Commitment

Part 93

"What?" He pretended to show remorse, by shrugging sheepishly, "That peck on your cheek?" He opened the door to the dishwashing machine and placed both plates in.

"Yes." It had taken a couple of seconds to defog her brain and to think things through. Just a peck. Just a peck. A platonic kiss. Nothing more. Her spine remained straight as she kept her features blank and kept her eyes on him.

He closed the door to the dishwashing machine. "A thank you for opening the door." He grinned. "And a thank you for this evening." Braced his hips on the edge of the counter.

She snorted. "You brought dinner and the wine." She replied quietly, doing her best not to fidget or squirm. "I should be thanking you."

"Ok." He said and kept his gaze on her. She had the kind of beauty that was timeless: Classic bone structure, flawless skin, lustrous hair and gorgeous eyes. Things that he only recognised after he, his grandfather and his sister had left. But his heart corrected his brain, he had recognised that before, but was determined to not acknowledge it so he had ignored the impact on his heart.

Thanking her ability to keep her emotions to herself, honed during her childhood, she snorted. "Ok, what?" But on the inside, he was turning her insides to jelly.

"You can thank me!" He turned his head, tapped his cheek with his index finger.

To her credit Regan did not drop eye contact. "You want me to kiss you?"

His eyes danced in response and he nodded and then grinned. He pointed at his cheek, turned his head, "or here" he tapped his other cheek. Every cell in his body seemed to be buzzing with an energy, in anticipation.

She fought to maintain her poise. "You definitely need coffee, obviously drunk too much wine at dinner." She tried to steady her breathing, tried to focus on the breath and headed for the pantry to retrieve the coffee.

He replied with a wink, "Drunk, but not on wine!"

"Are you flirting with me?" She asked him, just as the kettle whistled.

He replied, with easy charm, "Yup."

She giggled with delight and nervousness.

Gray asked, "Do you want me to flirt with you?"

She batted her eyelashes at him, and said, "Perhaps after coffee." She turned away to get a spoon from the drawer. She licked surreptitiously at her dry lips.

He laughed.

She took a breath and returned to the table, with the kettle and the spoon.

"You know what?"

She quirked an eyebrow.

"I can't believe I missed this facet of you when I lived here before."

"Ah, that might be because you were determined to see me as a miser!" She passed a mug of coffee to him.

"Well, at least I saw this side of you when I lived here before." He grinned and tacked on, "Thanks" as he took the mug.

"Which side?" She swallowed, and then drew herself together. This was spiralled out of control. She used the kettle as a reason to move away.

"Feisty!" He chuckled.

She laughed and did not take umbrage.

Gray hesitated for just a fraction of a second before he said, "I really enjoyed this evening."

"Me too." She returned to the table and picked up her mug.

"A toast?" Gray asked, his eyes looking anywhere but at her, was enough to get his pulse racing.

Regan clarified quietly, "A toast?"

"Yes." He grinned automatically "To mark our first month anniversary."

"We should have done that when we had wine." She reminded herself to take her time speaking, to keep her tone well modulated, despite the fact her heart was racing.

"True." He nodded. "But we were too busy talking!" And tonight she had listened, her eyes dancing with laughter at his corny one liners, her eyes thoughtful when they talked about more meaningful topics. It was so different from when they lived here before.

Neither said a word for several seconds as they acknowledged that difference.

They had turned the corner during their dinner tonight, they both recognised that. Talked about personal matters and public topics: Revealing values, attitudes, ethics, instincts, standards, principles and views. And he had never considered himself the romantic type, well not until now. But now, during that dinner, he acknowledged he was so in love with her. He already knew he wanted a family, wanted children, but was not willing to do that without his soulmate. But tonight, he knew he had found his soulmate.