Page 26 of Seeking Two Lovers

I stared, wondering how the fuck I could feel so much for someone I knew so little about.

She stared—and smiled, easing some of my anxiety. “So.”

“Yeah.” My own grin felt lopsided, and I kept my lips closed to hide my crooked teeth. Heat flooded me, and I glanced around the shop.

“Were you always shy, or did the cult do it to you?”

Well, fuck.

My grin faded, and I rubbed a hand over the stubble along my jaw.

“Shit,” Lily muttered. “Sorry. I tend to open my mouth a lot without thinking first.”

Strangely enough, I wouldn’t mind her mouth opening for me in other ways even though I’d never had a woman go down on me. But for some reason, I didn’t mind her probing at the personal shit either. Maybe she felt the same thing between us, whatever it was, and wanted to figure it out. Maybe even expand on it a bit.

“I, uh, was always shy, I think.” I cleared my throat. “But growing up on the compound definitely didn’t help matters any.”

“Does it make you uncomfortable to talk about your childhood?”

I’d only ever spoken to Grey about that shit, and even he didn’t know all the details. “I’m not fond of it,” I told her, sitting back in my chair and laying my sweating palms on my thighs, determined to keep them still. “Honestly, it was horrid. The shit of nightmares—and I still have them sometimes. It wasn’t pretty.”

“I’m sorry.” Warmth filled her eyes, as though she understood. “I had a good childhood, well, it had seemed that way until I grew up and decided to make my own decisions about what I believed in. It took a lot of shit to get me where I am today, but I’m not sure I would change my past. It created who I am.”

“I would change it all,” I stated without hesitation, but the image of Grey floated through my mind, heating my chest like it always did when I thought of him. If I hadn’t grown up on that compound in New Hampshire, I wouldn’t have met my best friend, my semi-other half.

Our order number was called out from behind the counter, keeping me from overthinking. I hopped up to retrieve our lunch.

We ate a few minutes in silence, taking care of the hunger we had due to working all morning.

“Tell me about this job that makes you look like you could use a swim in the ocean,” Lily said.

Heat rushed to my face again. “Sorry I’m filthy.”

“I don’t give a shit—just making an observation. Personally, I find your appearance ten times hotter than a man dressed in a suit and tie.”

She hadn’t seen Grey in his work clothes.

I blinked the image from my mind, wondering why I’d even gone there.

“Landscaping,” I muttered.

Lily smirked, glancing at the logo on my shirt. “I kinda figured that one out on my own.” Her dark eyes sparkled like she flirted.

We fell into easy conversation about what we both did for a living, neither of us touching on the topic of our past again. That connection had settled inside me like a carefully-laid boulder, situated in such a way I wouldn’t ever forget its presence. Finding out she enjoyed chardonnay over beer, loved to lay on the beach and just be as the sun baked into her skin, and taught grade-school kids caused flowers to spring to life around the garden she’d created inside my mind.

“You’re beautiful.” I’d blurted an interruption, cutting her off mid-sentence about her piece-of-shit car she’d gotten for a few grand to haul her ass around town.

Pink highlighted her cheekbones. “Thanks.”

I swallowed, glancing down at the napkin I’d crumpled atop my plate.

“You’re pretty damn hot yourself.”

Barely lifting my head, I met her gaze. I’d seen lust aplenty, but more than mere want for release radiated from her eyes.

“Can we do this again?” she asked, her tone more husky than bell-like. “Because I’ll be honest, Blaine. I’d really like to get to know you better.”

“There isn’t much to know.”

---