I watched her eyes and waited for her reaction, but again we were interrupted when Dane Wickam walked up and sat at our table. “Hey, Hawke, I didn’t get a chance to talk to you after the race. Nice job blowing the doors off of my Porsche. Congratulations.”

I didn’t recall ever being congratulated by an opponent before. “Thanks, Wickam, but you had me for a minute.”

I turned back to Payton and watched her look in every direction, except for mine, causing her long blonde hair to dance across her shoulders and upper back. I wanted to reach out to touch it just to see if it was as soft as it looked and wondered if she would be surprised if I did.

“Dane, I feel like dancing,” Payton said as she reached for his hand with one of hers and used the other to bring her drink to her glossy lips so she could finish it off.

“Break Your Heart” by Taio Cruz and Ludacris was playing and I was glad because I didn’t want Dane holding her close during a slow song. I watched them walk toward the dance floor and Jessie leaned toward me with a warning. “Don’t look at her like that. She’s not your kind of girl.”

Who was this guy? He couldn’t be the Jessie Boone I knew. “Not my kind of girl, Boone? What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Payton doesn’t do one night stands like the chicks you’re used to. She’s a different kind of caliber.”

“Who says I’m looking for a one night stand?”

Jessie laughed at me. “We’ve been friends for a long time and I know you, Hawke. You’re always looking for a piece but she’s not gonna be it.”

Things were becoming more and more suspicious of Jessie being the one Payton was trying to forget with the liquor. “Why are you being so protective of her?”

“Payton has been Claire’s best friend forever.” He shrugged his shoulders. “Now, she has become one of my best friends and I protect her from guys like you. She’s nursing a wound and she doesn’t need a Playah like you to add fuel to the fire.”

I watched her dancing with Dane. “I can see that she’s different. I knew it the second she got out of her fancy car and strutted toward me in the middle of the road where she plowed into my car.” I turned back to Jessie. “I want to ask her out on a real date. What’s it gonna take for you to be okay with that since you seem to be her acting bodyguard?”

He shook his head in disapproval. “There’s nothin’ that would make me be okay with that.”

The arrogant bastard acted as though he was so much different from me. Before this Claire chick came along, I distinctly remember that he was just like me. “Come on, Boone. I promise I won’t try anything with her.”

He shook his head again. “No way. I don’t trust you with her.”

He was being such a pain in the ass. “She’s a big girl and you’re not her daddy. She can make up her own mind about going out with me.”

He sat back and crossed his arms. “I’ve already warned her about you so she’ll never agree.”

Hearing that he had cock blocked me wasn’t news. “Yeah, I gathered that from the way she questions my every move.”

He looked pleased with himself. “Good. That means she listened to me.”

I didn’t need his permission. “I don’t care what you think or what you told her. I’m asking her out.”

“She’s had two Long Islands in under an hour. She doesn’t handle liquor well and she’s going to be trashed any minute so I’m giving you the courtesy of a warning. You and I are friends, but we won’t be for long if you take advantage of her. You got it?”

I held my palms up innocently. “I’ve got it, man. I give you my word that I won’t take advantage of her. I will not try to get into her panties tonight.” Tonight was the only promise I would make regarding that.

I looked up and saw Claire sitting down at our table. “You’ll have me to answer to if you do. Then, I’ll turn you over to this one and I promise she’ll make it very painful for you.”

I heard a slow song beginning to play and I killed the rest of my beer before I was on my feet stalking toward Payton and Dane. “I’m cutting in.”

Dane shrugged and looked at Payton for her permission, letting me know they were definitely only friends.

She’ll rolled her eyes and shook her head. “Sure. Why not?”

Dane let go of Payton and I stepped closer to take her in my arms. She looped her arms loosely around my neck as I placed my hands on her hips and we began to sway to the beat of the music. She peered up into my eyes and with one look I could tell the alcohol was beginning to hit her pretty hard because she had that drunken glaze coming over her eyes.

She leaned back a little so she could focus on my face better. “You know what? You’re twice as hot when I’m seeing double.”

I’d be thrilled to hear that if she wasn’t trashed or if I hadn’t promised Jessie I wouldn’t get into her panties tonight. “Drinks kicking in, huh?”

“I believe they are and it’s ‘bout time. I have things I need to forget.”

Jessie said that she was nursing a wound and I wondered what idiot could have been stupid enough to hurt this beautiful girl.

She tightened her grip around my neck a little more and hung on tighter although I suspected it was more for support than flirtation. “I love this song.”

I had not been paying it any attention, so I carefully listened, but didn’t recognize it. “I’ve never heard it before. What’s the name of it?”

“It’s ‘Heaven’ by The Fire Theft.”

I listened to it a little more. “It’s a cool song. I like it.”

She leaned back a little and searched my face with unsteady vision. “Why did you ask me to dance? I’ve been a total bitch to you since the moment we met.”

Because I can’t resist your beauty or your smart ass mouth, but mostly because you intrigue me. “You’re different, nothing like the girls I usually go for.”

“Yeah, I’ve always been different. I tried being normal once. It was the worst five minutes of my life.”

“See? Stuff like that is what I really like about you. You’re so damn honest about who you are and you aren’t afraid to call me out on my bullshit.”

Man, I liked that about her. Probably more than I should. She hadn’t made tonight easy for me. Simply trying to talk to her had proven to be difficult and I guessed that the alcohol could be thanked for the friendly nature of the conversation we were currently having.

“That’s me, Saint Nick. I’ve never been afraid to call bullshit on anyone.”

Saint Nick? I felt my entire body stiffen. I hated being called that, but she made it sound so sweetly intoxicating the way it rolled off of her tongue and I almost forgot the painful reason I hated it so much.

I stopped dancing and stared at her face looking for the answer. “Why did you call me Saint Nick? I thought I was Jedi or Poppycock or something like that.” I tried to be casual about it and I hoped she couldn’t see the way she shook me to my core.

“It’s not near as funny if I have to explain it. I was being a smart ass because you’re the total opposite of a Saint, or at least that’s what Jessie told me.”

“I don’t like to be called that,” I whispered, but I wasn’t sure she heard me and I wasn’t sure I meant for her to. I reached for a lock of hair in her face and pushed it away. As I stared at her, I thought she couldn’t be more beautiful than she was in that moment, but then she smiled as she began to sway to the music again and proved my whole theory wrong.

“You’re so beautiful.” I blurted it out without thinking and was shocked by my own absentmindedness. Where had that come from? I had never told a girl anything like that before.

She didn’t say a word as she stared into my eyes with a determination to figure me out and the thing she thought I was hiding.

This was a night of firsts for me. I told a girl she was beautiful and I meant it. Now, I was about to ask her out on a date because I liked her and she was interesting, not because I was planning to get her in my backseat.

“I would really like to take you out. I know Jessie has told you to be leery of me, but I promise to be on my best behavior. I’ll be a saint and you can choose where we go and what we do. Dinner? Movie? You name it. We’ll do anything you want.”

Pleading with a girl for a date wasn’t my scene and it sort of made me feel like a loser, but then I realized how ridiculous I looked standing there hoping she’d agree. She searched my face for a moment and then whispered, “No.”

I just thought I felt ridiculous before. Now, I felt downright humiliated. “No? You’re turning me down just like that without any consideration? Why?”

“You act like this is the first time you’ve ever been told ‘no’.”

“By a girl, yeah.”

She stopped swaying and looked me straight in my eyes. She was trashed, but managed to not slur too badly. “How many girls have you gone through?”

My experience with chicks had always made me proud and maybe even a little arrogant, but suddenly I wasn’t so thrilled by the notches on my bedpost because I could feel that it was about to cost me this girl. “I don’t know,” I shrugged, feeling defeated.

“And that’s why I can’t go out with you. I’m not going to become a number you can’t identify. It’s not what I’m looking for.”

I was sure I didn’t have a shot in hell at being what she wanted, yet I needed the confirmation in case I was wrong. “Tell me what you’re looking for.”

Her smile was breathtakingly beautiful. “I want truly, madly, deeply.”

Oh, of course. She wanted lovey dovey. She wanted her kisses to be slow and romantic instead of fast and needy. She wanted everlasting love, which was something I didn’t offer. Love was overrated and nature used it to kick us in the gut and trick us into reproducing.