Knocking on the door, I took a breath and waited for him to answer. Any delusion I might have had about one wank getting him out of my system was shattered when he answered the door. Dressed in black skinny jeans and a black shirt, Lukas lookedlike a walking wet dream. I stood there, trying to remember how to speak, when Lara poked her head out beside Lukas and came to my rescue.
Lukas looked down and smiled fondly at her. “Well, someone’s glad to see you. Come in, dinner’s almost ready and then we can get those questions answered.” Lukas ushered me inside. After taking my shoes off, I spent a minute petting Lara. She seemed to absorb the affection, happy to stand there and be praised by me with her tongue hanging out. But I couldn’t spend the entire night ignoring Lukas in favor of his dog, so I forced myself to try and be a normal person.
A normal person with an abnormal crush on the man who’d hired him.
“It smells fantastic in here.” The compliment broke the ice, and Lukas gave me a warm smile.
“Thanks. It took me a lot of years to get any good at cooking. Growing up the way I did, if it didn’t microwave or toast, I didn’t know how to make it. Once I got started and had a little money, I ate out a lot. But I got tired of that too.” Lukas talked as he stirred something on the stove and poked his head into the oven to check something else. “One of the guys I worked with could cook just about anything, and he got me started with the basics before he moved. From there, it was me and the internet. Do you cook?”
Sawyer nodded. “Nothing fancy, but I can get by. It’s just me, though, and I find it a lot of effort to go to for one person, so I end up eating a lot of baked potatoes.”
“Hey, anything’s better than endless toaster waffles and microwave ramen.”
Trying my best to act casual and not like my heart was going to leap out of my chest every time he looked at me, I leaned against the counter and crossed my arms over my chest. “When I was a kid, those things were treats, man. Toaster waffles wereunheard of in our house. I used to love sleepovers because my friends had all the good food.”
Lukas let out a dry laugh. He didn’t seem bothered by his upbringing, but sometimes guilt tugged at me when I thought too much about the differences in our childhoods. “What kind of foods did your parents make you eat instead? Tell me how the other half lives.”
Heat flashed up my face, and I glanced away.
“Hey,” Lukas said, coming closer. He put his hand on my arm. “Sawyer, I know I hired you to do a book about me, and that we’re going to spend a lot of time talking about me, but I want to hear about your life too. Whatever you feel comfortable sharing.”
Lukas pulled his hand away but the warmth stayed behind. And so did the flare of arousal that swirled in my core.
“Maybe it’s because I’m a bit older than you, but I don’t get sad about my childhood anymore. I’ve been through a lot of stuff to get where I am now and, yeah, parts of it fucking sucked, but I’m here. I like where I am, and who I am. So, tell me, what did your private chef make you, if not toaster waffles?”
“Which chef? Mom went through them constantly. When Mom was growing up, her family had a chef, and no one was ever as good as Isabelle. Mom’s parents were even more hands-off than Mom was, so I think Isabelle practically raised her. By the time I came around, Isabelle was long gone, but Mom never stopped trying to find the perfect replacement.”
“Well, I don’t claim to be a chef, so I hope you’re not disappointed by dinner. Why don’t you have a seat, and I’ll get everything dished up.”
“Would you mind if I used the bathroom first? I’d like to wash up.”
“Yeah, second door on the left down the hallway.”
“Thanks.” I stepped away quickly, hoping that he didn’t look down and see the tent in my pants from when he’d touched my arm. God, how hard up was I that a simple touch was enough to get me worked up? Clearly, jerking off while thinking about him had been a bad idea because my dick now thought that it was fair game to wake up at the slightest look or touch.
Slipping into the bathroom, I closed the door and then leaned against it and took a few slow, deep breaths. “Get it together, Sawyer,” I whispered as I pressed the heel of my hand against the base of my dick to try and get it to go down. After a few math problems and a couple of unpleasant mental images, my erection faded enough for me to take a piss. I washed my hands extra carefully afterward, like Lukas would be able to take one look at them and know I’d thought of him while I touched myself.
After another deep breath, I returned to the kitchen. Lukas stood with his back to me while he spooned something out of a casserole dish and onto a plate.
“Did you want something to drink? Beer? Wine? Water? Coffee?”
“Wine would be nice, thanks.”
Lukas turned and carried two steaming plates of food to the table. “Meatballs in tomato sauce on garlic butter pasta, with a Caesar salad on the side.”
“It sounds amazing.”
“Thanks. Do you want red or white? I have a nice merlot.”
“That sounds fine, thanks.” I waited for Lukas to open a bottle of wine, pour a couple of glasses, and return to the table before I started eating. Using my fork, I broke off a piece of a meatball and popped it into my mouth. The sauce was full of flavor, a hint of Italian seasoning, and the presence of parmesan cheese didn’t go unnoticed. The meatballs themselves were moist.
“This is really good,” I told him as I went in for another bite. I couldn’t remember the last time someone had cooked for me. It was probably Thurston and Eugene sometime last summer when I’d spent the day helping Thurston in his office.
“Thanks. It’s one of my favorite things to make. Mostly because it’s easy.” Lukas stabbed a noodle with his fork. “You had questions for me?”
“Oh, yes. Uh, mostly about your high school years. It’s clear that you struggled because of your home life and stuff, but I feel like there’s something missing. Some bit of context that would bring a lot of loose ends together and make them make sense.”
Lukas sighed, and his shoulders drooped a bit. “I knew I’d have to tell you eventually, but I wanted to gauge you first. You know, find out what kind of person you were. For a lot of years, I was really embarrassed about it, and ignoring the problem only led to more issues for me, even in my adult life. Not everyone knows yet, but they will, I suppose, when the book comes out.”
