24 #2
The room filled with the smell of our cooking breakfast. I hovered over the stove. I could cook eggs, though this was my one chance to show Orion that I wasn’t completely useless in the kitchen. My biggest fear was that I would fail. I’d try to make them the best scrambled eggs he’d ever eaten.
“Did you have a favorite thing to eat when you were a kid?” Orion asked.
It made my stomach churn for a moment because after telling him I spent a lot of time in a car growing up, it seemed like a weird thing to ask.
Though that didn’t mean we didn’t eat. There were times when Mom got paid a little extra pulling through the McDonald’s drive-thru.
“There were rare occasions when Mom would get us fast food. Stuff mostly off the value menu, but you can’t beat a good standard cheeseburger, you know?” I answered as I continued to stir the eggs, like if I left them alone for one millisecond, they’d go up in flames.
He hummed coming up behind me, wrapping his arms around my waist. Fuck, the man needed to put some clothes on, or I’d say fuck it to the eggs and let them burn. I wanted to feel his body against mine too badly to keep paying attention.
Orion rested his chin on my shoulder, kissing the side of my head. “Sometimes the simpler things in life are better than the more extreme. I never did like the fancier burgers myself.”
It made me laugh. Was he saying all of it to appease me? Here was this man who could basically have anything he wanted. He was here telling me that he willingly went without because he liked it more? Nah, I wasn’t buying that for a second.
“That’s a lie. You like the double patties with the extra cheese, bacon, fancy sauce...”
Orion’s arms tightened around me like he knew what I was trying to say. He liked people who had more in life than I did. While I wasn’t homeless anymore, it wasn’t like I lived a life of luxury. We’d spent the night on a mattress on my bedroom floor. He had to want better than that.
“I mean, those things are nice, but not needed. Why would I need those things when a simple patty with some cheese, ketchup, and maybe a slice of pickle would do?”
Okay, so the whole analogy was stupid, but I appreciated that he was playing along, making me feel better about it all.
Orion kissed the side of my head again before he plopped his gorgeous ass in a chair at my tiny dining table.
He was so fucking huge he looked like he was about to snap the damn chair.
Or maybe that was just because I was so damn small.
It was probably fine. Even Victor looked like he’d take out half my furniture.
Dramatic much? Just a little…
“Seriously. Don’t think just because I have a truck and a house that I need to have nice things all the time. Much like you, I didn’t have everything handed to me growing up.”
I clicked off the stove. The eggs were done—I wanted to focus on what Orion was saying. I hated that the shelves in the cupboards were so damn high I had to stand on my tiptoes to reach my bowls, but I nabbed two, separating out even portions for the two of us.
When I sat across from Orion, he only stared at me. “What?” I asked as I lifted a spoonful of eggs to my lips, blowing on it to cool it before taking a bite.
“You could have asked me to help you.”
I scoffed. He wouldn’t be there to rescue me in my own home all the time. No, I wanted to know more about what he’d been talking about.
“What did you mean ‘you weren’t handed everything’?” I asked around a mouthful of food, spraying a little out onto the table. It was gross as hell. Don’t talk with your mouth full, right? Guess Momma never taught me manners.
He stirred the eggs around in the bowl for a moment before looking up to meet my gaze.
“So even if my dad owned the garage, he wasn’t always the best at running it.
Still isn’t. There are days I wonder how the place is still open.
Times were hard for us when I was a kid...
” he trailed off, and I could see it right there in his eyes.
The bruising on his face the other day...
had his father done that? Why the fuck was he still there?
Orion didn’t elaborate further as he started eating his breakfast. It was still the most he’d ever said to me about something so personal between last night and this morning.
I liked getting to see this side of him.
If he kept this up, I’d be willing to tell him a little more about me as well, though neither of us said anything as we finished eating.
As soon as we were done, Orion gathered the bowls, taking them to the kitchen sink, washed them, and put them away. It was an impressive show for a man walking around with a sheet tied around his waist.
But the moment was short-lived when he gathered his few discarded clothing items from the living room, took them to the bedroom, then reemerged fully dressed.
“My phone is about half-charged. Thanks for that. I don’t want to keep Whitney waiting too much longer. Most of her messages are just her asking when I’m coming home and if any of it has to do with Jayden.” He huffed a laugh at the last part. “God, she’s always hated him.”
I raised an eyebrow at the statement, but said nothing.
I wasn’t expecting anything when he left, so it took me by surprise when he was suddenly back across the tiny apartment, pulling me from the chair, sealing his lips over mine. Like I would die if I didn’t hold on, I clutched at his t-shirt as he kissed me breathless.
Just as quickly as the kisses started, they ended. I was left standing there in the middle of my kitchen, staring at the space where the sexy beast of a man had once stood, wondering when and if it would ever happen again.