Stepping off the elevator, I motioned to the left. “I’m down this way. Just my bedroom, not my office, that’s down a floor.” Then I led her to the right. “You’re down this way.” As we walked down the hallway, I noticed Avion kept checking the sconces and I laughed. “They aren’t marked.”
“I guess it’s not really all that necessary here,” she replied.
“No. This house is much more like a… house.”
She snorted. “Sure. This mansion is just like a house.”
“Ahome,” I said.
Whether it was an accidental or purposeful stumble, Avion fell against me gently. Her hand brushed against mine, and when her fingers started to twist into mine, I didn’t stop her. Even though my heart started to beat a little faster, and this kind of outside-the-bedroom intimacy wasn’t something I was particularly used to, I wanted to get used to it. I gave her hand a squeeze and I noticed out of the corner of my eye that her smile grew a little.
There were no doors along the hallway we were walking down and just one at the very end. Once we got there, I reached into my pocket and pulled out a set of keys. I dangled them in front of Avion and smiled, “Your keys.”
She blinked absently a few times then looked up at me. “It locks?”
“Yep. These are all keys to the door. No one has any copy except for you. You can keep them all, or give them out to whomever you see fit.”
“What about the staff?” she asked.
I shook my head. “Nope. No one has them currently. If you want the place to be cleaned by them, you’ll either have to let them in or give them a key. It’s up to you.”
She held out her palm and I dropped the keys in it. After looking them over silently for a few seconds, she propped them between her fingers and started to work one of the keys off the ring. I swallowed hard but tried to hide any nervousness as she worked, and when she finally got it loose she held it back out towards me.
“You should have one,” she said.
“Really?” I plucked it from her fingers. “You’re sure.”
“Yeah.” Her fair skin suddenly got a little darker red. “I mean… you know. It’s your house, so…”
“Well, it’sourhouse,” I responded and her eyes widened a little. “I mean, like our… You know, my company. The business. Everyone, like Milli and the staff. It’s … not just mine.”
“Oh.” An awkward laugh huffed out of her. “Right.”
Still, I clutched the key in one hand, and lifted her hand to my lips to kiss with my other. “Thank you.”
“Thankyou.”
I motioned to the door and she excitedly skipped forward a little and stuck one of the keys into the door. She opened it up to her private wing, where I’d had about three bedrooms, a couple of bathrooms, and a den converted into something similar to an apartment. A short walk down the rest of the hall led into a living room that was connected through open archways to a full kitchen and a dining room to the right, and connected via a door to the left to a bedroom. It had an attached bathroom with a massive, jacuzzi tub and walk-in shower, along with a vanity separating a pair of sinks. There was no furniture in the space yet, apart from a canopy bed that matched the one at my old estate because I knew she liked it.
“Wow. This is nicer than my actual apartment,” she joked. “I can’t wait to design it.”
“And it’s just like I said, you can have whatever you want. There’s a new computer on the bed, you just send me a link to the cart and I’ll get whatever you want ordered.”
“Are delivery people allowed on the property?” I asked.
“Nope. Any deliveries are dropped with security staff at the front, and after being thoroughly searched for safety, they’re transported via an armored truck to the house.”
“Not taking any chances, are you?”
Bravely, I pulled Avion a little closer to me and wrapped my arms gently around her. “I can’t afford to take any chances.”
Her hands slid up my chest and around my neck, where she guided my head down for a kiss. The softness of her lips on mine was almost a relief after the week we’d had. It was nice to feel her standing in front of me, breathing and vital just like she was before. It was difficult for me to think that everything we’d been through together amounted to no more serious a relationship than just that of a captor and captive. It didn’t feel that way anymore to me, but I wished that I could see inside her head to know how she really felt.
Hell, I half-wished I could see inside my own.
I didn’t know what the mix of new emotions meant, I only knew that Avion feltgood. Not just in bed, but her very presence made me calmer. She was grounding and wrapping around her and stealing a kiss felt like leaving everything behind for a while and just enjoying her. A mini vacation every single time we touched.
When she pulled back from me, it was with deeply blushed cheeks and her bottom lip pinched between her teeth. “Um…” She looked back at the only furniture in her place right now, the bed, then looked back at me.
