Page 45 of The Piece You Stole

Kade crosses his arms over his lean, muscled chest, his determined gray stare fixed firmly on me. “I’m also interested in the answer to that question.”

The perky waitress appears beside the table in a cloud of arousal and cloyingly sweet honey perfume. “Hi, I’m Laurel. Are you ready to order?”

“Sure.” Kade smiles.

His skin is even more washed out than it usually is from his daily, nightly, and every waking minute habit of drinking and fucking. The bones in his face are sharper and more angled, but his exhaustion isn’t what has me hiding my frown.

It’s the mistrust he’s aiming my way.

Walking away from Kade without telling him where I was going was a mistake. The fight brewing in his eyes warns he intends to extract some payment—likely a fist to the face—for having done so.

I’d thought Saige would rip us apart, and I was right to think it.

So then why, I ask myself,are you so determined to rescue her?

Kade lifts his menu from the table, spares it little more than a cursory glance before pushing it toward Laurel, his attention still locked on me. “We’ll take the breakfast.”

She curls her fingers around the plastic, her hand resting over his with an intimacy that will get her in trouble if she’s not careful. “And is thatallyou want?”

His lips tighten as he draws his hand back, his expression so blank that I shoot Aden a glance, hoping I’m wrong about what could be coming.

Aden stops drinking his coffee to observe Kade with a furrowed brow.

He sees it too.

Too late. She’s gotten herself in trouble.

I try to catch Kade’s eye. He deliberately turns away.

Kade and I have some things in common. Not much, but some. We touch who we want, but when someone touches without permission…

“The breakfast,” Kade says, aiming a dangerous smile at the waitress. “It’s the only thing that looks good here.”

Kade has two sides, the side that can convince a woman who doesn’t sleep around to slip out of her thong, follow him to a public bathroom, and let him bend her over a sink. I study him as he runs his eyes over Laurel… And then there’s the less pretty side.

The waitress has the instincts of a moth around a flame because she kicks her hip out even further. “Maybe you just haven’t looked long enough.”

Fucking hell…

Kade’s smile widens as he leans toward her. Uncrossing his arms, he beckons her closer with one crooked finger. Her eyes brighten as she bends her head until they’re within kissing distance. She’s maybe an inch away from falling out of her top, not that Kade seems to have noticed.

Aden still hasn’t resumed drinking his coffee. Leandro reclines in the booth, emerald gaze darting between Kade, the waitress, and her gaping top.

Kade gives Laurel another inspection. He does it slowly, all the way down, and then back up again. The waitress preens at his attention because Kade has a way at looking at a woman like he’s eating her alive.

Here it comes…

“There are some women I like on their knees,” Kade drawls.

Laurel doesn’t seem to have a problem with going on her knees then and there from the arousal drifting from her. “Oh?” she asks, sounding coy. The way she peers through her lashes at Kade is so practiced it isn’t difficult to visualize her trying out the look in front of her bathroom mirror.

“There are some I like against the wall or thrown over a desk. The harder, the better,” Kade continues in that same husky note as if he’s already mentally fucking her.

Laurel’s arousal deepens enough there’s no way her panties are still dry. She grips her menus a little tighter as the tip of her tongue darts out to touch her lower lip. “Well, if you were—”

“And there are some,” Kade continues, his voice still that same amused drawl. “I would rather jack myself off than have touch me.” He darts a glance at her body, gives it just enough of a curled lip to show he finds her lacking, and then turns away. “Four breakfasts.”

There’s no smile now as he trains his silver stare my way. He’s laser-focused and ready for the hunt. “What do you know about Rylan?”

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