drinks on rough nights.
    “Better?” I asked as we sat sharing nachos and sipping our drinks.
    He reached over and wiped something from the side of my mouth, probably sour cream. “Looked like that doctor took you to some pretty fancy places,” he commented a moment later, staring straight ahead and sipping his beer.
    Oh, so this is what Vincenti’s was all about. “I went out with him once,” I replied. “And, yeah he did, but to be honest, it wasn’t really my thing,” I admitted.
    He looked skeptical, and I bit my lip trying to figure out how to explain what was in my head.
    “We haven’t really talked in detail about how I grew up,” I said thoughtfully. “And to some extent I suppose I’m a bit of a hypocrite with being so upset at how you kept me at arm’s length. I guess I wasn’t really banging you over the head with facts about myself either,” I said dryly.
    He looked at me silently, willing me to continue.
    I looked away from him, somewhat embarrassed at revealing what I was thinking. “Compared with how I grew up, this is opulence to me,” I explained, gesturing to the restaurant around us. “For the first eighteen years of my life, I was lucky to get three meals a day, let alone be taken out to eat. I don’t need more than this and, to be honest,