Brad is still standing just on the other side of the kitchen staring at me like I’m an unrecognizable personage in his home, but he seems to have relaxed a bit. His eyes follow my barely-clad figure as I move with determination around his kitchen, and that blue gaze is beginning to smolder as he takes in my bouncy cleavage and bare thighs. Good, because I want him to want me, and I’m not a girl who gives up easily.
The food is finally ready, and I pile steaming heaps of fluffy eggs, crisp bacon and crumbly biscuits with gravy onto two plates. Then, I set up the small kitchen table near the large window looking over the balcony. Good. With the sunlight shimmering through the screen, Brad won’t be able to hide from me. Topping off the settings with two cold glasses of orange juice is perfect, and I take a seat before smiling sweetly at my lover.
“Coming?” I ask, syrup melting from my voice.
He’s still standing by the kitchen island as if in shock, staring at me. With a laugh, I roll my eyes and point to the chair across from me.
“Would you please stop trying so hard and just sit down and eat? I know you’re hungry after that incredibly punishing workout. Come and get the calories you need.”
He huffs and runs one hand through that black, matted hair. I smile internally because it’s a sure sign of a man trying to fight a battle he knows he’s going to lose, and sure enough, after a minute of us staring each other down, he walks stiff as a board to the table and sits across from me, adjusting his body awkwardly like he’s trying to put more distance between us than the small table allows. I merely shake my head and start eating like nothing’s wrong. Mmm, these eggs are good.
Brad digs in too, and his eyes go wide as he takes his first bite of crisp bacon. “Damn, this is really tasty,” he growls. “I didn’t know you could cook.”
I giggle.
“There’s a lot you don’t know about me, Brad Landon. Why, do you think I’m someone who waits for other people to serve me?”
He looks stricken and stops chewing for a moment.
“No, of course not,” he begins, but I stop him.
“It’s okay. I know I play up the image of a spoiled rich girl sometimes, but it’s not actually how I am. Things are not what they appear, Mr. Landon, and I intend on showing you exactly how.”
My handsome lover’s brows draw together and he pinches the bridge of his nose as if in pain. I shouldn’t think he looks sexy right now, but watching him grapple with his desire for me versus what he thinks he should do is very intriguing, not to mention entertaining too. After all, my claws are already in him, and I’m not going to let him walk away after what we shared last night.
“Katy,” he says, my name a growl as it rolls off his tongue. “We can’t. Again, I work for your dad and if Joseph ever found out it would be bad for both of us. Not only that, but I won’t run around behind his back. It’s unseemly and ridiculous. I don’t like to lie.”
I reach over the table and put my hand on his and the electricity between us is immediate. Brad’s blue eyes gleam and his nostrils flare, but I maintain my serious look.
“My dad won’t find out because I would never tell him. If you don’t tell him either, then I don’t think we’d be lying.”
His jaw clicks. “Katy, it’s a lie of omission. Not saying anything is a type of lying.”
I merely squeeze his hand before going back to my eggs.
“Not in my book, it’s not,” I say in a cheerful voice. “Besides, this isn’t the Senator’s business, Brad. Your personal life and my personal life don’t belong to Joseph, and he doesn’t need to know. Treat it like a military secret if you must, but don’t feel guilty about it.”
With that, I get up and circle around the table before plunking myself down in Brad’s lap. Oooh, he’s so gorgeous up close and never breaking eye-contact, I pull up his t-shirt, revealing that broad, bronzed chest again. His eyes drop to my exposed thighs, and one hand makes its way up to trail up that creamy flesh of its own accord. The heat in his eyes is so palpable that my insides melt and I begin to swoon. But not before I’ve had my say.
“You got that, tiger?” I whisper against his lips before pressing my mouth to his. “We belong together, and I won’t let anything or anybody stand in our way.”
Then the fight goes out of him as he seizes my mouth with his own. Those large palms dig into my ass and his hardness stirs beneath my bottom, becoming insistent and very male. I smile sweetly, worming out of the t-shirt so that I’m now nude and lush in his arms, my center slit already dripping with desire.