Page 92 of Siren's Game

I shake my head at her, grinning from ear to ear.

"What?" she asks with her mouth still full. "It's called quality control. Here." She holds up a piece for me and smiles so fucking sweetly I don't even need any fruit with my waffles.

I step back between her legs and set down our mugs, catching her wrist to keep it steady as I take the piece of waffle from her fingers with my mouth.

"Hmm," I hum contemplatively, then nod. "It's good."

Her stomach makes a sound, and we both look at the iron that's slowly working its way through the next waffle. Then we look at each other.

"Pancakes?" I ask her, my eyebrow raised and a grin on my lips. I love waffles but I can’t have my woman going hungry. And then there’s the fact I’m also starving, even though my stomach is less vocal about it.

"Pancakes," she confirms with a nod and embarrassed smile and jumps off the counter, but not before reaching for another piece of the waffle and putting it in her mouth with a grin.

While I get a pan ready, I point her to my cupboard with the plates and grin when she has to get on her tiptoes to reach them, making my shirt ride up her thighs.

When she catches me staring at her, she rolls her eyes, but I can see the dimple in her cheek from her trying not to laugh.

By the time she has the table set, the pancakes are almost finished, and I bring our mugs to the table. As I take them out of the pan with my spatula, I feel her trot up behind me and lay her head between my shoulder blades, her arms sneaking around my middle.

"Careful, Sweetheart," I mumble. “The pan is hot. I don’t want to hurt you.” But I feel a slight pang of disappointment when she lets go of me.

Once sat down at the table, opposite another, the atmosphere between us shifts. Not in a bad way, more in a contemplative one, although she seems a bit nervous.

Her eyes dart around the room and only land on me when I'm either looking at my food or raising my mug to drink coffee.

And I feel myself growing nervous too. This morning is too perfect. Too fragile. I’m scared that at any moment it might break, cracking my heart right along with it. What if I wake up now? If all of this is something my mind made up in a perfect dream?

Because if this is what being with Kayla is like, if this is what I could have every single morning of my life, I’m not kidding when I say I would kill for this.

So I gulp down my pancake bite and take a deep breath, gathering all my courage as I breach the topic.

"Let's get that elephant out of the room, Sweetheart?" I ask her softly.

Her fork freezes halfway to her mouth before she lets it sink with wide eyes and a visible gulp.

"Yeah. Maybe let’s do that. Sorry," she says with a sigh, sets the fork down completely, and rubs both of her hands over her face before lowering them to the table again. "My thoughts are all over the place."

"It's alright, Sweetheart." I reach over the table and grab her hand, her fingertips currently tapping against the tabletop nervously. "What's on your mind?"

A moment of silence follows as she gathers her thoughts and I’m not interrupting her when she needs to make sense of her brain.

"Did you really mean it?" she suddenly bursts out, trying to pull back her hand, but I hold onto it tightly. "Sorry, I don't want to insinuate you were lying, but you were drunk and—"

"Sweetheart, I meant every fucking word I said," I interrupt her quickly. When she freezes up and looks at me like a deer in headlights, I get up and round the table, pulling at her chair to turn her to me and as I kneel between her legs, my elbows on her thighs.

"Really?" Her voice is barely above a whisper and her thumb is caught between her teeth. I grab her wrist and pull it down, keeping her hand in mine.

"Really," I assure her and nod for emphasis, catching her eyes with mine. "I know we didn't exactly start off on the best foot." I grin when she rolls her eyes, but when she tries to avert her gaze, I reach for her chin and turn her head to make her look at me again. "But I meant it when I said I've been falling for you. I knew you were different the moment you didn't take my apology, but I had no idea that you’d take over my heart the way you did. I was definitely a goner for you by the time you told me off for introducing you to my parents."

"Is that why you were so mean to Josh?" She raises her eyebrow curiously, a grin tugging at the corners of her mouth.

I bite my lip when she mentions her friend, that same pang of jealousy making my stomach grumble with displeasure.

"Yeah," I admit and lower my eyes with a nervous chuckle. "I wanted to tear his head off. Knowing that he’s ever been with you that way drove me fucking crazy.” I take a deep breath and lift my gaze to meet her eyes again. “Still does, actually. It would be a lie to say I don’t feel a bit . . . intimidated by your relationship."

"Intimidated?” Her eyebrows scrunch together in adorable confusion before changing to panic. “You're not making me stop being friends with him though, will you?"

Her eyes shoot to mine, and just from that single look, I know that even if I wanted to, I might as well just show her the door and wish her a nice life. I don’t want her to lose friends over me, so I figure I owe it to both of us to not jump to jealousy-fueled conclusions.

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