Page 28 of Cocky Bastard

I snorted and shook my head. “Of course it fucking was.”

“Well, I couldn’t exactly walk into Kings Cross and buy a ticket!”

“Not unless you wanted to make the breakfast news,” I said with a wry smile. This was better. This waseasy. This was just the two of us together like we always were. I leant in and kissed him quickly, because I missed that pretty mouth of his. “I’m glad you made it, but I’m still not letting you live this down, kitten.”

“How else was I supposed to get here?” he asked, nudging my nose with his and kissing me again. “Grow wings?”

“Drive, dumbass.”

“I don’t own a car.”

“You could have hired one! You hired a fucking helicopter.”

“But it’s like a five- or six-hour drive,” Kane said incredulously. “Why would I do that?”

“You’re ridiculous,” I said. “But it’s cute.”

“Oh please, like you never used a private jet or a helicopter when you were in acting?”

I shrugged. “Maybe, but if I did it wasn’t my choice. I stopped acting when I was twenty, remember?”

He laughed. “Yeah, because you discovered sex.”

“Hey! I discovered sexwaybefore then. And so did you.” I winked at him, my chest purring when he flushed. I wondered if he was remembering the first time we’d fucked. “By the way, I have a surprise for you.”

“Yeah? Am I going to like it?” he asked, grinning at me as I turned and beckoned him towards the kitchen. It was at the back of the house, overlooking the small garden, and one of my favourite rooms with deep green cupboards, lighter green and white tiles, and swirled marble countertops. There were a few pops of colour with my orange coffee machine and yellow kettle and toaster, and the bright prints of cocktails on the walls.

I’d laid out my hoard of baked goods, including Colin the Caterpillar, on the kitchen island and gestured to them as we walked in. “You said you wanted cake so… ta-da.”

“Oh my God,” Kane said, a burst of joyous laughter bubbling out of him. He threw his arms around my shoulders and kissed me before walking over to them. “Seriously? Is this just for us?”

“Yeah, who the fuck else would it be for?”

“It’s amazing,” he said as he bent over slightly to examine them, a wondrous smile on his face. Jesus, this man was so fucking adorable it was going to kill me. “You got a caterpillar cake! I remember having these at so many birthday parties. They were the shit.”

“They still are,” I said, grabbing a small knife out of the block and handing it to him. “Why don’t you cut some and I’ll flick the kettle on. Then you can have a tour if you want.”

“A tour?”

“Yeah, I figure you’re nosy and you want to look round. This one is mine. Then next door is the studio. We can look in both if you want.” I’d mentioned the whole two-house setup to him last week when I’d been at his. It was also when I’d found out that Kane didn’t drink coffee. Fucking weirdo.

“Sounds good,” he said as he began to cut some large slices of cake. “Any plans for the rest of the day?”

“Not really.” I shrugged. “I booked us a table for dinner—don’t worry, it’s a small local place and they’re gonna find us somewhere in the back where we won’t be disturbed—but apart from that I thought we could just chill?”

I wondered for a second if I should have thought of more, but Kane was still smiling as he picked up a piece of cake and handed a second to me.

“Sounds fucking perfect, babe.”

CHAPTER TWELVE

Kane

When Austin had saidhe’d booked a table at a small local place for dinner, I hadn’t been sure what to expect. Italian maybe or Indian, perhaps even a pub or bistro. But definitely not a tiny hole-in-the-wall-style burger joint with battered wooden tables, an assortment of colourfully painted chairs, and vintage-style food and drink posters on the wall mixed in amongst neon lights in the shape of rainbows, burgers, fries, ice cream sundaes, and a bright pink balloon dog.

The smell of burgers and sizzling fryers greeted us as soon as we walked through the red front door and I inhaled deeply, my stomach rumbling. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d had a burger and now I was craving one.

There were quite a few people in here but none of them gave us a glance, all of them too fixated on their food and the other people at their table. The hum of happy chatter was audible above the bouncing background music, but it wasn’t so deafening that I wouldn’t be able to hear Austin. Or my own thoughts.

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