My stomach growled as I ran a hand through my hair, and I decided it might be important to eat if I wanted to pass the next however many rain-filled hours doing something—or someone. Had to refuel the body.

I walked out of my room, not knowing if Zac or King were awake, but as I headed toward the stocked kitchen, I heard someone clear their throat from the corner of the main room.

My feet froze in place, and I turned to see King lounging back in a recliner, dressed in a pair of black silk lounge pants and a robe that hung open, revealing his built chest. He’d opened up the floor-to-ceiling doors that joined the inside and out, and with the balcony protected by a wide awning, all that drifted inside was the cool air and fresh scent of rain.

“Storm rolled in early this morning.” King’s voice vibrated through the room like the thunder outside. “Did it wake you?”

“Well, it didn’t exactly lull me to sleep, that’s for sure.”

“Huh, I’ve always found it soothing,” he said, watching as the wind picked up and whipped through the greenery outside. “It’s one of the reasons I designed the place as I did. So I can open up all the doors and really enjoy it. Become one with the elements.”

Was he insane? “And the hurricanes? I suppose you enjoy those too?”

King smirked. “Obviously not. We take precautions for those. But this kind of weather? The wicked, rumbly kind? I love it.”

“Maybe for five minutes. When I’m somewhere safe like?—”

“A high-rise building in Manhattan? Hardly the safest place in a storm. Plus, sometimes you don’t even know it’s raining in one of those when you’re upabovethe clouds.”

“Exactly. I’d be oblivious to anything dire happening. But this? I’ve been sending up prayers all night.”

“Funny, I wouldn’t have pegged you as the religious type.”

“Not religious, per se, but I am business minded. So I made a deal with the big guy upstairs. I’ll confess my sins in the final hours of my life,ifhe can prove he’s up there.”

“And if he doesn’t?”

“Then I won’t be around to know it, will I?”

“I can’t fault your logic there.”

A loud crack of thunder ripped through the sky, making me jump, and King chuckled.

“Sure you don’t want to start confessing?”

“Just tell me this is going to be over soon.”

“Sorry, no can do. Forecast says it won’t let up until tomorrow morning sometime.”

You havegotto be kidding me…

What the hell were we going to do cooped up in here for the next twenty-four hours? There was no cable, no internet—we’d already establishedthatridiculous fact—and now we were stuck inside with no foreseeable escape?

This was not good.AndI was getting hangry.

I marched into the kitchen and yanked open the fridge a little harder than necessary, and when the condiments clattered on the shelf, I cursed.

“You need some help in there?” King called out as I scanned the contents in front of me. What I was looking for was anyone’s guess. I didn’t know how to cook. I knew how to order room service.

“I need a menu, a phone, and a restaurant to order from. You got any of those on hand?”

“No.” King startled me with how quietly he’d moved into the kitchen behind me. He was super stealthy for someone so imposing. “But I have two of these.” He held up his hands and took my place in front of the fridge, perusing the contents inside.“What do you feel like? Eggs? Pancakes? Bacon? All of the above?”

Now this was more like it. I took a spot on one of the island stools and went back to doing what I did best—being waited on by a sexy man. “What kind of eggs?”

King looked back at me, a brow arched. “Nothingtoofancy.”

“Poached?”