As she drank coffee, he could all but see her mind wake up. And she smiled at him.
“Maybe I could take another hour.”
He leaned in, kissed her. “You’ll have a meal first. We’ll take another hour later on.”
“Huh. Well, if you don’t want to get me naked, I need to update my board and—”
“A meal, Eve. That’s first for you. And while you have it, I’ll tell you about the financials I’ve been through.”
“Did you find—”
“While we eat. I’ll handle the burgers. You can deal with the chips—fries,” he corrected, “you’ll want with it. As I do, come to think of it. And I’m in the mood for a pint.”
“I wouldn’t mind a beer.”
“Good. You’ll want your jacket and boots.”
She reached for her boots. “It’s not the wife. I have to look into the whole gambling, addiction, blackmail, sex-on-the-side thing, but it’s not going to be the wife.”
“I’ll agree with you.” He handed her jacket to her. “Let’s start the grill and have a pint.”
“I’ve lost track of the time.”
“It’s half past I’m bloody hungry.”
Amused and awake, she went down with him. While he did whatever he did to get the grill going—she stayed out of that one—she sipped a beer.
Cooler, she thought, than the last time they’d done the sit-outside deal. But pleasant. Before long, the scent of grilling meat joined the perfume of flowers. For her contribution, she went into the kitchen—definitely not her domain—and programmed the AutoChef for a basket of fries.
Glancing around, she thought of the Barrister cook. She figured Divine would approve of this—enormous—space. Slick, sleek, efficient, but still, like the air outside, pleasant.
It smelled a little like vanilla, a little like lemons. In fact, she spotted a glass bowl of lemons on a counter. One of the windows had a glass bump-out thing where green plants thrived. She knew they wereherbs—she wasn’t a complete idiot—but had no idea what Summerset did with them.
She took the fries out as Roarke put the plates with their burgers on the patio table.
“It’s a pretty nice kitchen.”
At her comment, his eyebrow winged up. “Do you think so then?”
“I see a lot of kitchens.” She sat, scooped fries onto her plate, and gave them a good snow shower of salt. “This one has the same sort of feel as the Barristers’. I mean that someone who enjoys it uses it.”
“Summerset does enjoy it, but won’t be using it this evening. He just let me know he ran into Mavis and company at the street fair. They invited him back to the house for dinner.”
“That’s somebody else who likes a kitchen. Peabody probably gets a nice little orgasm every time she walks into hers now. And Mavis is getting into the whole thing, too.”
She took a bite of burger. “That’s never going to happen with me.”
“I believe I’d worry a bit if it did.”
“But we’re good, right?” She gestured with a fry. “We put this together. It’s not like we’d starve.”
“We’re fine and good.”
“Since we’re fine and good, how about that update? The financials?”
“Before that, I’ll tell you I spoke with Brian. Since the story broke, there’s been considerable talk. Speculation, as he put it. And he gave me a few names of people in the business of thievery who might pull off a job such as this.”
“How many names?”
