When I woke up, Kai was snoring so loudly I could’ve sworn he gone to bed drunk—but really, he’d only had the one drink, so that couldn’t have been it. Evidently, he’d had all the life drained out of him. I took no small amount of pride in that.

Honestly, I felt about the same. Our little romp the night (or morning, whatever) before was more than a little invigorating, but it also took things out of me pretty quickly. Thankfully, Kai didn’t stir or hear me getting out of bed. It wasn’t like I was trying to hide from him or anything because I damn sure wasn’t embarrassed about what we’d done, but I wanted to surprise him, wanted to give him something nice to repay him for our perfect little night together.

It wasn’t just because of the sex, though that was mind-blowing in the best way. It was also because of the way he’d talked to me, tried to get me to see myself the way he did. No one had ever talked to me like that before, had ever taken time outta their day to tell me they appreciated me, not even my mama and daddy.

So, I snuck out to the kitchen, still trying to be as quiet as possible because my bedroom door was missing, so it wasn’t like there was anything preventing the two of us from hearing each other. I didn’t have much to cook, but there was some leftover sausage in the refrigerator that needed to get cooked before it went bad, and by some stroke of luck I had a tube of biscuits in there as well. Though the flour I pulled out from under the sink looked like it'd seen better days, it would do the job for gravy.

I set about cooking things, the sausage first, hoping to wow Kai over with a real southern breakfast, the likes of which he’d probably never seen before. It was an old recipe, one my mama had passed down to me from the time I was old enough to learn how to cook, and to prove how southern I was, biscuits and gravy were always one of my favorite dishes.

As I jabbed at the sausage in the frying pan with a spatula to break it up, I couldn’t stop thinking about the night before. What a wild ride that’d been, literally and figuratively. Just a few days ago, I never would’ve guessed Kai, and I would be going to bed together, but then again, now that it happened, I kinda wondered how I hadn’t seen it coming.

Two people didn’t react to each other like fighting dogs the way we did unless they really had strong feelings about each other, and it was pretty obvious to me now that the strong feelings I had been experiencing since Kai set foot in the bar were less to do with hatred and much more to do with attraction—attraction I still had trouble admitting, even after I’d gone to bed with him.

Sometimes hormones make us do some crazy shit.

When the sausage was good and cooked, starting to look brown on the inside, I started getting the mix ready for the gravy. It didn’t take long, just mixing some stuff up in a bowl with the flour, but once the concoction hit the frying pan with the sausage, the smell was almost overwhelming. If the noise I’d been making so far hadn’t woken Kai up yet, the smell definitely would.

While I waited for the rest of the gravy to cook through, I tore open the can of biscuits—I know, not exactly gourmet or homemade, but they would have to do—and set them out on the one baking sheet I had. Into the oven, they went, and I had just finished closing the door and setting the timer when Kai stepped around the corner.

“What are you doing?” he asked. His eyes winced shut against the light from the living room windows, and his hair stuck up in every direction. He looked like he hadn’t slept for days like he’d just come out of a coma. That made two of us. I still hadn’t bounced back from the pounding he’d given me, still hadn’t gotten rid of the dull tingle from the lovemaking, but I didn’t mind one bit. It was a sweet ache, the best kind.

“Making you breakfast,” I said with a smile, resting my hands on my hips and admiring him. He was naked, not even a pair of trunks hanging on his thin frame, and I couldn’t help myself from staring. He was perfect, literally perfect. From the swell of his pecks all the way down to the elegant V-shape of his waist that led to the best part of his body—yeah, you know exactly which part I’m talking about.

“You don’t have to do that,” he said, stumbling into the kitchen.

“I know I don’t, but I wanted to do something nice for you after what you gave me last night,” I said. I felt giddy, in the kind of way I hadn’t felt for years—even before Scott—and I didn’t know what to make of that. It didn’t matter though, all that mattered was that he and I were having a good time and that today continued that. We could treat this awkwardly, or we could be adults about it. Either way, I wasn’t looking for any trouble, and I figured making breakfast would give us something to occupy our minds while we figured things out.

That thought alone almost took the wind out of my sails, the gas out of my tractor. I didn’t know what I wanted with Kai. More than that, I had no idea what he wanted. If he was content to have just had a role in the hay, well, I guess that wasn’t all bad, but I would’ve been lying if I said I didn’t want more—more of the amazing lovemaking sessions we had last night and more time spent with him.

That scared me. I hadn’t felt that way about anybody since Scott left, hadn’t even felt the faintest inkling of it. What was I supposed to do with that? There was a good chance, a damn good chance, that Kai might not be sticking around here. So what good would it do me to open up my heart and let him get close, let myself get carried away like a damn lovesick puppy if it meant risking him one day running away? I couldn’t bear the idea of being left behind again, even though I knew that with Kai it would be under different circumstances than it had been with Scott.

So what the hell was I doing? Was I a fool? I didn’t want to believe so, but I couldn’t help thinking it, couldn’t help wondering if when he walked outta my door, he might not ever walk through it again. Then again, maybe that was my baggage talking, the critical voice that Scott had left in the back of my head.

“You talk about it like it was some present or something,” he said as he sat down at the kitchen table. “Do you have some water or something? I’m parched.”

“Of course,” I said, jumping at the opportunity to do something to get my mind off of where my thoughts had gone. There weren’t many clean cups in the drawer, so I pulled a mostly clean one out of the dishwasher and set about soaping it up in the sink before I filled it up with water from the refrigerator’s filtered tap.

“How’d you sleep?” I asked as I passed him the water. He held up a finger to indicate for me to wait a second, gulped down almost the entirety of the drink in a matter of seconds, and let out a belch afterward. Wow, classy, just my type of guy.

“That was impressive,” I said, raising my eyebrows at him and he burst out laughing.

“Sorry, I thought we could be dudes together,” he said.

“What gave you that impression? I dunno about you but I am a man of discriminating, refined tastes,” I said.

“Right, sure, that’s why your house looks like a pig sty.”

“You bite your tongue, young man,” I said. It was true; I did appreciate that Kai didn’t seem to care about appearances. For as good-looking as he was, and for coming from movie star parents, I would’ve assumed he would be hung up on class and manners, but that wasn’t the case at all. In my opinion, that only made him more attractive, more real. He wasn’t so far up his ass he couldn’t see the light of day, unlike most people from the city.

“I didn’t mean anything by it,” he said. “But to answer your question, I slept like a baby. How about you?”

“I’ve never slept better in my life,” I said, and I meant it. It was like the sleep of the dead like I had fallen into a black hole after the workout he’d given me, both at the gym and here at my place.

“Good, I think you deserved it,” he said with a smirk. “What are you cooking anyway? It smells amazing,” he said. That reminded me that I had something on the stove and in the oven, a fact I’d completely forgotten about, so I whirled back to the stove and stirred the gravy in a hurry to keep it from scorching. After checking to make sure the biscuits hadn’t turned to hockey pucks inside the oven, I went back to the table and sat down next to him.

“One of my mama’s old recipes, you’re gonna love it,” I said, and he gave me a look like he didn’t trust me.

“I’m not sure I’m okay with that,” he said, but I could tell from the way he smiled at me that he was just joking.

“Have you ever had biscuits and gravy?” I asked, and he looked at me like I had asked him about some kinky sexual thing that he’d never heard about.

“Is that a euphemism?”

“No, it’s a southern dish, come on, don’t tell me you never heard of it,” I said, and he shrugged at me.

“Maybe in passing, but I didn’t think people ate that, much less for breakfast. Doesn’t all that bread sit in your stomach like a stone and make you sleepy for the whole day?” he asked. He had a point, it did tend to take the energy out of me after eating it, but it was so delicious that it was always worth it. Besides, we’d burned off more than enough calories the night before, so it wasn’t like we were in danger of gaining any weight.

“You bet your ass we do. We eat it on the regular, because we’re men,” I said. “None of this Scandinavian socialist vegetarian fluff in my country,” I said, and he laughed at me.

“You wouldn’t know what socialism was if it hit you in the face,” he said. “But besides that, we’re not socialist.”

“I know that I’m not that dumb. I’m just giving you a hard time,” I said and reached across the table to playfully punch his shoulder. It was a weird kind of thing for me to do, something I would’ve done with one of my friends like Jason or Dan, not someone I had just had wild sex with the night before.

But that was kinda how I felt about Kai, now that I got to know him a bit better, now that he’d opened up to me and I’d opened up to him. I thought of him as more than a friend, and I hoped we could stay that way even after what we’d done. I worried the sex would make things weird between us, but so far it hadn’t. So if we weren’t fuck buddies and we weren’t just coworkers anymore, then what the hell were we?

The only way to find out would be to ask.

“You okay? You got quiet all of a sudden,” he said, staring me down.

“Oh, yeah, I was just admiring you,” I said, and he rolled his eyes at me.

“You don’t have to keep sucking up,” he said.

“I’m not sucking up. I’m just being honest; I can’t stop looking at you. I mean, Jesus Christ on a crutch, you’re fucking gorgeous,” I said.

“You’re not so bad yourself, you know,” he said, smiling at me warmly. I wasn’t sure what possessed me to do it, but I reached across the table and rested my hand on top of his. He looked at my hand then look back up at me, his brows furrowed.

“Is this alright?” I asked. He searched my face for a moment before he nodded, his smile returning.

“More than alright,” he said, nodding. This was my moment, then. If ever we were going to talk about things, it would have to be now. My heart hammered in my chest, and my vision started to throb with each pump of my ticker. What would happen if he rejected me? I couldn’t even think about it.

“What are we gonna do after this?” I asked, and he chuckled.

“What do you mean?” he asked.

“Well, I’m talking about, you know, us. What are we after this? Are we just fuck buddies or what?” I asked, the words spilling out of me so fast that even I could barely understand them. “I mean, if that’s all you want, that’s fine with me, I don’t want to pressure you or nothing—”

“No, that’s not all I want,” he interrupted, pinning my hand with his against the table. My heart seemed to stop beating; the whole world seemed to grind to a halt at his words. That’s not all he wanted?

“It isn’t?” I asked, unable to believe what I’d heard come out of his mouth.

“No, not by far. Look, I know you’re still getting over that asshole ex of yours, and I don’t blame you for being skeptical of me based on what you know about me and how fast things are moving for us, but part of the reason I’m here is to try something new, to start a whole new chapter in my life. I think it would be good for me, and probably good for you too if we kept seeing each other,” he said. Who was this guy, and what had he done with my frat boy toy? I mean, don’t get me wrong, I was loving everything coming out of his mouth, but I did find it damn hard to believe.

“Are you sure? I mean, I’m thrilled, but I don’t want you to feel like you’re obligated to say that kind of stuff if it’s not something you’re interested in,” I said, staring down at the floor. I couldn’t look at him, couldn’t bear to watch his response form on his face, just in case it wasn’t a good one.

“Yes, I’m sure, more sure of that than anything else,” he said, stroking the back of my hand with his thumb. Against my will, my cock started to stir to life again, and if it hadn’t been for the food cooking behind me, I would’ve carried him off to the bedroom to repeat last night all over again.

“But I think the food is ready, you might want to check it,” he said as the timer screeched, making me jump. I couldn’t stand up now; I would take one of his eyes out with my boner if I did, and he seemed to know it. He winked at me. “Go on, don’t be afraid,” he said, and I gave him a look that said I didn’t want to but he raised his eyebrows at me and sat waiting for me to do it anyway.

“Fine,” I said and stood up, my cock pitching a full tent. He looked at it, looked back up at me, and it seemed like it took everything he had not to burst out laughing.

“Did I do that?” he asked in an innocuous faux tone.

“You bet your ass you did that, and you’re gonna pay for it too,” I said as I went to the stove and flipped off the gravy. Inside the oven, the biscuits were golden brown, just perfect, so I pulled everything out carefully and set it on top of the counter. “As a matter of fact, for that little stunt, you can make your damn plate,” I said as I pulled some plates out of the cupboard by the stove.

“I’m fine with that,” he said, his breath hot and heavy on the back of my neck as he crept up behind me. I nearly jumped out of my skin until I realized that his member was prodding me right in the small of my back. So it wasn’t just me who was aroused again, at least we had that in common.

“Thank you for last night and this,” he whispered in my year, and goosebumps raced down my right side as he placed a small kiss at the base of my neck.

“I should be thanking you, you did all the work,” I said, turning over to look at him. He pecked a kiss on my lips, then another on my forehead.

“Well, next time, you can do the heavy lifting,” he said with a wink. He left me standing there with a bigger hard-on than I’d already had as he made his plate, his perfect buns jiggling while he worked. If he would’ve let me, I would’ve gladly taken the gravy, slathered it all over those buns, and ate his biscuits like it was my job.

“I can’t wait,” I said, reaching around him for my plate.

“You probably won’t have to wait long,” he said with another wink as he went back to the table and sat down. I joined him a few moments later after I made my food, and we sat in happy silence, watching each other over our plates. It was a small thing, something almost infinitesimal, but it was what I had wanted pretty much my entire life. Scott and I had never done this kind of thing, had never even thought about having breakfast together, much less it being a flirty and fun one.

There was something about Kai, something that let me be at ease and be who I was around him, which I never would’ve guessed was possible the first time I met him. He seemed so fake, so full of himself, but now that I knew him in a way few other people did, I knew that he was just running from something, the same way that I was.

We were the runts of two very different litters who’d never quite fit in no matter how hard we’d tried—until we’d finally found each other.