Page 63 of Knight With Benefits

“Oh, yeah?”

I couldn’t stop the way my tone dropped, the suggestion in those two words obvious for anyone to hear. My shaft was already digging into my zipper as if she’d said she wanted to do more than talk to me.

“Yeah, but, not over the phone.”

If anyone saw me grinning at the wall across from the desk I sat at I’d look like a fool, but I didn’t care. Some guys would have taken that line as something ominous, but I couldn’t believe Gwyn would be cutting ties with me yet. While there hadn’t been a chance for us to get physical again over the past few days, she’d still been relaxed around me, smiling when I teased her, and glowing with accomplishment when we stopped for the night and she could see how far the café had come since I’d started helping.

“We could always meet up at The Hangout once I’m done here. The shop closes at seven.”

Her pause brought my grin down a few notches, and suddenly those worries I’d thought I didn’t have surfaced.

“How about you come to my place instead? I can make dinner for us.”

My cock damn near punched through my jeans, the surge of blood leaving me lightheaded as I slammed a door on the worries.

“Sounds perfect, but I can bring something if you don’t want to cook. You’re already spending the day working.”

I could almost see the way she’d pull her lower lip between her teeth to chew on it as she debated my offer. I knew she liked to cook, but I’d also seen how exhausted she usually was by the end of the day, and who wanted to stand over a stove after doing physically demanding work for ten to twelve hours?

“I’ll even grab a bottle of wine or something if you let me pick up dinner.”

Her quiet laugh had warmth spreading in my chest, and my bear finally settled for the first time since I’d left her street little more than a handful of hours ago.

“Careful, or I might start thinking you don’t like my cooking.”

Chuckling, I leaned forward to wake the computer before me. If she was going to let me bring her dinner for once, I wanted to make it good.

“I love your cooking, but there’s no reason to go through that effort after a long day. Let me take care of it.”

I almost slipped and saidlet me take care of you, but I saved it at the last second. Gwyn had relaxed a lot from the wary omega I met the first night at The Hangout, but I still wasn’t sure how she’d take a comment like that.

“Okay, but don’t waste your money on wine. That crap is disgusting.”

Laughing, I agreed with her, promising to be at her place by seven thirty. I’d have to break a few traffic laws to make it to her little duplex in that amount of time, but I wasn’t worried about it. I’d do more than a little speeding for Gwyn, and if the night went the way I was hoping, I couldn’t wait to get it started.

And if it went the complete opposite, then I’d need more time to let my bear go mourn in the forest before I was needed back at the shop.

The rest of the afternoon passed faster than the morning had, until the last hour before the shop closed. I looked at the clock at least six times, sure that it had to be seven already, only to see maybe five minutes had passed since the last time I’d checked. My stomach was flopping around inside me, and I almost couldn’t catch my breath as I splashed water on my face and washed my hands in the bathroom sink when there was only fifteen minutes left.

“Hey Carl, do you mind hanging late tonight so I can get started on this next part?”

Claws burst from my fingers before I could stop them, the snarl I let out making Tom’s brows shoot up as he took a step back.

“Whoa, never mind. It can wait for tomorrow.”

Curling the claws into my palms, I focused on the prick of pain to help make them recede as I sucked in a breath and forced myself to relax.

“Sorry. Not tonight.”

Any other and I wouldn’t have cared if someone wanted to hang around an extra hour, but I had two orders waiting for me to pick up before I drove across almost half the city, and I wasn’t going to keep Gwyn waiting.

Tom muttered something under his breath as he disappeared back into the shop. I wasn’t one to let things like that get to me, but Tom wasn’t well liked, and he was lucky to still have a job after how much Brooke despised him. He’d apparently made a comment to her the first time she’d showed up at the original shop that had put him on the bad side of both her and Sebastian, but the boss was too good of a guy to fire the man for it.

Nothing else happened to mess up my plans, and five minutes before seven I was already switching off the office lights and locking up. The guys in the garage gave me odd looks as I stood at the door, rushing them out, but either Tom had said something, or they could feel my bear’s anxious energy, so they kept their mouths shut. I was on my bike and roaring down the street before half of them had taken their seats.

It had taken a bit of searching online to find a restaurant I thought was good enough for Gwyn, and while I’d have preferred to be able to offer it to her fresh at the restaurant, she clearly wanted privacy for whatever she wanted to talk about. Every time a bubble of hope tried to rise I popped it, but it was hard not to think that perhaps she felt the way I did and wanted to talk about us becoming more than the sorta-boss-and-employee, sorta-friends-with-benefits situation we had going on.

I had the food safely tucked in my saddle bag by ten after, but I was still running behind to make it to her place by seven-thirty. Opening up the throttle, my beard lashed my neck as I tore out of the parking lot and off to my next stop. I knew there were going to be questions, but they would have to wait.

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