Chapter 10: Seth's Rule

Seth's POV

She had her hand wrapped in my sleeve, and I forgot every rule I owned.

I had made one just that morning, standing at the grill with the first eggs of the day.

Nothing until her divorce is final.

Nothing until she can say yes without anyone's lawyer in the room.

I had told myself that over the toast, and again over the bacon.

"Elise," I said. "I'll stay. I can stay right here and make you tea."

"I don't want tea."

"Then what do you want?"

She looked up at me.

The sign in the window lit the side of her face pink and then blue.

"I want one person today to look at me and not want something back," she said.

"I want something back."

"What?"

"You," I said. "I'm not going to lie. But I've waited ten days and I'll wait ten months."

"I don't want you to wait."

She stood.

The booth table was between us, and she moved around it until she was in front of me, close enough that I could smell the ginger candy on her breath.

"You said you wouldn't ask me for anything," she said.

"I won't."

"Then I'll ask."

Her hand left my sleeve and settled flat on my chest.

Her palm was small and warm through my shirt.

I had not been touched in four years except by a customer's handshake.

"There's a rule," I said, and my voice came out rough. "My rule. Not till your papers are signed."

"Whose rule is it?"

"Mine."

"Then break it," Elise said. "You're the owner."

She went up on her toes.

Keep reading free with an account. Start He Never Looked Up at Breakfast, So I Served Him Papers from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.