Page 88 of Don't Game Me

She wanted to wrap her arms around his bare back, but she wasn’t welcome to do that. Instead, she leaned against the refrigerator next to him. “Good morning.”

He scooped the omelet onto a plate. “You enjoy sleeping in?”

“Seven-fifteen is hardly sleeping in.”

“I’m usually at work by seven. Hope you like omelets.” Without lifting his gaze from his laptop, he waved the spatula in the direction of the omelet.

“I’m sorry. I mean it.”

He grunted.

“I need you to look at me and understand they had a video of me using the same tech to steal information from a competing company in California. They told me it was a test run of the new program, and the company knew what I was doing. Only afterward did I find out they tricked me. I helped them steal millions of dollars in designs that GenShare sold to the Chinese.”

“Not an excuse for not telling me about that or your plans with Quan.”

She poked him. “I didn’t sleep with you because they told me to. I did it because I wanted to. I wanted to the moment I met you when I was in high school.”

“That would’ve been illegal.” He still didn’t glance her way.

She poked him again. “Regardless of the other stuff, what happened was real. I think that scares you more than anything else.”

He caught her finger on its way to poke him again. “Poke me again and see what happens to you.”

“What’ll you do? Huh? Kick me out? Yell at me?” She poked him hard.

Pressing his body tight with her back against the refrigerator, he lowered his mouth to hers. The kiss was angry and deep. She wound her arms around his neck as he stroked his tongue against hers.

Suddenly, his mouth wasn’t there. “We can’t do this right now…got to talk.”

“Talk?”

“I want to talk about us—about what’s going on here. Try to figure out if we’re just into the sex and nothing more, not that that’s bad. I mean, of course, the sex isn’t bad.”

“The sex is good,” she hedged, fearing more might scare him. But he’d put it out there. Didn’t that just make her jittery to her toes with hope?

He pointed at a counter height chair. “Eat.”

A plate appeared in front of her with half of the omelet. He handed her a fork. “Coffee?”

She nodded.

He added milk before he slid the mug her way.

“You know how I like coffee?”

“I’ve gotten you coffee a few times over the years.” He’d taken note. People blew him off as a player who used women, but it was a smokescreen to hide the amazing guy underneath.

He checked his phone and blew out a long breath. “Noah should be here in a sec.”

“What? Noah? It’s barely after seven. He doesn’t get out of bed before seven. I should get pants.”

Knock. Knock.

“Right on time.” Jake stalked to his bedroom, emerging seconds later in a T-shirt before he answered the door.

Noah marched into the kitchen. Her heart nearly came out of her chest. The gold band on Noah’s left hand flashed in the light, a reminder of the reception she missed and the honeymoon she forced the newlyweds to postpone.

“Good morning, Becca,” Noah said curtly.