CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
“Even if they’ve figured out where I live, there’s no way they can get to my floor or through my front door,” Mitch said, surveying his place. “We should be okay here, at least for the rest of tonight.”
Adam dropped them at the service entrance in the back after making sure no one was around. He’d come back for them once they figured out their next move.
“Look at that penetration!” Harold greeted them.
“Basketball games?” Maggie inquired.
Mitch shrugged. “They use the word penetrate way more than they should.”
“Humph. Still, an improvement.”
“Do you want anything to eat? I have cereal and canned soup.”
“I could eat. I was looking forward to milk and cookies, but I’ll take whatever’s easy.”
He opened a cupboard and grabbed two cans of Chunky Chicken Noodle soup. It took some searching, but he finally found a saucepan and dumped in both cans.
“You may have to show me how to work the stove,” he said, looking at all the buttons with a confused look.
“You assume that because I’m a woman, I’llautomatically know how to work the stove? How sexist,” Maggie teased.
He pushed at a few buttons, and finally, a light came on telling him it was heating. “Ha. Got it!” he proclaimed.
She walked over to stand next to him. “Were you planning to heat the soup in the oven?”
“Huh?”
She laughed and pushed him out of the way. “Move. You turned on the oven, but what we need is the stove.” She punched a couple of buttons and set the pot on one of the burners.
“Oh. So close. I’ll see if I can find some crackers,” he said on his way to the pantry. He came back, triumphantly waving a bag of Famous Amos chocolate chip cookies. “Look what I found!”
“Perfect,” she exclaimed. He knew Famous Amos was no substitute for homemade, but he appreciated that she was humoring him.
They ate soup, crackers, and cookies and washed it all down with white wine.
“Sorry about the accommodations. I’m not used to entertaining at home.”
“It was delicious. And think how easy cleanup will be.” She smiled.
She was so optimistic, so sweet, and so out of his league. He had no business messing around with her. No matter what she said, he knew the friends-with-benefits thing would not last. Casual sex was not for a girl like Maggie. She deserved better, and he should let her find it, but damned if he wasn’t a little bit hooked on her. He thought she’d be out of his system after they finally had sex, but that had only whetted his appetite.
He watched her put the pot in the sink and start the water. She was humming a tune he didn’t recognize. Her ass filled out her jeans in a way he’d be blind not to notice, and her long, brown hair hung in waves to the middle of her back. Itwas a scene he was unaccustomed to, but she looked right at home, as if she did this every night. For a fleeting moment, he thought he wouldn’t mind if shewerehere every night.
He envisioned them eating dinner together, cleaning up, and then snuggling on the couch to watch TV or read books. They’d head off to bed together, where he would make love to her and hold her while she slept.
What the hell?He shook his head. His near-death experience must be making him crazy. He desperately needed to be making a plan to keep them alive, and all he could focus on was her perfect rear end. God help them.
“Let me do that.” He gave her hip a bump and set their two bowls in the sudsy water. “Dishes, I’ve had experience with.”
She moved to put the crackers and cookies away. “Shall we just finish this bottle?” she asked as she poured, laughing.
“Yeah, I could use one more.”
In less than five minutes, the kitchen was clean. Grabbing their wine and moving to the living room, they sat in awkward silence. He had closed all the blinds and curtains as soon as they came in, so there was no view to admire. Harold had been remarkably quiet. And her cat had taken off to who knows where as soon as they’d returned.
Finally, he could stand it no longer and pulled out his phone to put some music on the Bluetooth speakers that surrounded the room.
