She laughed, and took a step back. He followed the movement. Opening up the oven, she waved for him to take a look inside. Eggs and toast were the last thing to be cooked because they were the fastest. Inside the oven, bacon, hash browns, and toast sat in different dishes, staying warm.
“No worries,” she told him. “I know how to cook a breakfast.”
“I won’t underestimate you again.”
“Thanks.”
Violet turned the burner down for the eggs just enough to keep them from burning as she ran her fork throughout the pan, keeping it all from sticking to the bottom. Kaz finally managed to surprise her just a bit when she felt his lips press to the back of her neck softly. Just as fast, he stepped away.
Domestic, he’d said.
She didn’t think he meant it quite the same way as she took the word.
Once she was finished at the stove, and had a fair spread sitting over the island to choose from, Violet shoved a plate across the counter for Kaz to take. He did, offering her one of those smooth smiles that caught her off guard every single time.
Violet fixed her plate, and sat atop a stool when Kaz brought one around the other side of the island for her to use. He sat across from her, attention drifting between the food and her.
It wasn’t awkward.
But she knew, just by the way he kept quiet, he was thinking about things. Her, maybe. The night before, likely.
“I considered taking off this morning,” Violet said softly.
Kaz barely reacted to that, but he did lift a brow and stared at her over the fork he was lifting to his mouth. “I would have been severely pissed off, had you done that.”
“Oh?”
“Very.”
“Well, I didn’t, so no need for that.”
“But you thought about it,” he pressed.
“Wouldn’t it have been easier?” she asked.
Kaz tipped his head to the side slightly, asking, “Easier for whom?”
“This.”
“And this is … what?”
Violet pursed her lips. “You don’t have to make everything difficult, Kaz.”
“I’m not making it difficult. I’m asking a question, Violet. You should answer it.”
Fair enough.
“This,” she repeated, waving a hand between them. “We hooked up once, and then again—”
“Hooking up is a one-time thing. When you start seeking the same person out to fuck again, it no longer falls into that category.”
He’d said a similar thing the night before. And he had a good point.
Violet wasn’t exactly able to say with confidence that it wouldn’t happen again between them, because honestly, she was already wondering how she could get him back into his bedroom after he was done eating. She didn’t think she would have much trouble convincing him, but she was still thinking about it.
And that in itself said a lot.
“My point was that I thought about taking off and just … letting it be what it was,” she said.
Kaz stopped eating entirely, discarding his fork to the side and picking up a napkin to wipe at his mouth. He didn’t look pleased at all over her statement, and for the first time all morning, he wouldn’t look at her. “Is that what you want to do, then?”
She was there, wasn’t she?
“I didn’t leave,” Violet settled on saying.
Kaz nodded once. “About last night, when you woke up.”
Violet frowned, not wanting to go into specifics about why she’d woken up. It was enough that he had been able to pull details from her mumblings to make a story and go with it. She didn’t have to confirm it.
“Let’s not go there,” she said.
“I have to.”
“I don’t want to talk about the dreams again, Kaz.”
He chuckled, but the sound came off entirely dry and not the least bit amused. “No, not that.”
“Then what?”
“I didn’t grab a condom, and—”
Oh.
Violet’s wide eyes and growing smile was enough to quiet him. “It’s fine.”
“Is it? Because I’m not sure that it is.”
“Worried about making some illegitimate babies with a woman your father doesn’t approve of?” she asked, smirking just enough to tell him she was teasing.
Kaz scoffed. “Babies, yes. My father, not in the least.”
Violet didn’t entirely believe that. “You sure?”
“Partly,” he said, shrugging. “For someone else, it probably wouldn’t be an issue to my father, as long as shit was handled. But since it’s you … Yeah.”
“Huh.”
“Wouldn’t be different for your father, no?”
Violet’s smile melted away instantly. “Point taken.”
“I thought so.”
“Still, it’s fine. I have regular shots to take care of that, so no illegitimate babies to worry about. My father overlooks men in my life as long as I don’t … ‘shame him’, as he says.”
Kaz’s expression remained aloof and impassive as he watched her from across the island. “Shame is an interesting word to use between a father and his daughter.”
“My life in a nutshell?” she offered.
It was truer than she wanted to admit.
And she could tell, just by the flashing disapproval in Kaz’s gray eyes, that he didn’t like it at all.
She didn’t know what else to tell him.
“That’s not my only concern,” Kaz said quietly.
“The birth control shot?”
“Yes, that and more.”