Page 56 of Making New Plans

He leaned against the table, arms folded loosely over his chest. His gaze brushed over me once before settling on my eyes. No doubt he saw my impatience at his slowness to answer because his lips curled up in an impish smile.

Just when I almost couldn’t take it anymore, he replied, “I really like good bread rolls.”

I huffed. “Don’t say I didn’t warn you. If you leave tomorrow night scarred in more ways than one, I’m not responsible.”

“It’d be worth it.” He paused. “For the rolls, of course.”

I threw my hands in the air. “Fine. We can go over together tomorrow since we’ll both be leaving from here.” Grabbing my cart, I pushed it to the door.

He followed me, the same smug smile on his chiseled face. “It’s a date then.”

Unsure of how to respond to that, I shook my head and fled with my cart from the intoxicating laughter in his eyes. He had no idea how horrifically tomorrow night could go. Dinner with my parents might change his entire perception of me. Maybe he’d want nothing to do with me after enduring their condescension and interrogations for an evening.

And maybe that scared me more than a dinner with my disappointed mother who could smell blood in the water from a mile away.

20

Hunter

After another one of Sal’s brutal workouts at Uffda Wednesday night, I coasted through the lodge to see if Chloe was still around. I heard laughter coming from the kitchen, so I peered through the window in the door.

Chloe and George stood elbow to elbow at one of the long metal tables, mixing dough and putting trays of what looked like cookies in the oven. They laughed and talked as they worked. A shard of loneliness sliced into my chest.

I stepped back from the door and headed upstairs to my room. Mechanically, I went through the motions of showering and getting ready for bed as my mind twisted itself into knots over Chloe.

I couldn’t stop reliving last night. The memory of her body moving against mine, even fully clothed, haunted me. When I’d caught her in my room earlier, desire had come flooding back with a vengeance.

How was I supposed to ignore her full lips when I knew how they felt consuming mine? How could I be near her without imagining hauling her into my arms to feel her full breasts press against me as her hips ground into mine?

Growling in frustration, I tried to do some cool-down stretches but gave up. Then I tried to read my book and to sketch but dropped both back on my table. I’d been worried that Chloe had perused my sketches. But thankfully, it was easy to tell when she was lying, and she hadn’t been. Maybe I’d show her one day, but they still felt raw and personal.

But I wanted her to see them. I wanted her in my room. Not to clean it, but to be with me. I wanted to bake cookies with her in the kitchen while laughing and talking as if the world continued to spin on elsewhere, leaving us alone. I wanted to know if she was also this restless. If thoughts of me distracted her day and night. If she knew that me going to dinner tomorrow night had nothing to do with bread rolls.

Wishing I could take a break from my own mind for a while, I crawled into bed with my freshly laundered sheets. Sleep, however, was not the rest and relaxation I’d been hoping for.

Thursday passed quickly between lunch with Sal at Monty’s and lodge work. Lunch had actually not been too terrible. I ate chili, and she ate pancakes and sausages after getting into a good-natured argument with Monty over his “piece-of-char bacon.” I told Sal where I was going for dinner, and she laughed. But then she gave me a few pointers for how to handle Mr. and Mrs. Dursley, as she called them. After I expressed my shock at her knowing who those people were, we went down a rabbit hole of discussing movies then books then TV shows.

Like I said, not a completely terrible lunch. And as a blood relative, that was really saying something.

That afternoon, I noticed Chloe get quieter and quieter and check her phone more and more. Presumably for the time. At precisely 5:15, she excused herself to change. I did the same, taking extra care to re-brush my teeth for any chili remnants. I changed into my ironed pair of slacks and a light brown button-down. After throwing on a jacket, I hurried downstairs. 5:30 on the dot.

Chloe was already there, tidying up the front desk and the office. My chest did that awful squeezing thing again at the sight of her. She’d traded her black pants and colorful sweater for a white blouse and knee-length skirt. The blouse’s short sleeves nearly fell off her shoulders, and the floaty, sheer overlay of the skirt was a swirl of greens and blues.

My gut clenched upon seeing her smooth, toned legs under that skirt. How the hell did she keep finding ways to torture me? Every inch of her begged for my attention. And I wanted to give it. With my eyes, mouth, hands, and any other way she’d take me.

I didn’t care what happened at the damn dinner tonight. If there was any way she’d let me get close again, I’d make sure she never regretted it. I just hoped I was worth the risk in her mind. I had no idea what made a man worthy to her, but some fool’s hope burned in my chest that I had it.

She finally noticed me standing there, several wars waging in my mind, and gave me a pinched smile. “You look really nice. Thanks for coming down on time. We can head over in a minute. Just need to lock up the office and put the sign out. Who knows? Maybe we’ll get lucky, and another disaster will hit the lodge and they’ll need us back here asap.” She let out a strangled laugh, her cheeks pink. “Not that I’m wishing that, of course. I’m just saying—”

“Everything will be fine, Chloe,” I said with what I hoped was a reassuring smile despite the turmoil still vibrating under my skin.

She bit her lip and nodded before locking the office door and putting out the sign. She grabbed her purse, wrapped herself in a white sweater, and marched toward the door, but I stopped her by catching one of her hands. I gently guided her to face me and tilted her chin up to look me in the eye.

“Everything will be fine, Chloe,” I repeated gently. “I’ll be there to back you up every step of the way. Trust me.”

Her eyelashes fluttered down over her cheeks, and she swallowed hard. Wanting to kiss her more than I wanted my next breath, I still held back. This wasn’t the time. Chloe needed to me to support her tonight, not drag her off into a dark corner where I’d make her forget everything but how sexy she was.

But a bit of both wouldn’t hurt.

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