Page 43 of All My Heart

“Okay.” I took in the kitchen, my lips tingling from that kiss, my brain warring with my body.

He threw a smile over his shoulder, and I sank into the nearest chair.

He cracked the eggs over the pan, then said gruffly, “I was hoping to come home to a naked woman in my bed.”

“I wasn't sure if that's what you wanted or if you left so that I'd get out of here before you got back.”

Axel looked at me, then crossed the room to squat in front of me, his hands hot through the material of my leggings. “I want you here.”

I nodded. “Okay.”

His expression was serious. “Never doubt that.”

“I won't.” His words, everything about him, were getting to me. He was unexpected. He made me hope for more than he could offer, a relationship, a life with him. We were too new and coming off situations that had scarred us. We needed to heal. Neither of us were in a place where we could offer anything to the other. But I wanted to.

I wanted to lose myself in him and forget about everything else.

He grinned and patted my knee. “Good.”

I wanted to snag his wrist and drag him back to me for a kiss but I didn't want the eggs to burn. I was starving. “You're too good to me.”

He chuckled. “There's no way that's true. If it is, you haven't been treated like you deserve to be treated.”

“How could you know that?”

He raised a brow. “You've told me enough about your ex and your family. They took you for granted. They don't see how special you are.”

I never would have guessed he was a man with so much depth. He hid because he felt everything—too much. He was protecting himself whether he knew it or not. He was more open with me, but would he draw back at some point and shut me out? Would he decide he wasn't deserving of me?

“Stop thinking so hard over there. Just feel for once in your life.”

I drew my upper lip into my mouth. “I want to.”

He waved a hand at me, and I went to him. He wrapped an arm around my shoulders, bringing me into his side. “I like having you in my kitchen. I like feeding you.”

I smiled up at him, my heart beating a staccato rhythm. “I like it too.”

We were quiet for a bit. Then I asked, “Did you get any work done yesterday? I saw the linoleum outside.”

He pointed the spatula on the floor. “Unfortunately, there're several layers. It's going to take me longer than I thought.”

I was deliriously happy about the project. The only problem was that I had an end date. A plane ticket to Florida for the holidays. My parents had paid for it, hoping it would bring me home. I couldn't not spend the holidays with my family. It's what I'd always done, and it was expected of me. “We missed our hot chocolate date last night.”

He tapped my nose. “We'll do it tonight.”

Hope ran rampant in my chest that we'd have the next few weeks, and it would be enough to carry us into the future and whatever it would bring.

I curled my fingers into the band of his shorts, desire shooting through me, the hunger a distant need.

His arm tightened around me. “I like how you think.”

He turned off the burner, then lifted me onto the small island. “I have so many plans for you.”

My body ignited, my skin heating with awareness. He lifted my shirt over my head, then tugged my leggings down and off. “I want you to be naked in my kitchen all the time.”

I laughed as he laid me back. “That could get messy.”

“Promise?” he asked as he spread my legs and feasted on me.

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