“We can have breakfast now.”
“It’s lunchtime.”
I shrugged. “We’ll call it brunch. Eggs, bacon, coffee.”
Terrance groaned. “Yes, please.”
He stood in the kitchen, leaning on the counter and watching me as I scrambled eggs and fried bacon. He’d put on gray sweats and a T-shirt and looked so cute I wanted to lick him.
“We need to talk to my boss… about our situation.” He gestured between us.
“Then we’ll tell him tomorrow. We can book a meeting, and I’ll come with you.”
“We’re not leaving the property unless we have to. No extra meetings.”
“Then invite him here.” The eggs were done. I moved them away from the burner with one hand while I flipped the bacon pieces with the other.
“I could.” He hesitated. “If you’re okay with that.”
“Of course.”
“He might insist on me not being your bodyguard anymore.”
I was about to say something offensive, but the toaster popping noisily stopped me. I took a few breaths while Terrance plated toast and eggs.
“What if I insist that nobody else but you can come anywhere near me?”
Terrance’s lips twitched. “That would be a very sudden change to your lifestyle.”
Was he joking?
“I mean it, Terry.”
He braced himself on the breakfast table with both hands and gave me a stern look.
“You want me to be serious? How about this? I can’t both fuck you and have you pay me for protecting you.”
“Why not? I enthusiastically consent to both. In fact, ifyou fuck me hard every morning, I’ll be more likely to follow protocol during the day.”
He rolled his eyes. “I’m not having this discussion with you on an empty stomach.”
We sat down, the tension between us palpable. He would be stubborn about this—I could see it happening. He would insist on stupid rules and make it impossible for him to keep working for me.
“By the way, you’ve already promised you will follow the protocolandthe extra security measures,” he said between bites. “You were quite vocal about it.”
I swallowed a mouthful and forked up a heap of eggs. “Under the condition you’d stay.”
“Why are we even having this argument? I want to keep you alive; you want to stay alive. We’re working toward the same goal.”
“Exactly my point. Why should our being mates make you in any way unfit to keep working for me?”
“Would you want to be employed by someone you were in a relationship with?”
“Cassidy and Hassel are your employers. I’m just a client.”
He bit into his toast, shaking his head. After chewing and swallowing, he muttered, “You’re being a pain, Lothair.”
Then it registered what he said, and I grinned. “We are in a relationship.”
