Page 37 of Inevitable

“It’s me,” Drew called as a greeting. “Anybody home?”

“In the kitchen,” he called back in a resigned voice.

“Hey!” Drew’s voice filled Ezra with warmth all the way from his head to his toes. God help him, he shouldn’t have felt that way, but he couldn’t stop. He turned around, facing Drew.

Ezra had figured he’d see annoyance or irritation on Drew’s face. The man had some neat-freak tendencies, but instead he found Drew looking at him with a warm smile.

“Hi,” Drew said again, taking a step closer. Ezra could feel the cold wafting from his clothes as they stood there, practically toe-to-toe.

“You look frozen.”

“Well, the inside matches the outside, in that case.”

Ezra’s gaze landed on Drew’s hands. The skin was bright red.

“Where are your gloves?” he asked as he pulled out a chair. “Sit down. I’ll make you something warm to drink.”

Drew chuckled. “Look who’s worried about warm clothes now.”

“That’s what you get for hounding me about hats and scarves.”

Ezra had even allowed himself to splurge and had gotten himself a better coat, and he had to admit, walking around in the winter when you had proper, warm clothes made all the difference.

“I forgot my gloves in the office.”

“You could have gone back and gotten them,” Ezra pointed out.

Drew’s smile was almost shy.

“I couldn’t wait to get home, so it seemed like a waste of time.”

Ezra could do nothing but stare. Words like those chipped away at his determination to keep everything platonic. How could anybody resist Drew when he said things like that?

He whirled around and tried to get himself back in check. Dinner. He was making dinner.

“What are you doing?”

“Food,” Ezra blurted out. “I’m cooking.” He gestured toward the counter. He refused to contemplate why Drew’s smile made his body buzz with electricity. “I know you said you didn’t celebrate Christmas, so we’re not. But ancient Romans celebrated the Sun’s birthday on the twenty-fifth, so I figured we can do that. So, we’ll stuff our faces for the Sun.”

Drew smiled.

“You didn’t have to,” he said as he got up and came to stand next to Ezra.

“I wanted to. I’m sorry about the mess.”

Drew waved him off. “That smells amazing. What is it?”

“It’s not done yet. I’m making scalloped potatoes. Or trying to, at least. I haven’t made them in years.”

The way Drew inhaled made goose bumps appear on Ezra’s back. And the way he groaned put Ezra’s self-control to the test. Drew sounded exactly the same as he had during the night they spent together. When he’d pressed his nose into Ezra’s hair and breathed him in after Ezra had collapsed on top of him. Shit. He was not going there.

“Can I help?”

How was it fair for Drew to sound so normal?

“I was thinking about grilling some veggies. Can you peel and cut those for me?” He pushed some carrots, asparagus, and bell peppers in front of Drew and busied himself on the other end of the counter.

For a while they worked in silence, but somehow that made everything even worse. Ezra was very aware of Drew. Each movement caught his attention, and the way Drew hummed as he worked made Ezra want to turn around and just bask in his presence.

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