Page 57 of The Disputed Legacy
“You’re sweet.”
“And you’re brave.” I led him toward the kitchen to find us something to eat. My stomach was growling. When I realized I’d have the day off from work while the diner was patched up, I hadn’t counted on spending all my energy having sex. I was starving now, and he had to be too. We could eat while we talked, because whether I wanted it to happen or not, things were getting complicated between us now, and we had to be on the same page before Oscar would be home. He’d have questions, and I wanted to have reasonable answers Saul and I could agree on.
“Brave? Me?”
Oh, he sure could be a cheese.
“You were brave to push me and Oscar to safety last night,” I reminded him.
He followed me into the kitchen and sat at the small square table while I poked in the fridge and wondered what we could have. The pickings were slim, but I could get something together.
“That was instinct,” he replied as if there was nothing to it. “All I could do was react, and my first instinct was to protect you both.”
Because we matter that much?
I didn’t understand it. Yes, attraction was linking us together despite my offer to be just friends. But we were still strangers. Less of strangers now after what we did on the couch, maybe. After that experience, I felt like Saul would be the only man on earth to know every part of me inside and out.
“Is that what you do?” I asked while my back was still to him so I could gather things for sandwiches. “You said you have a job in security.”
“And consultation.” He cleared his throat. “My job is complicated.”
Hmmm. Then maybe Oscar’s theory that you’re a superhero in disguise is warranted.
“Complicated by choice?” I asked, wishing I could count on him to answer me directly if I came out and demanded to know who he was, once and for all.
“Just complicated,” he admitted.
I knew how complicated life could be. My parents had set me up for a lifetime of complications before I was pregnant with Oscar. But the way Saul said it, I had to wonder about what his background dealt with.
I had no business wondering. I shouldn’t have been pondering it at all. Just because he’d wowed me with sexdidn’t have to mean that I’d lower all my guards this quickly. Something hot and rabid like the way he’d fucked me, a physical connection, couldn’t be the only thing to build a relationship on. Good sex wasn’t the foundation for trust.
“What—”
Knocks sounded on the door, cutting me off from finishing a more direct question that I hoped he wouldn’t hedge.
Furrowing my brow, I stared at the door and clutched the deli meat and cheese to my chest.
“Expecting someone?” Saul asked in a quiet tone.
I shook my head.
He got up without making a sound, then glanced at me and took in how stiff I was.
“No one should be knocking on my door,” I whispered.
Never, not once, had anyone knocked on my door. The landlord preferred to text, everything electronic. Or he’d slip a document under the door. The neighbor couple who watched Oscar on Wednesday nights would bang their fist three times on the wall that separated our apartments as a knock.
In all the time that Oscar and I had lived here,no oneknocked on that door or sought me out. Solicitors never made it this far up. Other neighbors were more hermit-like and antisocial than I was.
“Wait here,” Saul said, going back toward my room. I nodded, watching his back. Too nervous to move or speak, too confused why someone would be knocking on my door, I stuck with this frozen-in-place deal.
Saul wasn’t gone long. He’d only slipped back into my room to toss on his shirt and suit jacket. I’d meant to offer to clean it, or sew it in a repair from the rip that bullet had caused, but he didn’t seem to care. I couldn’t understand why he wanted them on, but I didn’t speak up or question it.
Once he was back in the kitchen with me, more knocks came.
Whoever was waiting in the hallway wasn’t rude or demanding. They weren’t banging their fist impatiently, and somehow, that scared me even more.
Oscar?Saul mouthed it to me.
