“People try to pick on me, but I don’t let them, Beau.” Cross turned to face Beau so they were eye to eye. “How are you, really? Your mom said you were having trouble breathing again.”
Cross looked up at me with a look I couldn’t decipher. “Hey, Moon.” Was it pleasure at seeing me? Total disinterest? Why couldn’t I read this man? Why wouldn’t he let me?
“Hey, yourself, Cross.”
I turned my attention to my son, and froze, waiting for Beau to clam up as he usually did whenever anyone mentioned his illness. But he surprised me, opening up easily. “I don’t like the nebulizer.”
I quickly changed the subject. “What do you want on your pizza, Beau? The usual?”
He didn’t take his eyes off Cross, just giving me an enthusiastic nod, so I left Beau at the table while I went to place our order. I figured he would be fine for a few minutes since Cross appeared more amused by him than annoyed. Though I wondered about that flash of pain in his eyes I sometimes saw when he looked at my son.
It didn’t take long to place the order but who knew how long the wait would be, so I took a moment and grabbed some vegetables from the salad bar. And I might have taken a small moment for me, away from Cross and his delicious scent before returning to the table, where Beau was talking about his favorite thing in the world. Sports.
“The Golden Knights are going to take the Stanley Cup this year,” he said with an air of authority that had Cross covering his mouth.
“But what about those Sharks?” Cross asked.
Beau nodded and I knew exactly where this conversation was heading. Stats. “Yeah, but the Knights are—”
“—Eat some vegetables while we wait for our pizza.” I slid the plate over and he carefully looked at the options before grabbing a baby carrot. “Sorry,” I mouthed to Cross.
His mouth curled into an irresistible smile. “Don’t be.”
“I have a booster seat if you want one,” the woman at the table beside us offered.
I smiled gratefully, Beau never used them even though he was a touch small for his age. “Thanks, but it’s not necessary.”
“What?” Cross looked at Beau who stood beside the empty chair warily. “How are you gonna stare your food in the face before you tear into it? You gotta show that pizza who’s the boss.”
Beau still looked wary but Cross picked up a slice of his meaty pizza and gave it a mean look before biting into it aggressively. “Aargh! See?”
And just like that Beau’s hesitation vanished and he laughed hysterically. “Okay. Thank you, miss.”
“Oh, aren’t you sweet,” the woman said, immediately stepping forward to place the booster on the seat beside Cross. “Enjoy your pizza young man.”
He climbed up into the seat and waved at the retreating woman. “I can’t wait to be this tall.”
Cross chuckled. “Enjoy being a short stack while you can.” He winked at Beau who tried a wink back as if he accepted the older guy’s wisdom, and then picked up a carrot stick.
“Okay,” he said simply.
And me? Well I had to send a wish out to the heavens above that it was just lust I felt heating up my insides and not something else.
Chapter Thirteen
Cross
“I’m leaving. Right now.” It was the third time I made that particular promise with my lips hovering a breath away from Moon’s. We didn’t have much time left before Beau came home from school.
“You already said that,” she shot back, her voice filled with heat and amusement. That pink tongue darted out and slid in a hypnotic motion from one corner to the next and I knew I’d say those words a fourth time. The tip slid along the seam of my mouth and I was lost to the electricity of the kiss. The heat and the hunger. She was like a magnet pulling me in and I was too needy to step back. To turn away.
I needed to be inside her. Now. “Tell me to leave,” I growled because if she told me to, it was the only way I could walk away from her while my body trembled with need. A dark, hungry need that I couldn’t deny.
“I will,” she promised on a breathy pant. “But not yet.” Then her mouth was on mine in that slow sensual way she had. Moon wasn’t a rush through it kind of woman. No, she was the type to savor every touch and every taste. And right then she savored my mouth like it was one sweet morsel of chocolate. “Upstairs,” she commanded in that low, husky voice of hers.
Moon only had to tell me once. My cock was hard—throbbing hard—and anxious to be inside her. I locked the front door before turning to follow her down the hall and up the stairs, smacking her ass once in a while just to let her know I was still back there. “Moon.”
She stepped inside the bedroom and turned to face me, making my heart pound so loud I couldn’t hear a damn thing. “You plan to stay over there, wearing all of that?”