Page 49 of Shielding Maya

A smile grew across his face. She turned and cocked her head. "What?"

"I like your jacket next to mine."

She laughed. "Okay."

She pulled her cell phone from her pocket. "I need your phone number please."

"You need it?"

Her eyes danced and her lips parted in a gorgeous smile. "I need it bad."

He laughed. "Okay. I need your number too."

Maya stepped toward him and kissed his lips. He pulled his phone out of his pocket and gave Maya his number. Her fingers flew over her phone and his phone chimed a text from her.

He read the text and grinned.

"Reply to this and I'll have your number. Last night was wonderful."

He tapped a reply,

"Helen."

The smile that grew on her face was stunning. She sent back a heart.

He stepped forward and pulled her in for a hug, his heartbeat was erratic and it was because of her.

The whistle on the teapot blew, and Jasiah stepped back and lifted it from the hook. He poured the water into each cup, dropped in the infusers and set the kettle on the hook.

"What's going on today?" He asked.

"Well, I need to get my Jeep. Check in at home and see what Tate has in store for me today. But, first, I'll stand in the shower for a bit and ruminate on last night."

He chuckled. "I'll be ruminating on last night for years to come."

She chuckled. "Me too."

He lifted the infuser from his teacup and sipped the hot liquid. "I have bread, eggs, and honey. Should I make you some breakfast before we go down the mountain?"

"I have a confession to make.” She pulled her hair into a ponytail. “I don't cook."

"I didn't ask you to cook for me. I offered to cook for you."

"Yeah, but I thought I should let you know, I can't cook. I shoot, and run, and research, and a host of other things. Cooking is not one of them."

"You were cooking pretty good last night." He kissed her lips. She giggled. "So were you."

He stepped back. "I told you last night that I love you. I meant that. And, I've never said it to anyone before. We'll work out the cooking thing. We've got a couple of women up here who are feeling displaced with folks utilizing modern conveniences and going down the mountain to work. I'll bet we could pay them to cook for us."

"I can pay for food. That eases my mind a bit. I'd hate to have you hungry all the time."

A laugh burst from his chest. "Okay. That's taken care of. Let's eat, I'll cook, then we'll get you down the mountain."

"Okay. I can set the table."

"Thank you."

He reached into the wooden box on the counter and pulled out three eggs. Maya pulled plates off the shelf above the sink and set them on the placemats.

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