Page 22 of The Senator's Secret
“And that one?” He nods toward my snuggle buddy, Winks.
“Also mine.”
“So just the two then?” he asks mildly, and it has me more on edge than I was all night. Something about Jacob Chancellor tells me it’s when he’s quiet that I need to be more on guard than when he’s yelling.
“No.”
“How many?”
“Eight.”
He looks to contemplate my answer for a minute before seeming to accept it, which makes me nervous. “Any dogs? Parrots? Or chinchillas?” he asks, and a little wine-drunk giggle slips out of my mouth. I bite my lip to hold it back, but it’s no use, and an odd look crosses Jake’s face.
But I don’t think about it now. Later, I would realize I should have. Later, I would realize that I had let my guard slip and it would prove to be a fatal error. But right now, the sight of him holding my senior rescue cat like a baby has me all twisted up in knots and behaving like a girl with her first crush.
“No. Just the cats.”
“Okay,” he says, and he looks tired. More tired than I realized before. Maybe his life isn’t all sunshine and rainbows after all. “I take it you’ve had dinner?”
“I did,” I tell him. “I left you a plate in the fridge.”
“You made me dinner?” he asks in a voice that makes the hair on the back of my neck stand on end. There’s something about his reaction I don’t understand. He sets the cat in his arms down before issuing his next command. “Come here.”
“I-I-I’m sorry,” I whisper. Shit, I made him mad and I was just trying to be nice. How could I keep bungling this all so badly? “I won’t do it again.”
“I said come here,” he growls. “Don’t make me ask again.”
I jump up and walk toward him, stopping a foot away from him. I know he wouldn’t hurt me, but he still scares the crap out of me. There’s something about him that just screams dangerous.
Jake reaches out and hooks me by my arm, swinging me into his body as he closes around me in a tight hug. He tucks his face into the crook of my neck and just holds me for a bit. I’m not really sure what to do with such a tender gesture, so I awkwardly pat him on the back, making him chuckle.
“No one’s made me dinner in a long time, honey,” he says softly when he pulls back to look at my face but still doesn’t release me. “You didn’t do anything wrong. You just made me happy.”
“Oh,” I reply uneasily. “Okay.”
“Keep me company while I eat?” he asks sweetly, almost a little shyly, and I don’t know what to make of this Jake. He’s cute and he’s funny and he’s playful. I don’t want to say no to him, but I also don’t trust him to be real. But maybe this is how I sway him to my way of thinking.
Or maybe it’s the beginning of my downfall. Only time will tell.
“Okay,” I repeat.
He lets me go but takes my hand in his and leads me back into the kitchen. I let out an undignified shriek when he turns on me and scoops me up, unceremoniously dropping me on the prep island and laughing at my reaction.
“What did you make me?” he asks as he moves to the fridge. The way his face lights up, I wish it was something fancier. Maybe tomorrow I’ll wow him with my mom’s recipe for chicken parmigiana.
“Nothing special,” I answer. “Just a salad with grilled chicken.”
“Thank you,” he says as he pulls the plate from the fridge and sets it on the island next to me.
“You’re welcome.”
He walks over to a bottle of wine Carter and I opened and examines the label. It paired nicely with the chicken, if I do say so myself. He pulls down another wine glass and empties the bottle into it before taking a sip. I get lost in the way his throat moves as he swallows the dry wine, and I’ll be damned if that isn’t more than a little tingle I feel between my thighs at the sight. He’s so sexy I could probably come just from watching him.
He looks up at me, and my breath catches at the hungry look in his eyes. And I don’t think it’s from a boring salad and grilled chicken.
Jake prowls back toward me, and I have the sudden urge to run, but I know that can’t be right either. It’s like they say at the zoo—never run from a lion; a true predator thrives on the chase. And I know without a doubt Jake would too. Just like I also know he’d catch me if I ran.
I should run.