Page 33 of Outside The Wire

“Maybe, but I wasn’t going to let that stop me.”

He dropped the toast on my plate, sucking the butter off his finger before shooting me a wink. Seriously, was this guy real? He set the plate in front of me, but I was too nervous to eat. How was I supposed to shove food in my mouth when this sexy man was in my house?

“Something wrong?” he asked as he shoved a bite of toast in his mouth.

“Nope.” I took a bite of my toast and worked past my nerves. So what if the man of my dreams was in my house? And did it really matter if he was treating me like a queen after only one date? Not at all. I should be so freaking grateful for this. It was amazing. Thrilling, even.

But I suddenly felt like maybe this was some big joke someone was playing on me. Like maybe there was a hidden camera and someone was going to pop out at me and yell Gotcha! He was just too damn good to be true.

I dropped the toast and brushed the crumbs from my fingers. “Look, Asher, I really like you, but?—”

He smirked, “Uh-oh. Here we go.”

“Why are you here?”

“Because I like you.”

“I don’t get it.”

He leaned back in his seat. With his sleeves pushed up and his muscular forearms on display, he looked so delicious I could eat him for breakfast, but that wasn’t the point of what was going on here.

“What exactly don’t you get?”

“I don’t understand why you’re here. We went on a date last night and then you showed up this morning. Uninvited. Who does that?”

His jaw hardened slightly and he shoved back from his seat. “I didn’t mean to intrude.”

Oh crap. Had I gotten it all wrong? Was I ruining all of this? He moved to storm past me, but I stood up, blocking his path with my hand held out. I was not good at this. At all. With my hand resting against his very hard, very nice chest, I swallowed and went for it. All in.

So, I took a chance and looked up into those beautiful gray-blue eyes. “That didn’t come out the way I meant it to. What I meant to say was…I’m not used to men being…interested and willing to see a woman the day after a date. There are usually all these rules and—” I shook my head, sure I was just making a fool of myself. “When I asked why you were here, it’s because I just can’t believe that we had such an amazing date last night and then you came here this morning and you brought me hot cocoa. And you’re cooking in my kitchen. And you want to take me out and spend time with me, and you’re asking me where I want to go. And it’s just so…different from the way I’m used to dating.”

When he just stared at me, I felt like such an idiot.

“Say something.”

“That’s a lot of ands.”

“It is.”

“I came over here this morning because I couldn’t wait to see you again. I don’t give a shit about what other guys do. I wanted to see you, and I was hoping you wanted to see me, too. I had the day off, and I don’t normally do much of anything other than grocery shop for the week. I’d rather spend the day with you. And I wanted you to choose because I don’t care what we do as long as I get to see you.”

Wow. That was a completely perfect answer.

“I could go grocery shopping with you.”

“Okay,” he smiled slightly.

“But I have to warn you, I tend to meander when I shop.”

“Then I’ll meander with you.”

I couldn’t help the grin that broke out over my face, or the one that was plastered to my face for the rest of the day. It didn’t matter where we went or what we did. I was hopelessly infatuated with this man, and I didn’t see it getting better any time soon.

8

ASHER

“Alright,”Wyatt sighed, tossing his rag down on the bench. “That’s enough. Out with it.”

---