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“Okay, fine.” I held up my hands in surrender. “But I won’t apologize for caring.”
“Can I ask you something?”
“Maybe?”
“Why do you hide the way you really are?”
I almost choked on my toast. “What are you talking about?”
“It’s like you’re two different people. I mean, before today, if somebody asked if I thought you had ever touched a stove, I would have laughed. When I thinkMagnus Miller,I don’t think nursemaid. I like this side of you.”
“You’re saying you don’t like the other side of me?” She was being serious, but I couldn’t help joking. Maybe because her questions made me want to squirm with discomfort. Serious questions, deep shit I didn’t know how to handle.
“You know what?” She shook her head and waved her hands before going back to her coffee now that her plate was clean. “Don’t answer that. I don’t know why I asked.”
No, that’s not right. I felt the walls coming back up, her defensive walls that kept us apart. That was the last thing I wanted. “Why do you do that? You ask a question, then you try to walk it back. You don’t have to.”
“I wasn’t trying to pry, that’s all. It’s really none of my business.”
That wasn’t right, either. Iwantedit to be her business. What the fuck was happening to me? I couldn’t get a hold of myself when it came to her and what she did to me. Who she made me want to be without trying—because she wasn’t trying, not even close. All she had to do was breathe and stare at me with those wide, green eyes that seemed to look straight into my soul.
“Maybe I needed to meet somebody I wanted to cook for,” I mused in a light voice.
“But it’s been more than just the cooking. You didn’t have to spend the whole day with me, or the night, or this morning.”
“I wanted to. I didn’t have to. There was no obligation. Maybe that’s why I wanted to.” I reached across the table and brushed the back of her hand with my fingers, watching her bottom lip withdraw behind her teeth.“And maybe I like being with you.”
Her cheeks flushed again, and she lowered her gaze to where our hands were joined. “I like being with you too. It’s crazy, but I do.”
“That doesn’t sound so crazy.”
“Well, it sort of is when you think about the way we’ve been at each other’s throats.”
The answer to that was simple but not easy to put into words. I didn’t have it in me to admit I didn’t know what to do when she hadn’t fallen for my charms right off the bat the way other women always did. Young, old, it didn’t matter. They liked the way I looked, they liked my money, and knowing I could show them a good time. I never had to try, not with Leila, not with anyone.
Only with Evelyn.
Evelyn, who happened to be sitting with me and holding my hand.
Evelyn, who, had made it seem completely normal to get up and cook despite the fact I could probably count on one hand the number of times I had done so.
I couldn’t put it into words, so I did the only other thing I could think to do. I stood and picked her up. She knew better than to fight me. “Where are we going?” she asked, though it sounded like something from a script. What she thought she was supposed to say.
She knew damn well where we were going and what I was going to do to her. Because I had to show her somehow what she meant and how different this was for me. Different from Leila and to every other woman I had ever known.
She made me feel things. She made me want. Need.
I lowered her to the bed and tugged at the belt of her robe. “How did she ever let you go?” she whispered.
I lifted my head from where I had nestled it between her tits. “What?” I searched her face for answers. “What did you say?”
“I shouldn’t have…” When I only frowned, she bit her lip, wincing. “I… it’s not my business. I didn’t mean to say it out loud.”
“You know about that?”
“Not the specifics. I’m sorry, really. Dammit.” She squeezed her eyes shut and drew her lips into a thin line.
“Relax. It’s all right. It’s just I didn’t know you knew anything about my marriage.”
