Page 190 of Make Me Mean It

EPILOGUE

THEO

Inudge the door open with my shoulder, balancing the takeout in both hands, and kick it shut behind me before dumping my keys onto the table.

“Honey, I’m home,” I call, snorting quietly at myself as I head further inside. “Connor?”

Nothing.

I stop, listening, because the house definitely isn’t quiet. Some generic pop song is playing from the kitchen, tinny through what sounds like Connor’s phone speaker, and I roll my eyes as I follow it down the hall.

Of course.

I make it as far as the doorway before I stop again.

Connor has his back to me, moving between the counter and the sink, completely fucking oblivious to the fact that I’m standing there. There’s this soft sway to his hips that I’m pretty sure he doesn’t even realise he’s doing, his head moving slightly with the beat as he reaches for something on the counter.

A smile pulls at my mouth before I can stop it.

Fuck.

There’s something stupidly domestic about it. Connor in the kitchen. Music playing. Me standing here with dinner like this is just what we fucking do now.

The thought lands somewhere warm beneath my ribs, and I don’t let myself look at it too closely.

Instead, I cross the kitchen and dump the takeout onto the island before slipping up behind him, sliding my hands around his waist.

Connor fucking jumps.

A sharp little sound tears out of him as his whole body jerks beneath my hands, and I immediately lose it, laughing as I spin him around.

His eyes narrow.

“You scared the shit out of me, asshole.”

He shoves my shoulder, hard enough to rock me back slightly, then does it again like the first one wasn’t enough.

I press a hand dramatically to my chest. “How dare I?”

The grin pulling at my mouth probably ruins it.

“I’ll get you back for that,” he warns.

“Yeah?”

Connor steps into me.

I let him push me back, one step and then another until the edge of the island presses into my lower back, and my smile only gets wider when I look down at him.

There’s still annoyance pinching his face, but I know him well enough now to see what’s underneath it.

My gaze drops to his mouth.

“I’m shaking, princess.”

There it is.

Something flashes across Connor’s face, his eyes darkening as the annoyance burns straight into something else, and the low growl that rips out of him sends heat curling through my stomach before I even realise he’s moved.