“Everything all right?” I asked as she took her seat opposite me.

She had an amused expression on her face.

I glanced over to see Julie firing me a dirty look as she made her way back to the table.

“Yeah, everything is just fine.” She waved her hand, her eyes looking wicked. “I guess your reputation is even worse than I thought.”

“What did she say about me?” I cocked my head to the side. Not that I cared especially since whatever it was, Mia seemed more amused than anything else.

“She just warned me off of you. Apparently, you’d go after anything with a pulse.”

I tried to hold back the sarcasm, but couldn’t. “Julie trying to warn you off me is like a crocodile advising someone to become vegetarian.”

“Actually, she told me you tried to hit on her one time and she shot you down.”

My eyebrows rose. “She said I tried to come on to her?”

“So many women you don’t remember, huh?” Mia mocked, but she was smiling.

I glanced over at Julie again. “I remember the incident all right, but that’s not quite how I remember it.”

“Oh, no?” She perked up. “What happened?”

“The way I remember it going down was she turned up at my door in a giant fur coat and nothing underneath, except some leopard-print lingerie, but I was seeing someone at that time, so I turned her down. As I recall, it wasn’t hard to do either. She’s not my type.”

Her eyes widened. “Hang on. Did you just say leopard print?”

“Yeah?” I cocked my head at her. “Why, is that a thing?”

She started laughing. “That’s her whole thing. It’s her move. Animal-print panties and a barely-there bra. She says it works every time.”

“Well, I’m the exception to that rule, I guess.”

She chuckled some more.

I had to admit I felt surprised to see how little what Julie said had bothered her. Most women, if their friends had come to them and tried to warn them off a guy, would have backed right the heck up, but she didn’t seem to give a damn.

And that was hot as hell.

She was her own person, defined outside her friends, something I never would have credited her with back in high school. I found I liked the new Mia a whole fucking lot. So much, I wasn’t sure I could wait through dinner to get her on her own.

“Hey.” I leaned toward her, and she ducked her head close to mine, so close I could smell her perfume. I was reminded of that night outside the bar, when the scent of her had filled my senses and made my head spin.

“Yeah?”

“You want to get out of here?” I suggested, and I found that my heart rate had picked up in my chest. “We could get the steaks to go?”

She grinned widely and glanced around toward her friend’s table, but Julie was talking with Stan, not paying any attention to us. “Back to your place?” she whispered.

For an answer, I slipped my hand on to her knee beneath the table. Her mouth dropped open in a gasp, and I grinned. Not in a million years could I have imagined that I could have this kind of effect on the hottest girl in school. After all, she did turn me down at the height of my pulling power.

She got to her feet and glanced to the door.

I slipped an arm around her waist, and went to the host counter to get our food to go. After a few minutes, they brought it and I threw a fifty on the counter. Then I hurried her out before she had time to think better of her decision.