“Fish, lean meats, vegetables. The same things I eat now, for the most part.”
“Were you really overweight?” It was almost an impossible diet for a kid to stick with, and she couldn’t imagine being that drastic unless he had a very real problem.
Evan shrugged. “Not much. But I was getting chubby. In my father’s eyes, I was fat. I didn’t join the family for meals, and if I weighed in heavy, I didn’t eat.”
Randi’s heart broke at the longing look in his eyes as he stared at the piece of cake on the plate in front of him. He was stuck in his own fear of eating anything outside of his normal. She’d already realized he was obsessively regimented in his routine. “Evan, you obviously work out, and you don’t have an ounce of spare flesh on your body.” She could attest to that. “It isn’t going to kill you to live a little occasionally.”
Getting up from her place at the large dining-room table next to him, she picked up his fork and slowly speared him a large bite of the cake. “Open.”
He opened his mouth willingly, giving her the opportunity to feed him the cake. She watched as he chewed and swallowed, his eyes closed so he could savor the treat.
“Good?” she asked cautiously.
He chewed and swallowed before answering. “Fucking incredible.”
Randi knew what it was like to experience great food after being deprived of it for so long. Maybe Evan had never had to scramble for food like she had, but he had definitely been forced to give up eating anything just for pleasure.
Making him push his chair back from the table as she seated herself on his lap, Randi took a bite of the cake herself. “Joan’s recipe,” she told him after she swallowed.
She offered him another bite, sharing the piece of cake with him. His eyes were lit with blue flames; his intense gaze stayed fixed on her face as he accepted her offering without hesitation. Randi smiled at him, feeling victorious because he so obviously wanted the sweet but was too afraid to break his rigid routine.
They ate in silence for a few moments before Evan took the empty plate and utensil from her hands and carelessly tossed both onto the table.
“That was fantastic. But now I desperately have to taste you,” he snarled, his face contorting to a look of frenzied need.
An electric, piercing shiver ran down her spine as she felt herself hefted up into his arms as he stood. He didn’t hesitate as he took the stairs, carrying her weight like it was nothing.
She wasn’t going to pretend, not with Evan. She needed him right now just as fiercely as he needed her. Desire was growing hot in her belly, and her core was already tingling and saturated just from anticipating his touch.
“I need you,” Randi admitted shakily as he lowered her to her feet.
Evan might be opinionated on almost everything, but he also accepted her for exactly who she was, ugly past and all. He hadn’t batted an eyelash when she’d confessed that her mother had been a prostitute, and he hadn’t shied away. Gently, sweetly, he’d tried to comfort her, make her feel safe again after her nightmare, and she’d never seen one single sign that he thought any less of her after her confession.
“I know, sweetheart. I need you, too. I need to show you that you’re mine now,” he growled. “Undress for me, or I’ll end up ripping your pretty underwear to shreds.”
His possessive, dominant words ramped up her desire as nothing else possibly could. It should have been frightening, and it probably would have been if it had come from anyone other than Evan. But right now, his words were a vocal declaration of the same need that was reverberating deep inside her soul.
She wanted to be his; she wanted him to belong to her. The emotions were primal and predatory, strangely feeling as natural as breathing at the moment.
Randi usually went for the more delicate and pretty pastels in her underwear choices rather than the sultry, sexy lingerie made to actually inspire lust, but Evan didn’t seem to care. “They really aren’t all that sexy,” she answered, suddenly nervous.
It wasn’t that she didn’t trust Evan, but she’d never seen the wild look in his eyes that was now bared to her. He seemed . . . completely raw, and he was breathtaking when he was like this. She watched with her fingers on the zipper of her jeans as he steadily tore at his own clothing until he stood before her completely naked.
“Oh, God. You are beautiful,” she whispered breathlessly, taking in every rippling muscle and what seemed like an enormous amount of bare skin, touchable skin. In complete daylight, she could see several faded scars on his shoulders and chest. “Turn around,” she demanded as she shucked off her jeans, any self-consciousness she had experienced now gone.
“I’d rather not,” Evan commented around his clenched jaw, his blue eyes flashing with anger and intense arousal.
Maybe she should have been afraid of his ferocity, but she wasn’t. She knew his anger didn’t lie with her, and he was man enough that he wasn’t going to take it out on the wrong person. Evan was self-contained and cautious. What she was seeing right now wasn’t something he showed to anyone. He was baring himself to her because he trusted her, at least a little. That knowledge spurred Randi on.
“Please,” she begged, knowing that this was something Evan had to get through himself, another hurdle he needed to jump. Unfortunately, she suspected it would be much harder than eating sweets or wearing more casual clothing when he wasn’t working.
She pulled her sweater over her head as she waited and held her breath.
He eyed her hungrily before slowly starting to turn around, and Randi released her breath in a rush.