I waited for them to bring us menus, but instead, a fleet of waiters started carrying out an entire buffet and cramming it onto our small table. A three-tiered display of pastries, a coffee cart that smelled divine, thick slices of bacon, and steaming hot biscuits.
I tore into the meal, not realizing how ravenous I was. Severn watched me with hooded eyes, amused, as he slowly sipped his coffee. “Pretty nice job perk,” I said around a mouthful of biscuit.
He tented his hands, growing serious, giving me a look I’d seen in magazine profiles on him. “You know, Willow, I’m starting to think the children have a point.”
I swallowed the biscuit down with a swig of coffee and set into the bacon, distracted by the feast. “What do you mean?”
“May and Henry. Their painfully transparent attempts to push us into some sort of romantic relationship. Perhaps it’s not such a bad idea after all.”
I froze at his words. Then swallowed, hard. Was he serious? “They’re kids, Severn. They lost their parents. They have a fantasy of building a family again with their guardian and their nanny. It’s totally unrealistic.”
“Why?”
I blinked at him. What was he suggesting? That kids playing Parent Trap wereright?
I shook my head, still unable to believe that Severn Wilde was actually suggesting we give a relationship a try. “It isn’t fair to Henry and May. If they think their Parent Trap plan worked, they’ll be heartbroken when they find out it didn’t.”
A deep frown cut across his handsome face. “You seem to assume a relationship between us would end in disappointment. You have no reason to believe that. Our connection is undeniable. Even children can see it.”
Ididhave plenty of reason to believe a relationship would end in disappointment. Namely, that I was human and he was fae. “You’ve been telling me for weeks that humans and fae shouldn’t be intimate.”
His eyelids lowered slightly. “Maybe I changed my mind last night.”
As his roving gaze drifted over my body, I squirmed in my seat, feeling the stirrings of arousal again. I set down my bacon, wiping my hands on my cloth napkin, and then leaned in and tented my own hands. “One night together and you’re ready for a relationship?”
His eyes never leaving me, he took his time eating a small cherry tart. When he finally finished and dabbed at his lips with his own napkin, his eyes had darkened. He took his time licking a crumb off his thumb, giving me a glimpse at that tongue that had done wicked things to me the night before.
“I’m just suggesting the possibility that the children might be wiser than you think. What’s wrong with wanting to build a new family? It’s a concept I admit I’ve never much considered, but spending time with you and the children makes me feel ways I haven’t before.”
I remembered Azalea telling me about how lonely Severn was, despite how he tried to mask it with coldness. How because of his position at the top, he never let himself get close to anyone. But he hadn’t had a choice with Henry and May. The kids had been forced upon him, and so had I, in a way. And I could tell that it was seriously messing with his head to have people close to him that he was starting to care about.
He cleared his throat, slipping back into his billionaire executive act, as he said in a professional tone, “I’d like to explore our connection more, Willow.”
At the same time, his hand slipped under the table and found my knee in a decidedlyunprofessionalway. He glided his big palm over my bare knee and up my thigh, slipping it briefly under my skirt and between my legs.
I jumped a little on instinct, whipping my head around the restaurant. We were in public! What did he think he was doing? Though fortunately, the other tables remained empty, and the waiters were all on the lower level. I bit my lip, letting some of my reservations go.
“Our connection, huh?” I asked huskily.
His hand disappeared further under my skirt. When his fingers grazed the outside of my panties, I squirmed and started clearing my throat. A flush was already warming my cheeks. But we couldn’t just put our hands all over each other here in the open.
I glanced around again and caught sight of the bathroom sign.
“Meet me in the bathroom,” I whispered, leaning across the table, and then stood up and smoothed out my hitched-up skirt.
He was on his feet immediately and practically broke down the door in his hurry to get me into the small room. His hands were on me as soon as the door swung closed behind him. He gripped my jaw, pulling me in for a messy, hungry kiss. I flailed my hand behind him, finally managing to twist the door lock closed.
He grabbed me around the waist and pushed me down on the closed toilet lid—thank goodness it was a nice place with an excellent cleaning staff—and forced my legs apart. There was a famished look in his eye like he’d gone years without touching me, not a few hours. My lower half flooded with desire as he knelt on the floor in front of me. I braced myself on the toilet lid, letting my head fall back. He reached under my skirt and started stroking me outside of my panties.
“You’re soaking wet, Willow.God.”
He teased me with a finger running along the edge of my panties’ elastic band. I knew what would happen next: he would slip his fingers under the fabric, stroke me until I moaned loud enough to make the whole bakery blush.
I grabbed his hand, shaking my head. “No,” I panted. “I want to do something else this time.”
His eyebrows lifted slowly. I closed my legs and dropped to my own knees, tugging on his belt buckle to open it. He briefly closed his eyes once he understood what I was getting at. “Fuck. Willow, have you done this before?”
“Until last night I was a virgin, not a saint.”
