My mind was on a million other things.

But then I saw her. With fucking flour on her face. With hair escaping from the bun on her head. With a smile and a face that would launch a thousand ships. And it was clear she didn’t know it. How god damn stunning she was. Women who knew they were good looking held themselves differently. Not that it was bad. Not with all of them, at least. But some of those women used their beauty as a weapon… as they should’ve because I’d seen a lot of fucking men think that a woman’s beauty was theirs to own, take or destroy. No, I never judged those women.

But Nora… she didn’t acknowledge her beauty. She was shy, easy to blush, and her smile was small, uncertain but warm and genuine. I didn’t know her then, aside from what I could glean from her body language. But I knew enough.

And I knew she was too fucking good for me. So, I kept coming back for the coffee. For those glimpses of her. So I could eat the things she created.

Even when she was wearing a ring that another man bought her, one that was flashy, obviously expensive and didn’t fucking suit her at all. She was better suited to something original, vintage, unexpected. Not some huge, cold rock without any warmth or story behind it other than the six figures it was worth.

But there was no ring on her finger anymore. And I was fucking desperate to make her mine in every way I could.

That’s why I was there. For another glimpse of her. Another taste. But not of the sugary shit she’d gotten me addicted to—well, that too—but her lips. Because those were the sweetest things I’d ever tasted. Because I had no intention of letting her go. Letting her get in her head like I’d seen last night and this morning. Her nose had wrinkled, her eyes went far away, and she shrank into herself.

At first, I thought I might have to treat her with care. Give her space. Time. But I had an inkling that space and time were my worst enemies with her. They gave intrusive thoughts too much fuel. Room to grow.

Which was why I was going to the bakery. Before work.

Maggie enjoyed it since she got an extra-long walk this morning. I didn’t mind it either since I got to taste Nora’s mouth. Claim it. Claim her.

Yeah, it was the best morning I’d had in a while. A long fucking while.

Yet I needed more.

Hence me walking into the bakery before work, just after seven. Because I needed more. Of her.

I hadn’t been up this early in a long time. Six thirty was closer to when I got up for work. Sometimes seven. I considered that to be early enough.

Nora, though, got up at fucking five in the morning and looked absolutely fucking stunning.

It was hard to believe, before this morning, I’d been sleeping in my bed while this beautiful fucking creature was awake. I vowed to be up with her as often as I could. Even though it would be a fucking effort. I had not been up at five in the morning since I couldn’t sleep at all after I got back, back when the nightmares kept me prowling around the house at night, looking for intruders, looking for ways to silence the screams, the gunfire that echoed in my head.