Page 9 of Mr. McBeefcake

chapter

five

Kathryn

I’ve never known Donovan to be a liar. Until all the shit happened with Mona, he’d been the best human I’d ever known. He’d been right by my side after my parents’ terrible divorce and my mom, my sister and I had moved to Saddle Creek permanently.

There’s nothing but earnestness in his expression. Had I misjudged him all this time? Blamed him for something he didn’t do himself and didn’t even know was happening?

“She wasn’t a nice person,” I say. I get up and go to the refrigerator, just to do something. I grab a can of diet soda. “You want anything to drink?”

“I’ll take one of those too,” he says from right behind me.

I hand him his can and then lean against the counter to open mine. I take a slow swallow, enjoying the way the carbonation burns my throat.

“I wish you had told me. Why didn’t you?”

I lift a shoulder in a shrug. I hate the fact that my eyes are welling up. “I thought you knew.”

“You thought I was okay with it? Okay with her treating you like that?”

“I guess. Everything she said about you—about us—made sense.”

He steps closer and thumbs away my tears. “KitKat, I would never have been okay with anyone being mean to you. In fact, if you have a list of other offenders, I’d like it so I can go and properly kick their asses.”

I give him a watery laugh. “My life has been pretty boring. Just me and lots and lots of schooling.”

“And now you’re a bad ass engineer.”

“Now I’m a bad ass engineer.”

His molten chocolate eyes search my face, landing on my lips. “Remember our first kiss, KitKat?”

Every moment of every day since. “Barely.” I take another sip from my soda. “It was a long time ago.”

Somehow he steps even closer to me. He leans around me and sets his drink on the counter. Then he tucks a strand of my shoulder-length brown hair behind my ear.

“It has been several years. But I still remember everything about it. The way that you looked up at me.”

Much like the way I’m looking up at him now. Probably more so since he’s so very tall and big now.

“How I took off your glasses so they wouldn’t get in the way.”

He does this again, pulling off my glasses and setting them on the counter.

My heart is pounding so loudly, I swear I can feel it in my fingertips. And yes, I realize that doesn’t make sense.

“That first touch of your soft, soft lips.” He rubs his thumb against my bottom lip. “The taste of your cherry lip balm. That little noise you made when our tongues touched.”

“We didn’t know what we were doing.”

“I think we did pretty well. It’s still the best kiss I’ve ever had.”

I roll my eyes. “Come on, Donovan. I’m not that dumb. I’ve seen all the pictures of you with the models and actresses. You’ve probably had hundreds of kisses since then.”

“Maybe. But none of them were with my favorite person.”

I should walk away. Skirt under his arm and go back to the table. But I’m trapped between his very hard body and the cabinetry behind me. Those impossibly large arms are bracketing my body, and he smells so good I really want to lean forward and lick his neck.