“Riley, if you’re finished with your breakfast, please go brush your teeth.”
“All right.” He settled back on his chair, then hopped down with Freddy Bear under his arm. On his way past Knox, he turned a hopeful glance up at him. “Can I help you ‘stall that stuff?”
“You’d better ask your aunt,” he murmured. “After you brush those teeth.”
Riley gave him a nod, then raced out to do as he’d been told.
“He’s a good kid,” Knox said.
“The best.”
Leni retrieved the empty cereal bowl and carried it to the sink. Knox stepped aside as she rinsed out the last drops of milk and a few soggy oat rings at the bottom. She didn’t want to react to the heat of his big body so close to her, or the power that emanated off him even when he was standing still.
Nor did she want to think about the fact that while he was sending her senses into hormonal overload, she was dressed like a middle-aged hausfrau with bags under her eyes and her hair in a bedraggled rat’s nest on top of her head.
Lovely.
Not that she needed to worry about looking good for Knox. They weren’t together and this wasn’t an awkward morning-after, no matter how much it felt like one.
Now that she was thinking about it, seeing him inside her house after having only met last night felt a lot less awkward than it should.
She had to remind herself that she was still pissed off and confused after their heated conversation before he’d stalked out the back door and vanished like a ghost. Just because she wasn’t half as furious to see him again now didn’t mean she wasn’t due some kind of explanation.
“Where did you go last night?”
There was no way to ask without sounding like a suspicious lover who was overstepping her bounds. Especially given that she was standing next to him indignant in her pajamas and about ten yards of terrycloth. But so be it.
When he didn’t answer, merely held her in an inscrutable stare that left her to imagine a dozen different scenarios, she pivoted to face him full-on and fisted her hand at her hip. She didn’t miss the subtle quirk of his lips as he took her in.
She cleared her throat. “I’m sure you didn’t spend half the night turning my garage inside out looking for handyman supplies.”
“No.” A sober, unsmiling reply.
“So, where did you go? Did you do . . . something I should know about?”
“I just needed to blow off some steam, Leni.” His gaze lowered to her parted lips. “I think it should’ve been obvious we both needed to let things cool off last night.”
He was right. If he hadn’t gone, she felt all but certain she wouldn’t have been able to put the brakes on whatever was happening between them. Part of her still wasn’t certain she was capable. Seeing him with Riley just now hadn’t helped dim her curiosity about Knox, or her desire.
She looked at him and struggled to see the dangerous predator he was. Now, with his eyes the dark blue-gray color of a thunderhead and his pupils fathomless ebony pools, he looked like a man, not a lethal Breed male. When he’d been listening patiently to Riley talk about his stuffed animal as if it were flesh-and-bone, Leni couldn’t imagine viewing Knox as the trained assassin he’d been bred and raised to be.
He was steady and strong, powerful and commanding. He was a man she wanted to know better. A man she desired, after having gone a very long time without knowing the feeling.
She let her hands fall slowly to her sides. “The way you left last night, I didn’t think I’d ever see you again.”
He frowned. “I’m sorry for the way I reacted. You deserved more from me than snarling and barked orders.”
“It’s okay,” she said quietly. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you about my mark. It’s become a habit to keep it a secret. No one in Parrish Falls knows except my best friend, Carla. My mom told me from the time I was a little girl that I shouldn’t let on to anyone that I was different, not if I wanted any kind of normal life. Especially here. There’s not a lot of room for different in this town.”
He grunted. “Just one of many things about this place that needs to change.”
“Why did you come back?”
It took him a long moment before he answered. “Because I couldn’t leave. If I did and something happened to you . . .” His voice faded out with his deepening scowl. “I’m not going to let that happen, Leni. I can’t now.”
She swallowed, her heart thumping hard in her breast. As stoic and detached as she’d seen him last night, as enraged as he’d been at discovering she was a Breedmate, there was no denying his concern now.
“I’ve decided to stay in Parrish Falls for a while.”
