She chuckled and sat down on the stool I pulled out for her. “Okay, if you’re sure you’d rather talk.”
“Did you wear my shirt just to torture me?”
Shrugging, she turned to smile at me innocently. “No. Why would I do that? It was just the first thing I came across, and I wanted to get out here to see if you’d left. By the time I was awake enough to smell the food and realize you wouldn’t have left without your shirt, I was already out of my bedroom. Why? Is it torturing you?”
Moving behind her, I wound my arms around her waist, pulled her back into my front, and bent down to nuzzle her neck. “You already know it is, but things seem pretty perfect to me just the way they are right now, so let’s just ignore it. My dick will get the message eventually.”
She leaned into me, resting her head on my shoulder, and turned to plant a chaste kiss on the side of my jaw. “We really do need to talk, huh?”
“Yeah, we do,” I said firmly. “No more funny business until we have, but first, breakfast.”
While I was reluctant to do it, I let go of her and walked back to the oven. I grabbed one of the mitts hanging on a hook on the wall and slid it on. She laughed as I pulled the hot tray out and brought it back to her.
“Look at you, being all domesticated and stuff. Where is this coming from?”
“I don’t know, but it’s been coming for a long time. It was exactly what I was planning for the morning after the last time we fell asleep together, but we never got this far.” I exhaled, but now wasn’t the time to quiz her about what had happened that night. “First things first, I need to tell you that I really do like the house. I know it might not have looked that way, but I was just surprised by some of the stuff you put in it. I thought…” I let the sentence hang in mid-air. “It doesn’t matter. I was being stupid. The housewarming party was on Friday night. Did you get my invitation?”
“I did, but I thought you must’ve sent it by mistake,” she said. “How was it?”
“It was great.” I set the tray down before digging into the brown paper delivery bag in search of all the condiments. After pulling everything out, I sat down across from her and looked into her curious brown eyes as I explained. “It would’ve been better if you’d been there to hear all the compliments yourself, but I should’ve made it clearer that it wasn’t a mistake. I wanted you there. I hoped you’d come.”
A thin crease appeared between her brows. “Really? You do realize we haven’t actually spoken since the reveal. I didn’t think you wanted anything to do with me anymore.”
“Is that what you were doing at the club last night?” I asked.
I didn’t want it to bother me, but it did. Jealously reared up inside me whenever I thought about who she might’ve been dancing with before I’d gotten there and what she might’ve done if I hadn’t shown up. “Did you go because you thought I didn’t want anything to do with you?”
She chewed on the inside of her lip for a moment, but then she nodded. “I’d like to point out that I’m perfectly free to go clubbing whenever I want and that I would be even if we were together, but since I don’t think you asked me that to insinuate that I wasn’t, let’s not go into that.”
Inhaling deeply, her gaze locked on mine. “I went because I was trying to get you out of my system. Brit and Trevor invited me and I thought it would be nice to get out. I needed a distraction and I thought that would be a good one, but it wasn’t.”
“Why were you trying to get me out of your system?”
She arched a brow at me, then rolled her eyes. “Why do you think? I hadn’t heard from you in a week and it’s not like we left things on a great note. I thought we were done. I didn’t think I’d ever see you again, and while you might’ve been okay with that, I wasn’t. To be honest, I’m still not.”
“Good, because you don’t need to get me out of your system. I’m not going anywhere, Larisa. I really am sorry that it took me so long to come to you, but I had some stuff to figure out. What are your plans for today? Can we talk?”
She sighed and her lips pressed in at the corners as she shook her head. “If you’d asked me yesterday morning, I would’ve said yes but I’ve committed to sending over the first set of designs on a new client’s house by tomorrow morning, so I have to work.”
“On a Sunday?” I asked, but I wasn’t incredibly surprised. When she nodded, I lifted my chin even though I was disappointed that it meant I’d have to wait even longer to spend some actual time with her again. “Okay, you do what you have to do. We’ll go our separate ways for the day, but can we have dinner together tonight?”
“Yes.” She smiled as she buttered a butter croissant and scrunched up her nose at me when she saw me noticing it. “Don’t look at me like that. The only thing better than butter is more butter with cheese on top. Do you really want to spend our breakfast time arguing about it, or should we just move on?”
“Move on,” I said without hesitation. “Assuming we’re going to actually talk tonight, since there’s too much to get into now if you really need to get around to working today. Why don’t you tell me about your new client? It’s not a single guy who’s a billionaire and an idiot, right?”
Her eyes lit up and she laughed. “No, I’ve had one of those recently and I’m not sure I’m up to taking on another one. Would you have been jealous if it was?”
“Yes.” I smirked when her eyes widened at the brutal honesty of my admission. “I’d like to think that there’s only enough space for one of those on your dance card, and I’m not ready to give up my spot just yet.”
She looked right at me for a long minute, not moving as she considered what I said. Finally, a ghost of a smile appeared on her lips. “You know what? I don’t think I’m ready for you to give up your spot just yet, either.”
And we’re in business, ladies and gentlemen.Despite the fact that we still had a long way to go, we were here, we were together, and we were having dinner tonight. Slowly but surely, we were headed back toward the right track, but this time, I had to make sure we fucking stayed on it.