Just One Sip by Scarlett Dawn

January 10, 2015 – Present Day – Age 24
    Jet Mak stood on my welcome mat. The one man I could never say no to. He appeared a few years older than when I had last seen him—when I had left for college. But at twenty-four years old, he was still as strikingly handsome as I remembered.
    Staring at him, I wondered if he would say the same about me.
    His expression remained impassive while he leaned against the doorframe to my small apartment, his hands buried deep in his pants pockets. He hadn’t said a word yet. The only indication he was here to see me had been his rough knock on my front door. His ice blue gaze ran over my features as I self-consciously patted at my shoulder length blonde hair. I knew it was a mess, having just woke from an afternoon nap.
    Still, he said nothing. Just waited.
    I cleared my throat and nudged a moving box to the side with my foot, allowing him room to come inside. “The place is a disaster right now.” He had found me. I had only been back in Karim, Texas for two days…and he had already tracked me down. It scared me. And thrilled me. “You can come in if you want, though.”
    He hummed quietly, keeping eye contact as he stepped inside. It was difficult to breathe when he looked at me like that. He hadn’t forgotten about me in the six years I had been gone.
    With only our phone calls to hold us over, I had feared he would.
    This man…he was it for me. I knew that now.
    Shutting the door behind him, I rubbed at the back of my neck. “How have you been?”
    He deigned to speak. “Fine.”
    I stared. It was my turn to wait. He had come here after all. He could give me more than a one-word answer. I even crossed my arms and raised a blonde brow.
    He snorted, taking the hint. “My people said they’d spotted you.” Ice blues, so cold and analytical, gauged me. “If you were back in town, why didn’t you call?”
    I sighed and waved my hands around my small apartment. “I’ve been busy unpacking.” My brows slowly furrowed as I brought my gaze back to his. “Your people ?”
    His attention altered from mine to the many boxes lying around my living room. He began walking the room, eyeing items I had unpacked and peering into open boxes that I had yet to find a home for on an empty shelf. “You know my father died last year. Things have changed. Shifted.”
    My lips pinched. “You’ve taken over the family business?”
    He did glance at me then. “You knew I would.” He shrugged a shoulder under his pristine suit jacket, his blue tie gently swaying across his crisp white shirt. “I’ve started a few of my own companies, too—expanding on the Mak legacy.”
    I barely kept from rolling my eyes. “Only you would say legacy as if it were a prize.”
    No reaction. “It is what it is.”
    I inhaled slowly and quickly pulled the hair tie from around my wrist and dragged my hair up into a short ponytail. I realized what I had said was rude too late. “I am sorry about your father passing.” Of course, I was. Jet had loved his father.
    So emotionless. “Thank you.” He glanced at my hair now sitting high on my head, then slowly down to my neck. His first reaction…his black brows puckered. “And I’m sorry that your grandmother died.”
    No, he wasn’t. I knew that. He knew that I knew that.
    Her death had brought me home to Karim—where he was.
    I still managed to say, “Thank you. I’m gonna miss her.” I would. Terribly.
    Before my grandma had become sick with cancer, she had been a bright beacon of light. She had offered me her home to stay in while I went to college out of state in Kansas.
    I had graduated…and she had taken a turn for the worse.
    I stayed to take care of her until her last breath. It hadn’t been easy. No one should see their loved one’s body break down like her’s had. It wasn’t an experience I wanted to repeat anytime soon.
    His eyes tracked over my features. “Hmm.”
    The quiet that descended upon us wasn’t uncomfortable. It never