“We are.” He surprised her by pressing a lingering kiss to her mouth before settling back down on the stool beside her.
“I usually skip breakfast,” she confessed.
“Terrible. Hasn’t anyone told you it’s the most important meal of the day?”
“Yes. I’ve heard that. I just would rather sleep the extra ten to twenty minutes.”
At the mention of time, she glanced at the clock and gasped. “Is it really eleven?”
“Yeah. Guess this is technically brunch.” He gestured to their plates of scrambled eggs, bacon, and toast.
“I can’t remember the last time I slept this late.”
“You had a late night.” He stared at her in his devouring way, swiping back the heavy fall of hair off her shoulder.
She looked at him steadily. “It could have been a longer night . . .” If they had sex . . .
His gaze moved over her face, the searing blue darkening and heating her skin. “Your food is getting cold.”
She dropped her attention to her breakfast. “Mmm,” she murmured in appreciation as she scooped the first bite of buttery eggs into her mouth. “This is really good.”
“Not much of a cook, but I can make some mean eggs and spaghetti.”
“It’s great. Thanks.”
He winked at her and her stomach gave another flip at this lighter side of Knox. She could get used to him like this.
A text dinged on her phone. She could glimpse the screen from where she sat.
Don’t forget to bring a dessert for the BBQ!!
“Dammit,” she cursed at the sight of her sister’s text.
“What is it?”
She nodded at the phone. “My sister. I forgot I promised to go to her barbecue today.”
“Oh.” He turned his stare back to his eggs, stabbing a fluffy bit with his fork. He dropped it into his mouth and followed it with a big bite of bacon.
She stared at his profile for a moment before she heard herself blurting, “Would you like to go with me?”
She wasn’t sure why she asked. Her sister would freak out, but she wasn’t thinking about her sister right then. She was thinking about him. About right now. Sitting here having breakfast with him and how she could get used to that. Maybe it was a test, too.
Maybe she needed to see if he made up some excuse and scurried away. She might as well find out now if this was maybe something real. If there was that chance.
It was some time before he answered, and by then she was calling herself an idiot and fully expecting him to decline. They were still in unchartered territory and she had just invited him to a family bar-becue?
“Yeah.” He finally said. “I would.”
KNOX WAS GOING to meet her family.
He wasn’t certain what had inspired him to agree. He could claim it was the soft hope gleaming in her eyes when she invited him. That was definitely a part of it. He wanted to make her happy, and for some reason taking him to this barbecue and bringing him around her -people would do that.
He didn’t know why—he was certainly no prize for any woman—but she wanted him there. And he just wanted her. He knew that now. He accepted it. He felt lighter owning that fact. He wanted her around him. He wanted her under him, and he wasn’t going to pretend differently anymore.
There were several cars parked in front of the two--story suburban home. It was a nice house even if it did resemble every other one on the street. Better than the old run--down farmhouse he grew up in with peeling linoleum floors. Except it never bothered him much as boy. He and North had run over those floors in their football cleats. They’d explored every acre surrounding the house, hunting for arrowheads. He preferred the wide--open space of the country to living in one of these boxes. It reminded him of his cell block back in the prison. Relentless uniformity.
At least at his house he could walk out his front door and see trees.
As they made their way to her sister’s front porch, he took her hand in his. She sent him a startled look that was replaced with a smile he felt like a punch to his stomach. It was soft and tender and gave him all kinds of ideas. He suddenly regretted that he hadn’t touched her last night because all he wanted to do now was haul her off somewhere and taste all those parts of her that were soft and tender. The places that made her melt and sigh for him.
They were almost to the door when he tugged her back a step. “Hey,” he murmured.
She looked up at him curiously, stopping in front of him. “Hey.” She angled her head, still wearing that smile.
He reached up and dragged a thumb down her cheek, staring into her eyes and thinking that he’d never seen softer eyes.
He kissed her, taking his time, parting her lips and sweeping inside her mouth, tasting her until he felt her hands crawl up his chest and wrap around his neck.
He pulled back with a ragged breath. “Okay. Let’s go in.”
She made a small sound of disappointment, staring up at him with a cloudy gaze. “I say we forget the barbecue.”
He chuckled, readjusting his grip on the supermarket bag that held cookies. “Can’t do that. You promised your sister.”