Page 55 of Brage & Dinah

"No." He handed her his plate. "Eat."

Her stomach growled on command. She raised her brows. His lunch looked suspiciously unappetizing.

She peered closer. "What is it?"

"Apple slices." Brage grinned.

"Not that." She pointed. "What's on the toast?"

"Brunost."

"What?" She laughed. "Translate."

"Brown cheese."

"Hm, I think I'll pass, but I'll take a piece of apple." She plucked a slice from the plate.

"Open your mouth." He held up the toast. "Try it."

"Does it stink?"

He chuckled. "Why would it?"

"You've never tried Blue cheese, have you?" She leaned forward and bit into the toast.

Brage studied her for a reaction. She chewed hesitantly, waiting for the taste to come, and when it finally hit her palette, she stopped eating.

"It's not cheese," she mumbled around the food in her mouth. "It's sweet like caramel."

Brage moved to set the plate on the table, and she took the toast out of his hands and sat in the chair. "I'll eat it."

Halfway through the piece of toast, she asked, "What have you been doing today?"

"I went for a ride." He placed his hand on her thigh underneath the table.

She glanced at him. "Did you follow me?"

"Mhm." He shrugged. "Until you got to the store."

"I wondered if it was you, but Monica said it was probably Joel."

"He was with me." Brage wiped a crumb from the corner of her mouth. "Missed you."

Her stomach warmed. Besides knowing he wanted her sexually, that was the closest to Brage expressing there was more going on between them.

She kissed him quickly. He summed up how she had felt all day being away from him and it hadn't mattered that he'd followed her to the store. He'd trusted her to come back to the clubhouse and him.

Self-conscious, she looked up and found Coco and Elling gone from the table and they were alone in the kitchen. She no longer hid her displays of affection from the others, but she also wasn't going to act like Brage's sex partner.

She finished the toast and apple while enjoying Brage's hand on her leg. The comfort his touch brought her was right up there with him hinting at how he was feeling. He grounded her to the here and now.

"I'll put the plate in the dishwasher." She got up from the table.

As she came back to wipe off the table, a loud cheer went up in the main room.

Slag.

Slag.