Page 32 of The Grump

“Nah, they worked a lot during that time. Mom cooked often, but we kids gave her a hard time.”

He glanced at me, and yep, that really was mischief in his eyes. “We kept teasing her that her food was no match for that of the grannies’.”

“Poor Adele. It must have broken her heart.”

“Not really. She openly admits that she doesn’t like cooking.” After the pot started simmering, he said, “It’s gonna need half an hour.”

“Wait a second, we can’t drink this tonight. Doesn’t it need to cool off in the fridge?”

“No, we always skip that part.”

“Wow. Now Ihaveto taste it. I never thought you could skip such an important step.”

He chuckled. “We wing it very often in my family. If something tastes good, it doesn’t matter how you prepare it. That’s our motto. Well, that’s the motto of everyone else except the grandmothers. But then again, the rest of us are just lowly mortals, not chefs.”

There was nothing left for him to do for now, so he turned sideways, training his eyes on me.

“I’m glad I came tonight,” he said.

“I’m glad too. It was really nice to see you with your family.”

He looked at me for a few seconds before saying, “I love my family, but I came tonight to see you.”

I gasped lightly but managed to disguise it as a small cough. “Me? You wanted to see me? Why?”

I was standing with my back at the kitchen island, and Xander stepped in front of me. “Because I enjoyed your company a lot last night, and I didn’t get enough. Not nearly enough.”

“Xander,” I murmured, “I know you’re trying to be on good terms, but really, this is your company and—”

“Fuck the company. This is not about that.”

My pulse quickened, and my breath caught. “What is it about?”

He was very close, and there was heat in his eyes—there was no mistaking it. But I had to hear it from him. I couldn’t believe it otherwise.

“It’s about you. Just you.” Then he touched my cheek with the back of his fingers. “You’ve been on my mind constantly ever since we met.”

“I gave you such a hard time. That doesn’t make sense.”

“That was precisely why I couldn’t stop thinking about you.”

Now he was close enough that his hot breath brushed my skin. Heat gathered between my thighs, and I pushed my legs together.

“Xander. Last night—”

“I wanted to kiss you at every turn.”

I pushed my hips forward in a knee-jerk reaction and pressed myself right into him. That’s how close he was.

He groaned and kissed me in the next second. His mouth was hot and so full of passion. It demanded the same from me, and I gladly gave in to the kiss. God, I didn’t even know I needed it so badly.

His hand moved from my cheek into my hair, wrapping it tightly, then bringing me even closer to him. I felt his other hand on my back and then sliding to my hip before finally moving under my ass. I was lost to this man. So lost, in fact, that I didn’teven realize what was going on until he lifted me off the floor and put my ass on the counter.

He was pressing my thighs to his sides, and since he was touching me so freely, I did the same. I moved my hands on his shoulders and then down his chest. Goodness, the muscles on this man seemed unreal. They were perfectly formed and so hard that I couldn’t get enough. I needed skin-on-skin contact. I needed everything. No one had ever stoked such a fire inside me or made me lose my head that way.

The sound of someone clearing their throat made me come back to my senses. My lips felt cold as Xander took a step back, looking straight at the door.

Oh my God, someone caught us kissing!

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