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Rafe wasn’t sure how to dispel the awkwardness that lay between them now, so he went with the old standby. Ignore it.
“I’m just going to make that call and take a shower. You can order some food. If you want, I mean. You’ll find a bunch of takeout menus by the phone.”
Diana didn’t seem any more eager to look him in the eye. “Right. I’ll figure it out.”
She spun on her heel and went into the kitchen while Rafe continued down the hall to his room. What the hell was wrong with him? You’d think he’d never kissed a woman before. Memories of her lips, warm and firm against his, sent another shot of adrenaline through his veins. He’d never had a woman respond to him the way Diana did. So open and completely uninhibited. His response had been just as incendiary.
After a quick status update with Oskar, Rafe hurried through a shower, inspecting his skin while the water pounded on his back. There was a shallow cut on his inner arm. He hadn’t escaped the knife completely it seemed. Considering how shocked he’d been to see Diana standing in that alley, he was lucky he hadn’t taken a knife to the heart.
There was something about the woman that got under his skin. An image of her, soft and needy after the kiss, grabbed him by the dick. Jesus. He was harder at just the thought of her than he’d been for any woman he’d had under him. She distracted him. That made him sloppy.
A dangerous thing.
Not to mention the fact that her story about seeing him while out shopping didn’t quite add up.
Scowling, he cranked the water all the way to cold. The shock to his system wasn’t nearly enough to eradicate all thoughts of her, but it made his erection go down. Slightly.
He toweled off and then walked into his room to find clothes. While he stood in the doorway to the closet, his mind went over the events of the afternoon again and again. She’d shown up in the alley at the worst possible moment, a point in her favor to telling the truth. If she’d been following him all along, he would have noticed. Not to mention she would have had time to find a good hiding place. Add to that the shock on her face at watching him fight. No one could fake that expression. Diana had been terrified.
But despite things having a rational explanation, something about the situation still didn’t sit right with him. With a growl of frustration, he yanked on sweatpants and a T-shirt before leaving his room.
The only way he’d get any real answers was to talk to Diana. Carefully.
Diana stood with her back to him in the kitchen, taking something out of the oven.
“You cooked for me?”
“I can’t take credit for it. I found the lasagna in the freezer. But I figured this would be faster than ordering out.” Diana rocked on her heels as she spoke.
For the first time in a good long while, Rafe had no idea what to do or say. And for someone who was so used to having all the answers, it was unnerving as hell. Diana had cooked for him. How could something so simple twist him up? Because you like it. He shoved the thought aside and glanced up at her. She gave him a sheepish smile.
Rafe’s gaze drifted back to the lasagna in front of him. His stomach grumbled and his mouth watered. It smelled fucking incredible. She’d made a large salad to go with it and laid out place settings at his small dinette table with napkins neatly folded under the silverware. A small candle burned in the center of the table.
He hadn’t even realized he owned a candle.
Rafe approached the table cautiously, the way you might approach a bomb. “You didn’t have to go to all this trouble.”
She shrugged and gave him another one of her timid smiles. “It’s no trouble. Go, sit down. I’ll pour you a glass of wine.”
Again, Rafe shifted on his feet, unsure of what to do. Other than Nonna, and occasionally his sister, no one had ever taken care of him like this. He had no idea what to do with the kind gesture, and a simple thank-you somehow didn’t seem like enough.
As he looked around the room, it hit him that this was the closest he’d been to living with someone in years. Her shoes were next to his, lined up by the front door. The lap blanket she’d used earlier while watching television was thrown haphazardly over the end of the couch in the living room.
The fruit his housekeeper had purchased was now arranged in a clear glass bowl on the center of the kitchen island. When was the last time he’d had fruit on display? Uh, try never. The thought made him smile.
Slowly, she was doing things to make his apartment seem like home. More than he’d ever done. Hell, he’d never even had anyone over. And he’d been here for a year. How fucked up was that?
“Seriously, Diana, this is great. But you didn’t have to do this.”
She brought over a plate with salad already served out. “I figure you can serve the lasagna yourself. I can never plate it well.”
He laughed. ?
??I got it. You go ahead and pour the wine.”
Her smile slid a little when their fingertips grazed. He saw a flash of heat. Or was that panic? He was unsure. Either way, he served them both. She brought over the wine, putting the larger glass in front of him.
When she sat, her smile was tighter, but she said, “Go on, eat.” She started in on her salad with gusto, and he followed suit. When she took a large gulp of wine, he watched the way her tongue peeked out to lick her bottom lip before sipping, and he had to bite back a curse.
