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“Coffee. ” There was a note of thankfulness in her voice as the machine beeped to indicate it had completed the brewing cycle. “Sit down, Mac, you make me nervous hovering over me like that. ”
He wasn’t exactly hovering over her. Just trying to get a little closer as he considered another attempt to get into those indecent shorts.
Instead, he did as she suggested and sat down at the kitchen table while she cooked. It occurred to him that while she was frying bacon might be the wrong time to risk making her any madder. She only fried bacon in black iron, and if she ever decided to use it as a weapon, he was in some serious trouble.
But he couldn’t help the hunger gnawing at his insides, either. Over the past three years he had become something, someone, he wasn’t. And it was beginning to leave a funny taste in his mouth.
He had always been an extreme lover. The dark sexuality that drove him had always been a part of his character. It was one of the things that made him a good investigative agent. He understood the darkness, the shadows that could drive a man to extreme acts.
It was a part of himself he hid from Keiley. And in hiding it from her, he was beginning to become wary of the press of darkness in his mind.
“I think you miss your friends in Virginia,” Keiley announced as she set breakfast on the table, causing Mac to stare back at her warily.
Mac arched his brow, allowing his expression to shift momentarily with the hunger eating away at him.
It was beginning. He could feel it now; it was in the air as thick as the scent of bacon frying and coffee wafting beneath his nose.
The challenge was being laid on the table. Finally.
For years he watched her navigate the gossip that begun with their appearance in his hometown. Old would-be flames prodding at her. Innuendo, smug smiles, and outright lies concerning his activities away from her had gone from worrying her to amusing her.
Now, she was stepping into territory she had left unexplored when she escaped Virginia, and confronting the fear of his past sexuality. The fear was no curiosity. The gleam of it in her gaze had fire ripping through his body and for the first time since he realized what she meant to him, he let it free in his expression.
Keiley’s lips parted almost in surprise, as though the arrogance and sexuality of the look had come as a shock to her. And it would have. Mac rarely allowed enough of a chink in his façade to let her see the shadows that tormented him.
She cleared her throat delicately. “You know, all your male-bonding guy things at Sinclair’s Club. ”
She stared back at him with supreme innocence. Her hazel eyes were bright and compassionate, her expression sympathetic. As though she were talking about a baseball buddy or guys’ night out at the local bar. But he saw the heat shadowing it, burning behind the blander emotions.
“There were no bonding guy things there, Kei. ”
“Do you miss it?” She tilted her head to the side, watching him curiously.
“You know what the club was,” he reminded her. “I don’t miss fucking other women, if that’s what you’re asking me. ”
Keiley kept him more than satisfied sexually. She knew how to tease him, how to make him crazy, and she was as adventurous as hell. More adventurous than she realized.
“That wasn’t what I was asking you, Mac. ” She rolled her eyes before lowering them to her breakfast. “Just forget I mentioned it. ”
That wasn’t going to happen.
“Why did you mention it?”
She stared back at him once again, her gaze reflective. “Because you’re too tense. You have very few friends, and despite the invitations we receive, you never want to socialize. You weren’t like this in Virginia. ”
“I’m busy, Kei. ”
“You’re hiding,” she told him. “And hiding never works. It’s definitely not going to work with me. Are you missing your sex games in Virginia, Mac? Is that the problem?”
He wished he could have snapped at her. He wished he could have stood up and stomped out. He wished he could have avoided her.
But she was staring at him with that faintly frightened expression she had used the first time she asked him about the club. Wariness filled her eyes, and he felt like a jerk. Like a bastard. Like he was failing her. Pushing her. Stealing himself against it, he let her see the lie coming.
“I’m not missing any sex games. ” The lie didn’t come easily to his lips. “Now eat your breakfast. ”
The curiosity blazed in her eyes then. He was daring her, whether she realized it or not.
“What was it like?” she asked, as he dug his fork into the scrambled eggs on his plate and fought the anticipation building inside him.
