Hishand rubbed down my thigh and then back up, settling in the crease of my thigh.“I promise it will be worth it,” he murmured into my ear. I twitched at thetickle his breath caused.
“Okay,”I whispered. Maybe I didn’t trust the blindfold, but I trusted him.
Thelast month had been the best of my life. Wyatt and I liked to fight with eachother, but it turned out, we liked to get along even more. We’d spent as muchtime as we could getting to know each other. Sure, we’d known each other forfive years, but there was so much yet to discover.
AndI knew it would always be like this with him. I would always want to know more.I would always want to see more of him and spend more time with him. I wouldalways want him to know more of me.
Inthe few spare moments of free time we had, we were inseparable. But even duringworking hours, it was hard to pull us apart. Part of it was the honeymoon bliss,but we also knew I wouldn’t be staying long at Lilou.
Ihadn’t heard anything from Ezra about Sarita. And Dillon remained tightlippedno matter how much I pestered her to interrogate him. My other friends werequiet too. I’d even forced Wyatt to set up a double brunch date with Killianand Vera, so I could grill the two of them.
Nobodyhad heard anything.
Notknowing if that was good or bad, I’d started looking around at my options and lightheartedlyapplied to places I could see myself working at. Wyatt and I knew we couldn’tcontinue to work together. Not just for the sake of our relationship, but thesake of our staff.
Weweren’t Vera and Killian. We had chemistry that sometimes bubbled over. Andsometimes exploded. Both in good ways and bad ways. We didn’t want to make ourstaff suffer in the overflow.
Besides,my ambitions would never let me get comfortable as second in command. I wantedEC. And now my life felt very much like I had everything I wanted except thatone thing.
Granted,it was a giant, life-accomplishment kind of thing. But still. Not having itonly made me want it more.
I’dhad three call backs from jobs I’d applied for. But when push came to shove,and I was invited to an interview, I’d ended up turning them down. Thoseweren’t the jobs I wanted. And if I wasn’t going to settle in at one of thebest jobs at one of the hottest restaurants in the nation right now, I wasn’tgoing to settle for a mediocre executive chef position either.
Notonly that, but IwantedSarita. I’dgotten a taste of her. She was in my blood now. I couldn’t even entertainanother restaurant until I heard about my fate for certain. But as the daysstretched on and I ran into Ezra more and more and he didn’t even offer so muchas a hint or a smile or a word of encouragement, I started to give up on my dreamjob at Sarita altogether.
Wyatt’sfingers on my chin, nudged my mouth toward his where he pressed a quick, hot,delicious kiss to my mouth. It ended too soon and made me curious about what hehad planned for today. “Don’t move,” he ordered, before climbing out of thecar.
Mydoor opened, and I felt his hands on me again. “Ready for this?”
“Fora surprise trip to Greece?” I guessed.
Helaughed and made a buzzer sound. “Wrong.”
Lettinghim guide me from the car, I guessed again. “You’re forcing me to become a drugmule to carry heroine over the border?”
Hepaused mid-step. “Which border?” I could sense him shake his head at theridiculous question. “Never mind, no. Obviously not. If I was going to make yousmuggle anything it would be nuclear weapons.”
Ismiled and then felt like an idiot because I couldn’t see anything. “Are yougoing to propose?”
Hebarked a laugh. “Only you would try to ruin the proposal surprise by guessingwhat I was doing before I did it.”
“Sothat’s a yes.”
Hepinched my side making me squirm. “Sorry to disappoint, but I’m not proposingtoday.”
“Youare proposing though, right?”
Hesighed, exasperated with me. But this was his own fault for blindfolding me inthe first place. “I’m proposing you stop asking so many questions.”
Ifelt him lean past me and open a door. His hands gripped my waist and he walkedbehind me, guiding me the entire way. Even with the blindfold, I knew the roomwas darker than outside. Everything dimmed. I strained to hear something thatwould give me a clue as to what we were doing, but it was quiet.
Hecarefully maneuvered me through a darkened space and then drew me to a stop. “Ihope it’s something kinky,” I told him.
Hissurprise laughter on the back of my neck made me wonder if we weren’t alone.“That’s for later,” he whispered. And then he removed the blindfold.
Iblinked at the scene in front of me, trying to make sense of all the peoplestanding there. My parents were here. And my sisters. Killian and Vera. Ezraand Molly. Dillon. Benny and Endo and the rest of the Lilou staff. Even Jo washere. What in the world?
Myfirst thought was that I had forgotten it was my birthday. “It’s not untilNovember,” I told them. They were smiling like idiots, all of them, but mystatement confused them. “My birthday, I mean.”
