Page 19 of Only Forever

She hums but doesn’t answer my questions.

“We’re here,” she greets as we walk into the house.

“Here? Isn’t this your house?”

“Finally! We were about to start without you,” Beckett responds.

Beckett? Why is he here? I halt in the entryway. Cassandra rolls her eyes before tightening her grasp on me and dragging me further into the house.

“Guess who I found inspecting the strawberries at the store.”

Beckett’s smile freezes on his face. “Cassandra,” he growls.

“What? I couldn’t allow her to buy fruit at the plastic emporium, now could I?”

“It’s fine. I didn’t realize you were here. Cassandra said we were eating at her house. She didn’t mention we wouldn’t be eating alone.”

I yank my hand out of her grip and whirl around to march to the door. But when I open it, a hand slams it shut again.

I glance over my shoulder at Beckett. “What are you doing?”

“You don’t have to leave.”

“Of course, I do. You’re having some sort of family dinner. I’m not family.”

“Anyone who puts up with grumpy face as much as you do is family,” Cassandra says from where she’s standing behind Beckett. Elizabeth and Gabrielle join her and nod in agreement.

“A face can’t be grumpy.”

Beckett grins down at me and his blue eyes sparkle. This close to him I notice there are specks of gray in his blue irises. The slight imperfection only serves to make his face even more handsome. Dang him. His expression is anything but bad-tempered and I feel the corners of my lips tug up.

“There she is,” he whispers.

“Who? Did you forget who I am? I’m Lilac West. I work for you as an environmental engineer at Clean Mountain Environment. Are you having memory problems? Should we schedule an MRI for you?”

He barks out a laugh and drops the hand blocking me. “Come on.” He indicates the interior of the house. “Let’s get you fed.”

My stomach rumbles at the mention of food. I ignore it. “I’m serious. If you’re having memory problems, they should be medically investigated.”

He grasps my hand and leads me to the dining room. My hand tingles at the feel of his skin on mine. The tingle travels through my body until it reaches my core. With a start, I realize I’m sexually aroused by a single touch from Beckett.

I wrench my hand from his. He’s my boss. It’s inappropriate to have any type of sexual feeling for him.

He holds out a chair for me and I manage to accept his gesture without touching him. Unfortunately, the gentleman act has as much an effect on my body as him touching me. I shouldn’t be here. I should go.

Beckett pushes the chair in and leans down to whisper in my ear. “Eat your dinner, Lilac.”

His breath caresses my skin, which does not help my body to calm down. In fact, my body is burning up. I duck my head and reach for my glass of water. By the time I’ve finished the entire glass, I feel more in control of my body.

“I hope you eat eggplant,” Cassandra says as she sets a dish on the table. “Because Gabrielle made a ton of eggplant lasagna.”

Gabrielle blushes and tucks her chin into her chest.

“I love eggplant lasagna.”

“You’re not a vegan, are you?” Elizabeth asks.

Beckett barks out a laugh.

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