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Like that crazy, immaculate thing that had gone down between us two nights ago had become a part of our consciousnesses.
I was doing my absolute best to keep things light. It appeared to be an insurmountable feat when he’d blasted a thousand cracks into the walls surrounding my heart.
Then his children had gone and trampled all over the foundation that I’d built for my life.
And that kiss…that kiss had stolen my resolve and his touch had left me shaken.
But it was the care that continually brimmed in that warm, brown gaze that made me question everything I thought I knew.
What made me wonder.
What made me hope.
Ezra tossed a casual grin my way, though it tumbled through me with the intensity of a 9.0 magnitude earthquake. “How else am I going to keep my eye on my favorite little trespasser?”
“Is that what I am? Yours?”
Crap. It was out before I could stop it. Flagrant and rash.
I bit down on my bottom lip like I could reel it back. At least it’d come out playful.
Ezra didn’t seem to take it that way, though, since those eyes tracked me like he never wanted to look away.
“It felt like it…when I kissed you. Like you were mine.”
An aftershock rolled through, more powerful than the earthquake from a few moments before. We hadn’t acknowledged that kiss in the couple of times I’d seen him in passing.
We’d tiptoed around each other, acting as if it hadn’t happened.
I doubted there was a chance either of us would ever forget it.
“I guessed we were both caught up in the moment.” How flimsy an excuse.
A challenge filled his expression, and he sat farther back in the booth. It might as well have been a throne with how powerful he looked.
“That’s what it was, huh?” His words bristled across my flesh.
“Mmhmm.”
It was a good thing Olivia wasn’t here because his little girl would be singing, Liar, liar, pants on fire.
No question, it was written all over me. That it was more than a moment, and if I wasn’t careful, I was going to want it to last forever.
“Weird…I could have sworn it was something else.” Seduction wound through his voice, and I cleared my throat when I realized I’d been standing at his booth for an inordinate amount of time and the rest of my section was full except for the table that had just been bussed.
“Have you decided what you’d like to eat for breakfast?”
Those eyes raked over me again.
Me.
He wanted to eat me.
I knew it.
I was terrified that once he chewed me up, he’d spit me out. Or maybe…maybe what I was really terrified of was that he might want to keep me.
“I’ll go with the morning special, eggs over medium and an English muffin.”
“Great. I’ll get that order right in for you.”
I went to leave, only this time rather than grabbing me by the wrist the way he seemed to like to do, he grabbed me by the outside of the thigh.
Holy mother, my knees nearly buckled right out from under me. I would have melted into his touch if his expression didn’t twist with a dread that stabbed me through the middle of the chest. “Have you noticed anything that has made you uncomfortable? Anything that set you off kilter or just didn’t sit right?”
Right.
He was concerned about the near break-in at the motel.
I’d almost allowed myself to forget it. Assign it to chance. I breathed out a sigh. “No. I haven’t noticed anything at all.”
In worried contemplation, he gnawed at his bottom lip. My attention got stuck there, and I was having a really hard time taking any of this seriously when the only thing that seemed to matter right then was the memory of the way those lips had felt against mine.
“We didn’t find any evidence of any kind.” It sounded close to an apology. I honestly didn’t know whether to be worried or relieved.
“That’s good,” I settled on.
Ezra frowned in clear disagreement. “I don’t know that it is. I would have preferred to have tracked this asshole down to get him off the street.” He paused then urged, “I want you to be extra careful, Savannah.”
I forced a bright smile, one that came far too easy when I was teasing this sweet teddy bear of a man—this man who kept chipping away at the rubble inside me—and I leaned in close to his ear. “Why would I need to watch my own back when I have an overbearing friend to watch over me?”
I pulled back, though our noses were only three inches away.
Ezra released a slow chuckle, as good as a caress that traveled from my head to my toes. He gave a gentle squeeze to my thigh. “You’d better watch out, Savannah…it sounds a whole lot like you’re giving me permission.”
I leaned even closer to him. “Maybe I am.”
