Noah was his responsibility, not Amanda’s. Why would he expect her to want to go?
Did you ask her?His conscience butted in.
His pulse flickered.No.
Why?
He thought about that for a second before the answer became clear.
What if she’d said no?
What if this past week she only spent time with Noah because of him?
That was crazy. She wasn’t like that.
One way to find out.
He fished the phone from his pocket and found her number in hisContactsunder hisFavoriteswhere he’d added her on Monday.
Dante tapped her number on the screen and walked toward the workbench and away from where Dean and Cooper were going at it on the mat.
Expecting the call to go to voicemail since it was the middle of a work morning, he was caught off guard when she answered.
“Dante?” Her breathless voice shot a blast of awareness through his body. “Everything okay?”
Just great. He was standing there getting a hard-on just by talking to her on the damn phone. “Yeah,” he said, a grin tugging at his lips. “I didn’t mean to interrupt you at work. Thought I’d get your voicemail,” he told her inanely.
“I happen to be on a break,” she said. “What’s up?”
“Did you want to go with Noah and me to Hunter’s tonight?” he asked.
And the line was quiet.
His heart rocked.
Shit.
“Oh, I wish I’d known,” she said, sounding upset. “I already told my sisters I’d meet them for dinner tonight. But I can cancel.”
“No,” he rushed to say, not wanting to mess up her plans. Family was important. “Don’t cancel. I just didn’t want you to think I’d deliberately left you out of our plans.”
“Aw, that’s sweet.” Her tone softened, and he could hear her smile. “Now I want to cancel.”
“No need.” He chuckled. “There will be other playdates.”
She laughed. “Then count me in on the next one. Have fun tonight. I’ll see you and Noah tomorrow at the sanctuary, and you can fill me in on what I miss.”
“Roger that.”
He knew he’d see her briefly at the daycare when he picked Noah up, but they would be surrounded by kids and parents. No, he looked forward to tomorrow.
…And filling her in.
Chapter Eight
Friday evening, Amanda slipped into another wrap dress, similar to the one that had ended up on her kitchen floor yesterday afternoon while Dante had taken her out of herself and returned her completely sated and beyond content.
The man was a pleasure magnet to her senses and soul. And the good parts in between. He instinctively knew where to touch her and how to touch her, and dang, she was getting turned on just thinking about him and his thick, long, magnificent…appendages.
