His lips quirked.“Fifty bucks says that’s Alicia wondering where we are.I bet she’d leave us be if—”
“No.”Grace inched back.“I’m not standing my friend up for tacos just because you’re—” She gestured.“You.”
“Me?”His grin hitched.“You’rethe reason we haven’t left the house.”He gripped her hips and rocked her again.“Distracting me.”
Laughing, she rolled her eyes and pushed away.
Callum yanked her back into place.“You good?”
“Yes.”
He cupped her chin and turned her face until she met his intense scrutiny.“Are we good?”
The warmth flooding through her was very different from the heat that had her willing to make out with Callum in Alicia’s kitchen.She wasn’t used to the gentle care that she heard in his voice.Not from Callum or any man.“We are.”
Callum lifted her off his lap as though she weighed nothing and set her on her feet.“Let’s go before we get in trouble with Alicia.”
Chapter Fourteen
Thenextmorning,Callumwoke with a crick in his neck and a cat on his stomach.He squeezed his eyes shut and rubbed a hand over his face.
Sherlock kneaded his paws on Callum’s stomach and stared directly into his soul.The cat might not have been the best home security system, but Callum would be lying if he didn’t think Sherlock had an intuition and an ability to read people and problems.A security cat.Huh.Never thought he’d run into one of those.
“Come on, buddy.Let me have five more minutes to sleep.”Callum had stayed up half the night holding himself back from crawling into Grace’s bed, then spent the other half of the night imagining what would have happened if he had gone upstairs.He let out a frustrated breath and pushed the cat away.“Five more minutes.”
Sherlock didn’t budge.
Callum stretched.His neck and shoulder twinged after a long night of sleeping on a tiny couch.His stomach was still overstuffed after last night’s questionable decision to eat his bodyweight in tacos.That was worth it.Mostly.Tacos were a fantastic distraction from Grace.Not to mention, who didn’t love tacos?Totally worth it.At least until Sherlock used his abdomen as a launch pad and jumped onto the coffee table.
“Come on, cat.”
The sun hadn’t risen, but he was wide awake and directly below the bedroom where Grace slept.What he wouldn’t do to be in that bed right now.
Sherlock glared at him from the coffee table and meowed as if demanding that Callum keep it professional.“That ship has sailed, my feline friend.”
But that was where his mind should be.Fix the problems, and a world of possibilities opened to him and Grace.
What information would Dean have found overnight?Perhaps Vivian had an update from the DOJ.If so, he and Grace might have travel orders and a meeting with the attorneys lined up.Good.Then they could understand Dominic’s behavior.His stalking her had to be more than wanting to repossess Grace like a lost belonging.
He scrubbed a hand over his face again and forced his shoulders to relax.His mind wandered from work to how this was different than the Army.
Did he enjoy working for Titan?
Yeah, even if he took his current assignment out of the mix, he did more than he realized he would.It was never boring.There wasn’t much sit-around-and-wait.
Sunlight glowed through the gauzy drapes.The too-small couch didn’t make lounging in bed appealing.He wasn’t falling asleep again, especially when the possibility of coffee and breakfast was so close.
Alicia wouldn’t kill him for poking around her kitchen.She’d almost let him cook last night, and he had something to prove after fumbling whether he believed he was a great cook.He absolutely was.A total master in the kitchen.
Twenty minutes later, the bacon sizzled in a cast-iron skillet and the coffee percolated.The scent had pulled him fully into the land of the living and, with the sounds of footsteps upstairs, possibly lured someone awake.
He poured himself a cup of coffee and waited.Anticipation tingled in his chest.He was too old to tie himself in knots over a woman, yet here he was, hoping like hell that Grace came downstairs.
She padded into the kitchen, and his heart double-tapped at the sight of her.Sleepy and soft and so damn appealing that he gripped the spatula harder.“Morning, gorgeous.”
She stopped short, blushing, and then, with a surprisingly shy smile, beelined for the coffeepot.“Good morning to you, too.”
Who knew flannel anything could catch his eye?Boy, had it.Everything about those pajamas was calling to him.“Did I wake you up?”
