Page 33 of Not All Himbos Wear Capes
I couldn’t stop my gaze from sweeping over his ass as he squatted down to work. “I’m guessing your parents are politicians or belong to a fundamentalist religious sect.”
His laugh was strained this time. “A little of both, you could say.” We worked side-by-side in comfortable silence for a few minutes before he spoke again. “My parents were pretty famous in their line of work, and I was always just expected to follow in their footsteps… which meansmyreputation reflects on them—on my family’s legacy.”
That sounds familiar.
While I appreciated Butch sharing more about himself with me, something wasn’t adding up. “So,didyou follow in their footsteps or not?” I kept my tone casual, but my gaze was locked on him, noticing how he tensed at my question. “I can’t imagine your parents were world-famousaccountants.”
Let me in, baby.
His jaw clenched the tiniest bit, and for a moment, I assumed he was going to feed me some bullshit. But then he met my gaze with what looked liketearsin his eyes.
“I did… because I didn’t have a choice,” he rasped, his voice thick with regret and bitterness. “It’s why I work for Biggs, but I actually can’t tell you anything more about what I do. I-I’m sorry, Xander.”
Oh, sweetheart…
I wanted to pull this big idiot into my arms and hug the shit out of him. I also wanted to fuck him into the sand, but that was beside the point. If anyone could understand not being able to talk about their family—and the things they had to do in the name of said family—it was me.
And I can’t tell him more about me either.
“It’s all right, Butch.” I smiled, making sure he couldseethat I meant it. “I’ll just pretend I’m dating a super secret spy on a covert mission.”
The tension bled from his body as he laughed, his pretty blue eyes sparkling. “Thank you for understanding, Xan.” He grew serious again. “And I’m glad to hear you still want to date me.”
I scoffed. “Oh, sweetheart, you won’t be getting rid of me that easily. On that note…” I cleared my throat, knowing I was moving much too fast, but unable to stop this runaway crazy train. “I’ve been wanting to ask if you’d remove the Bangers app from your phone. If you’d consider… dating only me?”
Just laying all my cards on the table, no big deal.
Those tasty dimples appeared as he tried to stifle his smile. “You want me all to yourself, huh?”
There was no smile on my face as I stared him down. “Yes.”
All mine.
Because he was perfect, he immediately stood and pulled his phone out of his pocket. “Done,” he reported, turning his phone to face me so I could watch him do it. “To be honest, the notifications were driving me nuts, and I couldn’t figure out how to turn them off. And to be evenmorehonest, I want you all to myself, too.”
“Done,” I replied, rising to stand next to him. “But you should know, I’ve never attempted an actual relationship with anyone before, so this is going to be a novel experience for me.”
He planted a kiss on my cheek, adorably bouncing on his toes in excitement. “I can’t say I have either, on top of never being with a man before. So I guess we’ll just figure this out together.”
Together…
The idea of doinganythingwith another person by my side was so overwhelming, I was momentarily speechless. It was then that Butch’s phone rang, interrupting the moment.
I caught ‘Biggs Enterprises’ on the screen before Butch brought the phone to his ear. “Hawthorne,” he said, which was an odd way to answer when the caller knew it was you.
It must be part of his secret spy gig.
My senses went on high alert as his expression shifted to acute alarm. “He’swhere?!”he hissed, gaze shooting up to the sky as if it held the answer. “Yes, I’ll be there as soon as I can.”
Ending the call, his frantic gaze turned to me. “Xan, I’m sorry to do this, but there’s an emergency with work. Are you okay with finishing up here on your own?”
What the hell is he talking about?
I quickly kneeled and efficiently gathered up our supplies and samples. “Take a breath, Butch. I will gladlydriveyou wherever you need to go, because right now, we're in the middle of nowhere. What were you gonna do,flyout of here?”
He looked at me like I had three heads, but slowly nodded. “Yes… what was I thinking? Okay, you could drive me to… the Navy Yard. I have a contact I can hook up with from there.”
He’s definitely a secret spy.
