Page 17 of Knotting Autumn

“Okay, they own a business. But my parents are gone, and my grandfather just passed leadership over to my brother. Well, honestly, it was more of a hostile takeover, in my opinion.”

“So what are you doing in town?” I asked, raising an eyebrow as I took another sip of the sweet-and-sour drink.

Thorne pressed his lips together for a moment before answering. “I couldn’t stay there with him in charge.”

“You guys don’t get along?”

Thorne shook his head. “Never.”

“That sucks. I always wanted a sibling, but I guess I always assumed we’d get along. Sorry.”

He gave me a regretful half-smile. “Yeah, it’s okay. So I couldn’t deal with him any longer, so Cole and I took off.”

“Are you and Cole..?”

“Um, Cole worked there too.” His voice got slightly higher when he said it, just like it had when he first said his family owned a business.

I didn’t think he was outright lying, but he was definitely holding back information. And it was none of my business.

“So just coworkers?” I asked, probing.

“Cole and I have been best friends our entire lives,” he said, his tone deepening as he relaxed.

“What did you do for the company? Management?” I asked, imagining him with a silver spoon, a corporate nepotism baby.

“Security.”

“Really?” I said, eyes widening. “Like watching-a-wall-of-security-cameras security?”

“Sometimes. But I can fight,” he said, showing me those straight, white teeth again. They were sharper looking, just like Sawyer’s.

What was it with hot guys and pointy teeth? He ran his tongue over his teeth, and I nearly drooled.

“Like, you know karate?” I joked, trying to think of anything to say other than “pretty boy, I like your mouth.”

His brows furrowed, and he opened his mouth to answer my awkward question, but I was saved by the waitress returning with two identical plates. Thorne thanked her, and I grabbed my fork, starving.

He seemed to like to watch me eat, because again, his eyes tracked my first several bites. It should have been weird, but the idea of him watching my mouth turned me on. Basically, everything this man did turned me on. It was dangerous territory.

Unable to help myself, I lifted my gaze to meet his eyes as I pulled my fork from between my lips. Heat sparked in his eyes, and I swear they had a hint of a glow to them. Thorne licked his lips, and I shifted in my seat, crossing my legs.

What was I doing? I wanted him to repulse me so I could move on, get him out of my brain. But instead, my skin grew hotter, need swirling in my gut.

Thorne leaned over the table, reaching out and wiping a smudge of sauce off the corner of my mouth.

That contact sent sparks through me, lighting up my entire body like a fucking jack-o’-lantern. It took a moment to remember how to breathe.

I watched, rapt, as he sat back and popped his thumb into his mouth. Thorne simply smirked and took another bite of his food.

“Good?” I asked.

His tongue flicked over his lips, and I melted, remembering his tongue in my dream last night.

Fuck, I wanted to experience that in real life.

“Delicious,” he said, his unbroken eye contact communicating that he didn’t mean the dinner.

It should have been the cheesiest, most cringy moment ever, but I didn’t care—I wanted him. Badly. All rational thought had fled, and I was in feral mode.