He hesitated, as if unwilling to disparage Bert, and she respected him all the more. ‘It hasn’t happened often?’
‘Try never.’
His eyebrows rose and she tempered her bordering-on-bitter response with, ‘Cooking grounds me. I’ve always done it.’
‘Me too. I like experimenting, which is how I came up with these eggs.’ He sent a pointed glare at her plate. ‘Which you haven’t touched yet.’
Had she met a more intuitive man? Sensing her discomfort, he’d changed the subject smoothly. Another point in his favour. Not that she needed to keep tally; he’d impressed her beyond her wildest dreams on their two dates.
‘Time to rectify that.’ She picked up her knife and fork, cut a corner wedge of toast, piled egg on top of it and popped it into her mouth. The unexpected flavour explosion made her eyes bulge a little and he laughed.
‘Told you.’
She tasted hints of garlic, pepper, basil and some other spice she couldn’t identify. ‘Is your secret ingredient cumin?’
‘Nope.’ To keep from answering, he started eating, and rather than chastise him for teasing her, she focussed on demolishing the rest of the eggs, shovelling the flavour sensation into her mouth as fast as she could.
When she’d finished, she looked up to find him grinning at her. ‘I’m glad I could satisfy all your appetites tonight.’
‘Don’t get too cocky,’ she said, dabbing at her mouth with a paper serviette. ‘Besides, I’m not talking to you unless you tell me the secret ingredient.’
He shrugged, his grin widening. ‘That’s fine. Now that we’ve replenished our energy supplies, I’m sure we can come up with other things to do besides talking.’
Heat crept into her cheeks at the memory of how good those other things were and he laughed as she tried to stare him down.
‘It’s garam masala,’ he said, demonstrating a pinch between his thumb and forefinger. ‘About a quarter of a teaspoon. Takes the eggs to a whole new level.’
‘You were right. Best eggs I’ve ever had.’
‘So you’re talking to me again?’
‘Looks like it.’
‘Pity.’ His hand snaked across the table to take hold of hers. ‘Because I was looking forward to more of those non-talking activities.’
As his thumb stroked the back of her hand, tracing slow, languorous circles, she couldn’t agree more. ‘We can always do both?’
‘Deal.’
As he stood and gently tugged her to her feet, Heidi tried to ignore her voice of reason and its insistent rationale that letting this incredible man get under her skin would leave her broken-hearted when he departed.
CHAPTER
29
Hudson didn’t do sleepovers, so spending the night in Karly’s bed spoke volumes. He liked her. And despite the clear delineation they’d made before the phenomenal sex, this thing between them—no matter how brief—had complication written all over it.
Jeremiah would be giving him his final answer tomorrow and Hudson had little doubt it would be in the affirmative. Then he’d be out of here. Which meant he had one day to spend with Karly, and he intended on making it memorable. He’d convinced her to play hooky from work and surprisingly she’d agreed. When he’d asked how she’d spin it to Jem, she’d said she’d tell him the truth. She had an enviable relationship with her grandfather and he wondered if selling the agency would cause angst between them.
Not that it was any of his business. He had a job to do here—acquire their agency, expand Grenville Sanctuary into rural Victoria, and gain valuable funding for his youth housing projects here and beyond. But he’d lost sight of that job for the last twelve hours, something he rarely did.
Being with Karly consumed him. He liked listening to her regale him with tales of her upbringing in this town, he laughed at her snarky descriptions of townsfolk, he held her after he allowed her to distract him with her beautiful body. Because that’s exactly what she’d done when he’d asked her about her family beyond Jem: clammed up. He understood, considering he never told anybody about his past—which made his revelations to her all the more startling.
What was it about Karly that had him wanting to spend more than a few days with her?
Though he wasn’t a complete idiot. He’d seen her reaction when he’d mentioned keeping in touch after he left: like he’d handed her a key to his place and she’d rather fling it in the ocean.
He’d been disappointed, despite her making it clear she only had transient interludes with men; considering how combustible they were he thought she wouldn’t mind catching up if and when she made it to Melbourne.