“Yeah, I can see that, especially with Kenna and Amelia. She won’t let her out of her sight. Do you think that’s strange?”
I shrug. “Maybe not so much when she’s in a new place where she doesn’t know anyone.”
His head tilts. “You like Amelia too, don’t you?”
I can’t help it when I smile. “That little girl is messy and loud and talks more than any four-year-old I know, but yeah, I guess she’s grown on me.”
“I like her too. Both of them. And just so you know, I was serious when I said I’d be okay with it if they stuck around.”
“Yeah.” I nod and pick up the plate of hamburgers to head out back to grill them. “Yeah, I would too.”
~ ~ ~
Fresh from a shower and wrapped in a towel that smells like it’s been sitting around far too long, I go to the hallway closet to get a fresh one.
“Oh…uh…” Kenna is standing at the end of the hallway wearing the same robe she wore to breakfast. And looking completely embarrassed. “I’m sorry. I knocked but… okay, yeah, I’m just going to head back down.”
I try not to laugh at how flustered she is at my nearly naked presence.
“Kenna, it’s okay. What’s up?”
“I, uh, don’t know. I mean… I forgot.” Her eyes are a little glazed as they wander across my chest, her voice a little breathy, and I’m not sure she even realizes it. She shakes her head and purses her lips, her focus shifting to just over my shoulder. “Um… the toilet. It won’t stop running. It’s not leaking or anything, and I wiggled the handle and took the lid off and pulled on the chain thingy, but it didn’t work.” Finally, her gazemeets mine. “I know your specialty is cars, but you seem pretty handy with all the other stuff, so I thought maybe you knew how to fix toilets?”
The overhead light in the hallway is bright. It’s hard to miss the fact that her nipples are stiff and poking brilliantly against the satiny material of the robe that barely reaches her knees.
I lean against the wall, trying to come up with a way to prolong this conversation. Okay, maybe not the conversation, but I definitely want to prolong the way she’s looking at me. It’s just like how she did it this morning. Her usual soft eyes are ablaze with heat and passion. Lust even. And damn it, it has my dick stirring. Christian was absolutely fucking right.
“I might know a thing or two.”
Just as she did this morning, she looks at my semi-erection. And it does nothing but fuel the fire. I don’t turn away. In fact, I take a few steps toward her, standing unabashedly, waiting to see what she’ll do. Last night, I walked out of the room. But tonight, when it’s just the two of us, I really want to see where this will take us.
I stare at her. She stares at me. The energy between us is practically crackling in the air. My cock begins to throb, and I’m a little concerned it will dislodge the barely-hanging-on towel around my waist.
Her shyness gets the better of her in our standoff and she glances away. “It’s not a big deal. I can see you’re busy. It can wait until tomorrow.” She turns like she’s going to walk away, then she hesitates like she doesn’t want to go.
Knowing my days with her are numbered, and not wanting to waste this opportunity, I grab her elbow and gently tug her toward me. “Kenna.” I look down into her eyes, my gaze softer this time, saying all the romantic shit my mouth isn’t capable of articulating.
She swallows and looks to the right, toward my son’s darkened room. “Where’s Christian?”
“At Bug’s until ten. Where’s Amelia?”
She chews on her lower lip for a half-second. “Down for the night.”
I put my other hand on her arm and close the remaining distance between us. “So we’re two single parents alone for the night.”
“It appears so.”
Liking her reply, I take it a step further, figuring it’s time to sink or swim. “And one of us is severely overdressed.”
“Yes.” She gazes up at me with heavy lidded eyes. “One of us most definitely is.”
And then… then she does something that completely surprises the shit out of me. She removes my towel.
Holy mother of God.
Chapter Eighteen
Kenna
