Page 26 of 2 Books in One Bundle

That did make him feel marginally better. He didn’t know why. Tony was sixty-five and happily married, with three children and ten grandchildren, and jealousy had never been his thing.

‘You could have just ordered something in,’ he said, choosing to ignore the unfathomable twist of his gut and reaching for a perfectly warm plate.

‘You can’t survive on restaurant food for ever.’

‘I’m living proof you can.’

‘Do you mind I took over your kitchen?’

After considering her question for a moment, Zander decided he did. He found both the sensual domesticity of the scene and the fact that he couldn’t remember the last time anyone had cooked for him unnerving. But he couldn’t tell her that. Only a few days ago he’d used it as bait to entice her to move in, so instead he gave her a smile that had been described as devastating on more than one occasion and said, ‘Not at all.’

‘I would have asked, but I didn’t want to wake you.’

‘That I wouldn’t have minded either,’ he said, dropping three rashers of bacon on his plate and thinking of all the very pleasurable and not at all domesticated ways in which she could have done so. ‘Remember that next time.’

Her gaze dipped to his mouth and darkened, as if she was imagining kissing him, and her breath caught. ‘So thereisgoing to be a next time?’

Of course there was going to be a next time. His hunger for her hadn’t abated one bit.

‘Sooner than you might think if you keep looking at me like that,’ he said, adding eggs, tomatoes and sausages to the bacon and noting the wild fluttering of the pulse at the base of her neck.

The faintest of smiles tugged at her lips. ‘We can’t have that after all the effort I’ve been to.’

‘Then save the smouldering for later.’

‘Would that be wise?’

‘You’re the one who pointed out the wisdom of it in the first place,’ he said, needing her to see things his way because he didn’t want to contemplate not having sex with her again. ‘We’ve slept together on two separate occasions and, from my point of view, the world hasn’t imploded. How’s it looking from yours?’

‘Still intact.’

That was a relief. And yet the tiny frown that appeared between her eyebrows was a concern. ‘Are you having second thoughts?’

‘No,’ she said, ‘but I am wondering how long we give it.’

He had no idea. He didn’t have a template for this totally unprecedented situation. All he had was logic and the points she’d so effectively made last night. ‘I suggest we continue until the attraction disappears and we can co-exist in peace.’

‘What if it doesn’t disappear?’

‘It will,’ he said, as much to assure himself as her. ‘In my experience, which, as you know, is extensive, it always does. Generally after one night, admittedly, but even the longest lasting, most spectacular firework burns out eventually.’

Mia didn’t look convinced as she took the seat opposite him and loaded her plate with French toast and tomatoes. ‘I’ll have to take your word for it.’

‘You do that. And while you’re doing that, think of the fun we’re going to have in the meantime. I know I am.’

Her breath caught and her cheeks flushed and for one electrifying moment he thought she was going to suggest abandoning breakfast after all. But a second later, disappointingly, she’d given herself a visible shake and pulled herself together. ‘That can wait.’

Could it? That was a shame. Unless she’d somehow thought of a better plan. ‘What do you have in mind instead?’

‘Something I’ve been wanting to do for the last three days,’ she said with an enticing stretch for some cutlery.

That did sound interesting. ‘Which is?’

‘Regardless of how you feel about relationships, it’s looking increasingly likely that we’re going to be having one ofsomekind. So I think we should get to know each other better. I’d like to find out more about the father of my child. We’ve already talked quite a bit about me. So, while we eat, I’d like to talk about you.’

CHAPTER TEN

OUTWARDLY,ZANDERSWALLOWEDdown the eggs he’d just put in his mouth and carefully returned his fork to his plate with barely a sound. Inwardly, however, all thoughts of fun had vanished, and alarm was now rushing into every millimetre of his body, coating his skin in a film of cold sweat and threatening a reappearance of the coffee he’d drunk.

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