Page 84 of Burn With Me

They mold to his legs perfectly while still being roomy at the same time. It’s a beautiful sight, and I won’t apologize for checking him out.

“Eyes up here, sweetness,” he chuckles.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” I sass him.

“It’s okay. I like your eyes on me. I don’t feel as bad when I check you out.” He smirks.

“What’s in the bag?”

He holds the bag in front of him. “I came bearing food, but I also wanted to ask you something.”

The butterflies return when I think of how this man cares for me. “Grab the chair and sit down.”

He drags the chair to my side of the desk and kisses my forehead before turning to unpack the food he got from the diner.

“So it’s actually two things. First, do you think you can take some time off in a month or two so we can spend the weekend at this cool glamping place I found? We can even bring Penny. There’s hiking, stargazing, and—”

I silence him with a quick kiss.

“Yes, Yes, I think I could. I just need enough heads-up to let Kristen know.”

I swear, this man.

“Yeah?” he asks.

“Yeah, I take a couple weekends off a year,” I say with a shrug.

“Huh, I was expecting to have to sell this harder. Cool. Next thing. My mom just confirmed that they officially got their tickets and will be in town in about two weeks.”

I pause mid-bite. “Two weeks? Did they confirm if they’re staying at your rental or my house? Because if it’s my house, it’s not nearly clean enough to have your parents in town. We’ll have to deep clean everything.” My mind is spinning as I panic and start to make a cleaning list.

Luke takes my face in his hands. “Hey, take a breath. It’s okay.”

I take a breath and am surrounded by the scent that is so uniquely him.

Why am I so nervous? People love me.

I work with people for a living. I can make people like me, and I realize that’s what I’m afraid of, that they won’t like mefortheir son, and I love their son.

Holy. Shit. I love Luke. Like, for real, I love Luke.

“What if they don’t like me?”

“Of course they’ll like you because I like you. My parents aren’t like that. They just want me to be happy, and you make me happy. I think it’ll be easier for them to stay at the rental with Sam. Well, Sam is kind of insisting because he wants my mom to cook for him.”

I roll my eyes because that’s something Sam would say. “Are you going to stay at my place, or are you going to stay at the rental with them?”

I hate that I’m feeling so vulnerable, but I slept like shit without him on our girls’ night even though I knew I needed that girl time more than I realized.

“Do you want me to stay with you or them?”

“I want you to stay where you’ll be the most comfortable. I’m not sure if they know you’ve been staying at my place.”

He smirks, sliding his hand from the side of my face to the back of my head, and pulls me forward. “That’s how I know they’ll like you. You already care about them because that’s just who you are. We’ll figure the rest out.”

I want to tell him that of course he thinks that—he’s a guy—but my brain short-circuits as his lips meet mine.

Like always, I forget where I am and what I was worried about in the first place.

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