He nodded seriously. “That was the plan. And we’re going to have to hurry.” He flashed a smile. “It’s a big house and you woke up late.”
I sat up and slapped his arm. When I moved to get off the counter, he blocked my way.
“Stay there while I cook. I want you to take it easy today.” He kissed my cheek. “Don’t want you getting too tired or too sore before we really get started.”
I squirmed in anticipation. It was a real possibility if we kept at it the whole weekend. And Declan didn’t show any signs of slowing down.
Declan started preparing the pancakes and I took the opportunity to try to get him to open up. To try to get him to spill any other secrets he had—including who he was talking to last night.
But he answered every question I had with something logical or something I couldn’t continue to question. Dammit, he was smooth.
I gave up by the time he’d finished the pancakes.
“This looks delicious,” I said instead.
“My specialty.” He set the plates on the other side of the breakfast bar, where two stools sat next to each other. “Coffee?”
I angled my head. “You have orange juice? I’ll probably save the coffee for this afternoon when I need more energy to keep up with you.”
His lips curved. “Good idea.”
Declan scooped me up and brought me to the stool, his muscles flexing when he set me down.
We ate together in companionable silence for a few minutes. Then, when my thoughts got the better of me again, I glanced over at him. “So…is this weird? It seems like you work a lot and now you’re taking off the whole weekend to be with me.”
I was fishing once again, but maybe it would get him to open up to me about last night.
Declan nodded. “Weird, kind of. But appreciated. I’ve worked hard the last several years to make sure that there are people who know what they're doing in this company. When my dad was in charge, he handled a lot of it on his own, and I remember he rarely took time off even when his wife was still alive. I swore to myself I wouldn’t be like that when I got older.”
I smiled. “Older? You’re still very young.”
“Let me rephrase that,” he said, staring at his plate. “I swore to myself I wouldn’t be like that when I was ready to settle down and have a family.”
My stomach jumped. Settle down? Have a family? Was that where he was at in his life?
I didn’t know how to respond, and for the millionth time, he’d caught me off guard. I completely forgot what I’d been fishing for and instead fumbled around in my head with what I was supposed to say.
Declan reached out and set his hand on my thigh. “I know how that came out. I just meant that I knew I was getting to a point in my life when work wasn’t the most important thing. And then I met you…” He shrugged. “I realized that there would come a time, maybe not so far in the future, that I’d want to make sure those words were the truth.”
I exhaled. It made sense. He wasn’t specifically talking about me, he was talking in general. And I got it. It was something my dad had talked to me about, saying you had to make time for family as well as work because work didn’t last forever, but family did.
Another text came through on my phone, distracting me. I glanced at it and saw it was from my father.
Anyone home? it asked.
I held it up and showed it to Declan. “I guess he has something he really wants to tell us.”
“Better give him a call then.”
I pressed my dad’s name and the call button, eating another bite while it rang through.
“Royal,” he said, sounding relieved. “I was about to call the police. Where have you been?”
I could hear a voice in the background that sounded like Xander. He said, “I told him you were probably with the boss.”
I grimaced when I heard my dad grumble. Yeah, he probably didn’t want that picture in his head.
“I’m fine. I’m sorry, I probably should have texted back when I’ve got your first message.” But I was too preoccupied with having sex.
I glanced at Declan and saw his satisfied smirk. Of course he knew exactly what I was thinking.
I shot him a look. I reached out to push his shoulder, but he only caught my hand and pressed a kiss to my fingers.
Crap. Declan was ruining me for all other men. He was a little too perfect. Too caring. Too considerate. I hated that it gave me doubts.
“Hi, Xander,” I said. “How was the sleepover?”
“I’m putting you on speaker,” my dad said.
“Me too.”
I set the phone down between me and Declan so he could hear what my father had to say.
Xander’s voice came over the phone. “The sleepover was productive. You wouldn’t believe the kinds of lives these scientists lead.” He paused. “I’m assuming Declan’s sitting right there, and I just want to remind him that he gave me permission to look up all this information.”
Declan smiled. “I did. And after this, I’ll pretend I have no clue how you figured it out.”
“Good.”
My dad’s voice came back on the line. “I went through everything that you found that was in the serum, and I feel like we might be missing something. Between that and the notes—”
“Notes?” I asked.
“So, you narrowed it down to those few scientists as the ones who worked on the serum with your father,”
