Page 43 of Catch My Fall
“Morning,” I say, sliding onto one of the stools at the breakfast bar.
“I made breakfast, I hope you’re hungry.”
My eyes trail over him as he cooks. Why is it so attractive? “Starving. How long have you been up?”
I watch as he places two rashers of bacon and two eggs each, paired with a slice of French toast onto two plates. “A couple hours. I went into town for some supplies early before you woke up. Did you sleep well?”
“So well that apparently I can’t even remember arriving here last night or getting into bed. Did you have anything to do with that by any chance?”
He smiles, bringing over our plates and sliding onto the stool beside me. “You looked too peaceful to disturb you. Besides, after yesterday, I figured you needed the rest.”
I take a bite of my breakfast and let out a moan. “This tastes amazing. Since when did you cook?”
“All my life. My mom made sure of it. She used to tell me that if I could cook, I’d have no problem finding a wife when I was older.”
“You mom was a smart woman. There’s definitely something about a man who cooks.”
“Oh yeah?”
I nod, biting around my toast. “Mmhm. It’s sexy.”
“Good to know,” he says, a slight smile playing on his lips as he takes a bite of his bacon.
“The view when I woke up this morning was breathtaking. I never imagined it could be so pretty here.” If it’s that good from my window, I can’t imagine what it’s like when I get outside.
“It sure is,” he agrees. “Being away for so long, it’s easy to forget just how beautiful it is.”
“I’m so jealous you got to spend your summers here when you were a kid.”
“My dad and I would go fishing sometimes. We’d take the boat out and spend hours out there. There’s a couple beaches nearby we used to visit—my dad’s brother and his son would come with us, it’d be a family day out.” Something flashes in his face at the mention of his extended family, but I decide not to press.
It’s not until now that I realise, he knows almost everything about me and I know nothing about him. Besides knowing he spent a large part of his life in the Marines and him telling me yesterday that his parents are dead, he’s a complete mystery to me—something I’m going to have to rectify while we’re here.
Once we’ve finished up with breakfast, I help him do the dishes before he disappears outside, and with the entire house to myself, I decide to go off and explore.
One of the doors in the kitchen leads out to the backyard which I’m saving for later, and instead, I head into the living area furnished in creams and whites. I take in the photographs that decorate the walls and every flat surface. I recognise Alec immediately. Those steel grey eyes piercing through the picture and straight to my heart. He can’t have been much older than ten or eleven at the time, but even back then he was handsome. There are photos of him as a baby playing with his toys and ones of him as a toddler, playing with another boy. The cousin he mentioned earlier maybe?
In many of the photos, there’s a man and a woman with Alec who I can only assume are his parents. I can see so much of Alec in his dad, the resemblance is uncanny. His mother is beautiful; tall and slender, her eyes the same exact colour as her son’s.
They look so happy together.
What I do notice is there are no photographs of Alec any older than around twelve, the exact age he told me last night was the last time he came here. Was that what he meant by his parents being gone?
I continue exploring the house. Heading up the stairs, I count three bedrooms and two bathrooms—including the en-suite in my room, and in the ceiling, there’s a hatch that leads up to another bedroom in the converted attic.
It’s not until I’ve explored every inch of the house that I decide to venture outside.
The fresh, salty sea air is the first thing that hits me when I step out onto the back porch, as well as the warmth of the sun that seeps through my skin.
To the right of me, there’s a swing seat up against the house and I can’t wait to be sipping a cup of coffee or a glass of wine while watching the sun go down, or reading a book on the off chance it begins to shower with rain.
The sound of drilling catches my attention and I go off to investigate. I soon find Alec around the front of the house, attaching a camera to the wall.
The thick muscles in his biceps bulge as he presses hard on the drill, a sheen of perspiration coating his tanned skin, his sweat soaking through his tight white t-shirt. A jolt of arousal shoots through my clit at the sight and I find myself suddenly flushed.
“You alright over there?” he asks, a knowing smirk tugging at his gorgeous mouth.
Fuck, he knows I was checking him out.