Page 13 of Knight’s Seduction

Easy, right?

Fuck.

Meredith glanced at the door again.

Stop it.

Kryos hadn’t been into the diner since their kiss two nights ago. That kiss. The one she’d initiated. She’d never done anything like that in her life. And then Kryos had stopped it, and he’d made her leave. Humiliation burned her cheeks.

“Merri! Phone’s for you,” Frank called.

Walking back the way she’d come, Meredith wiped her hands on her apron and reached for the phone.

Frank held it out of reach with a scowl. “Make it quick.”

Biting back a smart reply, she took the phone from her surly boss. “Meredith speaking.”

“Hi, gorgeous. Sorry to call you at work, but I had to work late last night and I’ll be working late again tonight. Just wanted to make sure you didn’t think I’d forgotten you,” David said.

Guilt fired through her, along with that same sense of wrongness when she heard David’s voice. “It’s nice of you to think of me, but I can’t really talk right now, the diner’s kind of busy.”

Frank glanced at her, eyebrow raised because the place only had four people in it. The dinner rush finished an hour ago.

“Right…” There was a long pause. “I’ll be glad when you’re finish there for good.”

Meredith had promised David she’d hand in her notice, but she hadn’t told Frank she was leaving yet. She wasn’t sure why, but every time she’d gone to do it, something had stopped her. “I should go.”

“Okay, then, darling. I miss you.”

“Bye, David.”

Another pause. “I can’t wait to see you Wednesday night. I plan on making it a night you won’t ever forget.”

He disconnected, and Meredith had to squeeze her eyes closed when the feeling of wrongness grew bigger, suffocating.

The rest of the night went quickly, and she was glad when her shift was finally over. Kryos never showed, and the realization that he was avoiding her after she’d put herself out there for the first time since she was a kid, that she’d been rejected again, hurt like hell.

Hitching her bag higher on her shoulder, she waved goodbye to Frank and headed out—

Kryos was leaning against the brick wall beside the door. He was wearing worn jeans that were frayed at the cuff and clung to his long solid thighs. His black T-shirt molded to his chest and his leather jacket fit him to perfection, outlining his broad shoulders.

A curl of his blond hair hung across his forehead carelessly, and his brown eyes, warm and intense, were focused on her. He was perfectly built for his chosen profession—destruction, demolition—but with the face of an angel. Looking into those brown eyes, she could almost be fooled into thinking he was something he wasn’t, that he was harmless.

But he wasn’t.

And the soft smiles and gentle looks didn’t disguise it.

A grin curled his beautiful lips as his gaze moved over her in a way that made her heart actually flutter in her chest. He pushed away from the wall, and the closer he moved toward her, that bad boy swagger in full effect, the harder it was to breathe.

Then he was right in front of her.

“Hey,” he said.

His voice was all growly and deep, and there was something different about him. The way he was looking at her for one, it was hotter, softer…just more, more of everything.

“What are you doing here?” Was that really her voice, that breathy and needy rasp?

He brought his hand up. He was holding a yellow rose.