Tipping The Scales: Knox (Mate Craze)(17)

“Hey lady, I know a more private place to eat. The owner is a bit of an oaf, but he makes the best omelets this side of the Mississippi.” My voice automatically took on a lower octave when I spoke to her.

Kallie gasped a little when she heard my voice, but she wore a smile on her face that reached her eyes and made them smolder at the same time. “I thought the diner was the only place in town.”

“It is. This place is a little out of town.” Her gaze cut across the street, down the street, in the direction of anyone and anything but me. Shit, I’d moved too soon.

Her body language read “stranger danger.”

“It’s okay. We can just eat at the diner. I was just going to cook for you. I don’t eat out much.”

Her eyebrows bunched and several people had stopped on their way somewhere to gawk. I wished she would either get into the car or tell me to fuck off, anything to make them go away.

“Oh, your house? I thought you were just trying to kidnap me or something. Do people always stare at you like this? How do you stand it?”

I looked around. “You kind of get used to it or you don’t come into town much. I choose the latter. Hop in?” I patted the seat next to me like a teenager ready to take his girl to the drive-in.

While she crossed in front of my truck, looking at the ground the whole time like she was taking the walk of shame, I reached over, across the bench seat, and opened her door.

“Thanks. No wonder you stay away.”

Maybe it was the close proximity of Kallie in the cab of my truck or her permeating scent clogging up my throat in the best way possible, but whatever it was, my dragon was ready to let loose right then and claim her on the spot. She was twirling one of her longer pieces of hair around her finger while she pretended not to look at me every three seconds.

“It’s just up this road. If you want to get back to town, just take this long driveway back here. Then turn right. “

She laughed, almost a giggle. “Are you seriously telling me how to get away from you?”

“No. Yes. I might say something over-the-line-dorky and run you off. If I do, grab these keys and head for town. Some mundane soul will bore you to death in no time.”

“If you don’t like it here, why do you stay?” Her last word was jumbled by my truck rolling over a bump in the driveway. It shook her up a little.

“Sorry, there’s bumps, always have been. I have my brother here, and my businesses. And nothing has ever given me a good enough reason to leave, I suspect.”

I stopped the truck and looked out at my house. My sculptures were everywhere. I made huge ones for my home and my yard. I sold the little ones at stores around the country, but mostly local.

I didn’t think this ahead.

“Oh, wow. That little sculpture—the dragon—that’s yours. I mean it’s mine, but you made it.”

There were a lot of mine and yours in that one sentence.

“That’s me,” I said, pulling a few weeds that had grown into one particular sculpture of a man playing the banjo.

“Why didn’t you tell me? They are amazing. The one I have is like a little baby one compared to these.”

“A guy has to keep some of his dorkiness under wraps for a while. Come on in. I can hear your stomach growling.”

Kallie splayed both hands across her stomach. “You have some good hearing.”

“You have no idea,” I whispered as we walked, not nearly close enough, up the stairs to the front door.

I opened the door and let her in. “You don’t keep it locked? Isn’t that dangerous?”

A chuckle that wouldn’t be contained broke free. “Not around here. These people wouldn’t hurt a fly. And if they need something from me, they can take it and leave a note. I know where to find them if I need whatever it is back. I trust my people.” Shit. That was a slip.

“But they’re boring.”

I smiled and dangled the keys to my truck in front of her face. “Nah, not really. They are just safer for you than me.”

I turned to the refrigerator and changed the subject before she could really think on the fact that I basically just told her to be afraid of me.

“What do you like in your omelet? Please don’t be one of those girls who doesn’t eat anything but green stuff.”

Kallie was on the other side of the room, but I could hear every motion. The swish of her jeans as her thighs barely touched each other with each step, the swipe of her finger over some of my artwork and sculptures made me bared to her.

“I eat anything and everything. You choose. Chef’s choice. Man, I would kill to live out here. There’s so much privacy and quiet. You live here by yourself?” I heard the gentle lift of her voice as she tried like hell to maintain the innocence of the question. She didn’t really think that I would openly flirt and make food for a female if I was involved with another female. Maybe she did. Humans were weird. They treated each other like flavors of the month. If only this gorgeous creature breathing in the same air as me and making herself comfortable in my nest knew what I was and how much I revered this moment.

If only…

“It’s been a long time since I dated anyone, and even then they didn’t come to my home. I really don’t let very many people in here.”

She “hmm”ed to herself. “I don’t either—like people in my space. It’s mostly because I’m always busy, but I hope one day—nevermind, no one cares, Kallie.”