Page 79 of Beautifully Broken Control

Kennedy blushed. “Things might have changed since the last time I saw you.”

“Oh, I just bet they have. Good for you. Get you some of that pretty boy.”

I chuckled. “Why do I suddenly feel like a piece of meat?”

Anna’s gaze flicked to me. “I don’t think you mind our girl here treating you like a piece of meat.”

I shook my head. No, I didn’t. Lizzie was looking between us like she was trying to figure out exactly what was going on, but it was the look on Doug’s face that almost had me choking with laughter. He looked as if he were sucking on a lemon and had smelled something bad all at the same time.

I wrapped an arm around Kennedy’s shoulders and guided her towards the doors. “Let’s get you home.”

“We have to go pick up Chuck first. I left him at your place.”

My steps faltered. When I’d said I wanted to get her home, I’d meantmyhome, the place that was quickly becoming ours in my mind. “You don’t want to stay at the lake house?”

Kennedy rolled her lips together. “I’ve been at your place for almost two weeks. Don’t you think I should stay at my apartment tonight?”

“No.” I didn’t want to spend a single night without her.

Her lips quirked. “Cain, I can’t just move in with you. We haven’t even gone on a date.”

“I’ll take you on a date, then.” Usually, my encounters with women had plenty of that. The best restaurants and wine, followed by five-star hotel rooms. None of that was Kennedy. I’d never even taken a woman I was romantically involved with to my home, and here I was, wanting nothing more than to move Kennedy in. It was too fast for her, but I saw that flicker of desire underneath. She didn’t want to leave.

I brushed my lips across hers. “Let’s make a deal. Stay at my place tonight. Tomorrow, we’ll go to yours.”

“We?”

“Yes, we. I’m not spending the night without you.”

A smile stretched across Kennedy’s face. “That sounds like a plan I can get behind.”

33

Kennedy

I moanedas my phone rang again from where it sat on the nightstand and reached out a hand to grab it. It took a few tries for my fingers to find it.

Cain cursed and rolled to his back. “Who the hell is calling at six in the morning?”

I blinked sleep out of my eyes. “Jensen.” My stomach dropped. She wouldn’t be calling this early unless something was wrong. “Hello?”

“Hey, I’m so sorry to wake you up.”

I sat up in bed. “It’s okay. What’s wrong?”

Jensen groaned. “There’s a gas leak at the Kettle.”

“Ohmigosh, is everyone okay?”

“Everyone’s fine. It smelled like crazy when I opened the back door, so I called Walker, and then the gas company. They’re here trying to figure out what happened. But it looks like there might have to be some repairs.”

I looked over at Cain, who was wide-awake as soon as I’d asked if everyone was okay. I gave him a reassuring smile but continued talking to Jensen. “I’m so sorry. Can I do anything?”

“Well, you’ll have a few days off, at least. Do you think you could stay with Cain for a while longer? It looks like the leak was centered under the apartment, so I think they’ll be doing the most work there.”

It wasn’t exactly a hardship, having an excuse to stay with Cain longer. Chuck crawled up from the foot of the bed and laid his drooling face on Cain’s naked chest. Cain shook his head but scratched behind Chuck’s ears. “I don’t think that’ll be a problem.”

Jensen laughed. “I didn’t think so. They said you can come pick up some of your belongings if you need to. Just give them another hour or so.”

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