Page 20 of One Last Thing Before You Go

And yet…

“I want to do this for you, Pretty Gi—” he cuts himself off just in time, laughing softly at my glare. “Lottie. I meant Lottie.”

My lips quirk as I try to suppress a smile.

Damn him.

“You stole my chance at making you morning coffee last time. Just let me do it now.”

Pushing my reading glasses up my nose, I tell him “Knox… You—You have to stop this. It was a one-time thing. And now that we have to deal with this whole bookstore deal? It’s a really bad idea.”

He smiles softly despite his sad eyes. “I know. But will you at least give me this?”

After a moment’s hesitation, I nod once and take my cat mug when he passes it to me. I try not to focus too much on the tattoos covering his forearms, to not think about the way I traced them with my fingertips when his arms were wrapped around my waist—a camera on his arm, a tattoo to represent each country he’d visited… The way my touch made his skin break out in goosebumps before rolling me onto my back, feeling his weight pressing me into the mattress.

“Here you go,” he murmurs, his arm flexing.

I half-smile, trying to stay present as I thank him for it, just as Jenn sticks her head in the office. “Lottie, do you—Oh. Hey, Knox.” A wide, wicked grin spreads slowly across her face, her eyes bouncing between us.

God.

I roll my eyes. But Knox is all smiles as he greets her with a cheerful “Morning,” raising his cup in her direction.

“What’s up?” I ask, half annoyed, half relieved for the interruption.

“Adriana’s here to pick up her special order?”

“I guess I’ll balance the safe another time, then,” I mutter under my breath, closing the safe and shuffling quickly to the sideboard cover, pulling out the ten copies of the latest bestseller for her. I follow Jenn out of the office toward the front of the store with Knox close behind me.

“Yay! They came!” Adri jumps up and down in place, dark curls bouncing while clapping her hands together. It’s almost too much for me to take this early in the morning, but it is what it is.

“Yup. Good to go.”

“What is this?” Knox asks, an amused look in his eyes.

“A special order for the local bookclub,” I tell him. “We don’t really sell a lot of mainstream books in here, so I special order them for certain people behind Walter’s back. Or did.” I smile, remembering how he pretended not to notice.

“And who might you be?” Adriana asks, suddenly noticing the gorgeous tattooed man behind me. She sticks her hand out and bats her lashes at him, turning her flirty mode on.

I roll my eyes as I ring her order up.

“Hey,” Knox laughs, taking her hand. “I’m Knox. I’m one of the new partial owners of this place.”

Adriana gasps and drops his hand, turning to look at me with delight. “This is the guy you slept with?”

Knox bursts out in laughter as I flush crimson. “Adri!”

“What?” But her faux-innocent eyes do nothing to calm my sudden ire.

“He’s standing right. There,” I hiss.

“What? He knows he slept with you, doesn’t he?” She raises a brow in Knox’s direction, who chokes on a laugh before nodding. “See? So it isn’t a secret from him—or Ceres Cove, for that matter.”

I gawk, mortified.

“This is a small town, Carlota. You went out on a date with the man. What did you expect?”

“Who told you?” I ask, eyes narrowed.