Page 41 of Obsession Under the Southern Stars

“You know it would be a mistake.”

“It wouldn’t be anything of the sort. It would behot as.”

“I’m not denying that.” I lay the pieces of toast out, and he brings over the pan. I get the bacon out with a fork and place it on the toast, and then he lifts the eggs with a spatula and puts them on top.”

“Ketchup?” I ask.

“Please.”

I squirt sauce over them both and finish off with the other slice of toast, and then go around the breakfast bar and pull up a stool. Joel sits opposite me, and we both take a big bite of the sandwich.

I sigh as I chew the mouthful of bacon and egg and swallow. “Oh my God, that’s amazing.”

His eyelids lower to half-mast as he watches me. “You’re the only woman I know who can make eating a bacon and egg sandwich sexy.”

I stop in the process of licking my fingers free of butter and ketchup and meet his eyes. He looks slightly grumpy.

“Sorry,” I say.

He huffs a sigh, then carries on eating his sandwich.

I decide changing the subject is the best course of action. “So what’s the plan?”

“Meeting the guys at nine. Then it’s full on down in the hold. As many dives as we can manage.”

“Cool. I’m excited.”

“Yeah, it should be fun.” He leans on the breakfast bar and has a mouthful of coffee. Then he says, “About last night.”

“You shouldn’t have been listening.”

“Sweetheart, I could have heard you in Wellington.”

I close my eyes for a moment. “Jesus.” When I open them again, his hot gaze is fixed on me.

“It took all my self-control not to climb through your window,” he says.

“Will you stop?”

“Thinking about you lying there… all hot and sticky and red-faced…” He blows out a breath.

I have a bite of the sandwich, trying not to laugh.

His smile fades then. “Will you tell me why you won’t go out with me?”

“I have told you.”

“You’ve said you don’t want a relationship. And yet you went out with Charlemagne for two years.”

I pick a piece of bacon out of the sandwich and eat it. “Let’s just say he wasn’t very supportive when I needed him to be.”

He surveys me thoughtfully. “He hurt you.”

“Yeah, you could say that.”

“Physically?”

“No! God no. Nothing like that.”

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