Page 36 of Hot Zone

Me:Pad Thai would be amazing.

I shook my head. It was obvious from his reaction to the kiss that I’d misread the situation and had only been seeing what I wanted to see. The smart thing for me to do would be to keep my distance, but the last few weeks had been like a dream, and I wasn’t ready to wake up. Even if he didn’t want me the way I wanted him, I could still enjoy our morning chats and having someone to eat dinner with other than Kismet.

I locked up the shop, got Kismet in her carrier, and headed to Samuel’s. I pulled into the driveway and parked behind his truck. I was sure he normally parked in the garage, but because I was using it for all my boxes of stuff, there wasn’t room for a vehicle, and he never once complained or said a word. He just parked outside.

I went in the front door and let Kismet out of her carrier. She headed straight for the kitchen while I stopped in the foyer to take off my jacket and my shoes.

I rounded the corner into the kitchen to find Samuel standing in front of the bar holding Kismet and giving her scratches behind her ears. She was leaning into the scratches, looking awfullypleased with herself, and I got it. I would’ve happily let that man pet me.

He looked up when I walked in and smiled at me. “Hey, Mars.”

“Samuel.”

He put Kismet down and motioned at the table where there were bags from my favorite Thai place. “Dinner is served.”

“Thank you. I’m starved, and I love Thai Garden.”

“You mentioned that the other day. You go ahead and have a seat, and I’ll grab us a couple of drinks.”

It took us a minute to unpack the food bags and divvy out the food, but once we had it all sorted, we both tucked into our food.

“So you said y’all found something on the arsonist.” I dipped a pot sticker in the sauce and then popped it into my mouth.

“It isn’t something that tells us who he is, but it did teach us a little about him. He made a mistake this time, and we’re hoping it’ll be in our favor.”

“Well, that sounds like progress anyway.” I didn’t know much about arson investigation, but I figured the more they learned about him, the better their chances of catching him.

Samuel sighed. “I just hope we catch him before he hurts someone.”

We ate in silence for a few minutes, and I knew the best thing for me to do was just to act like the kiss never happened. Yep, that would for sure be the best choice.

“I’m sorry about the kiss, Samuel,” I blurted out because when did my mouth ever listen to logic? Shit, that sounded bad, so the only thing left for me to do was to keep talking, which was what I tended to do when I was anxious. “I mean, I know you’re straight, and it was probably weird to have a guy kissing you, and—”

“Mars. Stop,” he said firmly, and I snapped my traitorous mouth closed. “You have nothing to apologize for.”

“But—”

“No, no buts. First off, I’m not straight, I’m bisexual, and you aren’t the first guy I’ve kissed. Second, I kissed you… you didn’t kiss me. So again, no apologies from you.”

I stared at him dumbfounded for a second. Then I shook my head. That made no sense. If it wasn’t a gay freak out, what was the issue? “If you didn’t freak out about kissing a guy, why did you leave last night?”

“Because… this thing.” He motioned between the two of us. “It can’t happen, Mars. But if I’d stayed here last night, I wouldn’t have been able to help myself. Especially after that kiss.”

I grinned, choosing to ignore theit’ll never happenpart and focus on the fact that he’d wanted more. “It was hot, huh?”

He chuckled. “Yeah, it was hot. But like I said, this can’t happen.”

“I hear you, but you know, just so we’re clear, why can’t it happen? I’m single, you’re single… hold on. Youaresingle, right?”

“Yes, Mars, I’m single, but it just isn’t a good idea. You’re way too young to saddle yourself with someone as old as me. I’m set in my ways, and you’re still figuring life out. It would never work. I’d just be holding you back.”

Always so logical, my Samuel. But I didn’t hear the one thing that meant it was hopeless. He didn’t say he didn’t want me, and after that kiss, I was pretty sure he did, even if he didn’t want to.

“I’m pretty sure I’m old enough to know what I want, Samuel.”

His eyes flashed, and for just a second, I thought he might give in. But he took in a deep breath and shook his head. “You don’t understand what you’re saying, Mars. I require certain things from a partner—”

“You mean the Daddy thing, right?”

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