“I made breakfast,” Lola-Mae calls out. “And since I’m not wearing pants, you don’t have to, either. Let’s eat standing up.”
Swinging my gaze over to the kitchen, I smile at the sight that greets me. There could be a bowl of cold cereal, and I would be smiling just as big as I am right now. Lola-Mae stands in front of me with a plate in her hand.
As much as I want to place the plate on the counter and fuck her, I am cold to the bone and exhausted.
I need food. Taking the plate from her, I carry it over to the counter and place it down, leaning my hip against it as I watch her make her own plate and do the same. Standing in front ofme, her plate in hand, she tilts her head back slightly as she smiles up at me.
“Is everything good?” she asks.
My gaze searches hers in silence for a moment. “Fucking great,” I state.
LOLA-MAE
“Let’s stay in bed all day,” Harlan suggests.
I couldn’t stop smiling right now if someone paid me to. I don’t know what he was doing out there all night, and I don’t know what I expected him to act like when he got back, but I’m pleasantly surprised.
He seems happy, at peace, maybe even hopeful, which makes me feel the same way. Whatever uneasiness I felt when I looked out at the darkness of the storm, it’s gone. I’m filled with hope and anxious excitement.
“I have work to do. I’m still catching up,” I say.
Harlan snorts. “I don’t think that office has ever been completely caught up for a single day in over a hundred years.”
Biting the corner of my lip, I reach for a piece of bacon on my plate and bring it to my mouth, then release my teeth from my lip and take a bite. My eyes are still focused on Harlan’s. His lips twitch into a smirk as he watches me.
“Then I’ll be the first to do it,” I state. “It’s why you hired me.”
He hums while moving closer to me, closing the distance between us. I want him to pick me up and place me on the counter. I want him to bury himself inside me. He doesn’t do any of that.
Instead, he kisses me.
Harlan leans forward, and his mouth touches mine in a chaste kiss. When he lifts his head slightly, his eyes focus on mine again before he speaks. “How was the fence?” I ask.
He shifts back slightly. “How’d you know?”
Laughing softly, I shake my head a couple of times before I clear my throat. “I knew because you’ve spent a lot of time running along those fence lines, and during accounting, I’ve found a lot of fencing materials.”
“It keeps me busy,” he murmurs. “And now that I’ve done that for the day, we can spend some time in bed while the ground dries out.”
I start to tell him no, but then decide, why the hell not? “It’s crazy,” I whisper.
He snorts, and his lips touch mine again. No more words are said. Our breakfasts are abandoned along with the pans I dirtied to prepare them. They don’t matter. The moment his mouth is on mine, when his tongue slides inside me and tastes me, that is all that matters.
He picks me up, and I expect him to set my ass down on the counter, but he doesn’t. Instead, his feet move through the house. He carries me up the stairs, then lowers my feet onto the floor once we’re in the bedroom.
“Harlan,” I exhale once my feet are on the warm wooden floor.
“I don’t want to beat around the bush for another moment. I like this. I like you. I like us.”
“I like you too, Harlan.”
He smiles as he leans forward, and then his mouth is on mine again. “I more than like you, darlin’. I’m falling for you. Head over goddamn heels.”
Chapter Fourteen
LOLA-MAE
I feela little drunk or maybe hungover. I’m neither, but I am tired… in the best way possible. It’s been two days since I cooked dinner for Harlan in an attempt to throw myself at him, and it worked.
