Daniella clears her throat behind me.
“Can you help me with this?” she asks at the doorway, not able to get the wheels of the small service rolling cart over the edge of the threshold.
I hand off my load to Bennett and go help. She and I both lift the cart at the same time and inch it through the doorway.
“Thanks.”
She won’t look at me when she says it. Something is definitely off with her.
“Are you upset at me?”
“Nope.”
When a woman starts popping her p’s, you know shit’s about to go sideways.
“You don’t have to stay. Bennett will be taking off soon anyway. Why don’t you go home? Get some rest. You’ve already put in a full workday, so I know you must be exhausted.”
“I’m good,” Daniella replies.
Another thing you never want to hear a woman say. But I take the hint and leave it be. For now.
Once all the food is out on the table, everyone digs in and starts plating up, with one exception. I can’t find Douglass.
“Gazebo,” Harper tells me and pushes me out of the way to get to the plate of burgers.
The garden path that leads from the patio to the small gazebo is dimly lit by strategically placed carriage lights dangling from thin scroll-hooked poles. The outline of the birdcage gazebo comes into view, Texas wisteria vines climbing along its outside scaffolding. In a couple of months, the wisteria will droop with clusters of purple, fragrant flowers.
I stop to watch Douglass as she looks up at the night sky, lost in thought. Her head turns my way, and a smile graces her lips.
“It’s lovely out here,” she says.
When I get to her, I take her in my arms, and her smile grows bigger when I lead her in a slow dance.
“Who knew Jordan Hammond was a hopeless romantic?”
“I like romancing you and plan to do it often,” I reply, lifting her arm to spin her under it like a music box ballerina. “Food’s ready.”
“I know. I just needed a minute. It’s difficult for me to eat in front of people, especially people I don’t know well like Angel and Daniella. It’s stupid,” she says, tucking her head into my chest.
Refusing to let her hide, I lift her chin and kiss her tenderly on the lips. “Not stupid. We can always eat later in my room.”
If that’s what it takes for her to eat, then that’s what we’ll do.
“Your bedroom sounds like a great idea. There is that silk tie you handed me that I left on your pillow.”
She says it playfully, but my cock stiffens regardless as I think about her blindfolded, hands tied to the posts of my bed, her naked body at my mercy.
“Do you think anyone would miss us if we disappeared for a half hour?”
The car horn blares, causing Douglass to giggle.
“Shh,” she whispers as she pulls my shirt over my head at the same time I’m trying to divest her of her blouse. “I think the gear shift is sticking in my ass.”
“That’s not the gear shift, baby.”
More giggles.
“Fuck.”
