Swiping the brush through her hair, she had no choice but to bound it up at the back of her neck as it was being somewhat unruly. With her hair bound at the base of her neck, she reached over and grabbed the toothbrush she’d also found. This had been wrapped in a plastic package. There was also toothpaste.
Carlos, or whoever shopped for him, thought of everything.
With her teeth cleaned and her face refreshed, it was time to head downstairs.
Carlos was in the kitchen, holding some leaflets within his grasp. “What do you want for breakfast?”
“You don’t cook?”
“Do you?”
“Not great, but I can feed myself.” She moved to the fridge and opened it. “You don’t even go grocery shopping?”
There was nothing in his fridge.
“What do you do if you’re hungry at night?” she asked.
“I order in.”
“There is no way that’s … working.”
“It works.”
She rolled her eyes, grabbed one of the menus he looked at, and wrinkled her nose. Some of the places, she didn’t recognize and figured they had to be from places on the outskirts of the city or something. “You’re crazy,” Raven said.
Her stomach chose that moment to growl. She was starving.
“The diner,” Carlos said. “We can walk.”
“No, you can drive,” she said.
Raven stared down at her body and wanted to tell him no fucking way, but she had to get used to people seeing her like this. Still, as they got to the doorway, she turned to grab her leather cut.
“What are you doing? You’re hungry.”
“I need to go and grab my cut.”
“Raven, you need to learn to go without it. You can’t wear that thing when you’re with me, protecting me.”
He was right. Still, she looked up toward the stairs. It was only in rare circumstances that she gave up on her cut.
This was wrong.
Carlos took her hand. She didn’t fight him as they walked out of the house. He closed and locked the door. The leather cut was protected.
“I’ve got you,” Carlos said.
If he kept being patronizing, she was going to throat punch him.
They stepped toward the car, and she climbed inside the passenger seat, not waiting for him to open her door.
She was starving. And she had to get this over with.
“How do the clothes feel?” he asked.
“Fine.”
“If you’re not happy with them, I can return them. I don’t mind.”
“Carlos, the clothes are fine. Honestly, I’m just grumpy because I’m hungry.”
He chuckled. “Then let’s head out.” He put the car into reverse, and she watched as his private gates opened. They slowly pulled out of his driveway.
Carlos clicked a button, and they waited for the gates to close, and then he drove the short distance into town.
It was a little after eight, so not many people were around. The shops were opening up, getting ready for the day’s worth of trading. The diner always opened early to deal with the early risers, as well as the late finishers.
Carlos found a parking space right in front of the diner.
She didn’t want to get out of the freaking car. To do so would admit defeat.
She had always been the hard-ass Raven. The one no one wanted to mess with. She no longer looked like that. She didn’t even have her leather cut. All she had was … linen pants.
Grabbing the door handle, she swung the door open. She was more than her clothes. Even with her hair bound back at her neck.
As she rounded the car, her boots gave her comfort. The only piece of her old self.
Carlos reached out for her, and she stared at his hand. There was nothing in the books that said she had to pretend now. “No.”
“Come on. You’ve got to get used to it.”
She glared at him but took his hand. As she did so, she glanced left and right to make sure he wasn’t in any kind of danger. She would have preferred to stay in, but eating a bagel with cream cheese and smoked fish sounded gross to her.
Arriving at the diner, she saw there were not many people inside. She knew the night staff from the ones just waking up. The perky ones were the morning risers. The exhausted, ready to fall to sleep, were the night workers.
Each person glanced at them, and Raven didn’t need to look in the mirror to know that for some odd reason they suited each other.
They worked. She hated it, but there was nothing she could do about it.
This was her life for now.
They found a small table, and the menus were already out.
Raven picked one up and perused it to see what she could eat. She was starving.
“The food is on me,” Carlos said.
She raised her brow but didn’t argue. Didn’t he realize she could pay her own way?
****
Raven looked stunning.
There was no doubt about it that she could pull this off, and he knew he could make her fall for him. She’d given him small little indicators from touching her and getting close.