Carter was his;the sexy sub just wasn’t ready to admit it yet.
Chapter 5
Carter
“Dinner’s ready tobe put together…cookies are still safe…movies picked out…” Carter wanderedaround the house, aimlessly trying to make sure everything was in order. Distractinghimself was a bonus. It wasn’t that he didn’t want Grant to come over; he did.He just wasn’t sure what was going to happen.
Did Grant reallywant to see his lingerie?
Carter knew Grantwasn’t like most men—he was starting to understand that. But going from beingokay with a dress to accepting lacy underwear was another thing. Some of hisstuff was made for guys, but other things were clearly designed for women.
Would Grantreally be okay with that?
Everything the Domhad said made Carter feel like he would, but it was still a big leap. Carterwasn’t sure if he was ready for it. He wasn’t ready for everything to be overif Grant changed his mind. He liked Grant, but it wasn’t just that. It wasstarting to feel like he was part of the family, and Carter didn’t want to losethat.
He’d tried to sortthrough his clothes and see what kinds of things he’d be okay with showingGrant, but that had been a little too stressful. So he’d gone back to cleaningthe house and getting dinner ready. He should have picked something harder tocook. Not letting Wyatt shoo him out of work early would have been a good idea,too.
Having too muchtime on his hands was not a good thing.
On his third trip aroundthe living room and kitchen, the doorbell finally rang. “You can do this. It’sjust a movie date. Nothing stressful.”
Opening the door,he saw Grant leaning on the frame trying to appear casual, but Carter could seethe excitement in his eyes. Was it for the date, or was he thinking about theclothing? Stepping back, he tried to smile. It felt forced and weird. “Come onin.”
Grant gave him asmile and a quick, surprising kiss as he walked in. “Thanks for keeping mycookies safe.”
Carter laughed andshook his head. “So you’re not excited to see me. You’re just glad I kept yourcookies safe?”
With a heated look,Grant had him squirming even before he spoke. “I’mveryexcited to seeyou. The cookies are just a bonus. It’s hard to keep secrets in this family, soit shows me we were meant to be.”
Carter couldn’tdecide how much of that was Grant’s teasing, and how much was serious. Decidingto ignore the part that made him nervous, Carter started leading Grant back tothe kitchen. “You just have to have the right blackmail to keep people quiet.”
“You must havesomething good on Wyatt because I couldn’t get much out of him at all. Heavoided me all week. He had some kind of sixth sense because I missed him repeatedly.”Leaning against the counter, Grant laughed, clearly still enjoying the game ofavoidance he’d played with Wyatt.
“Wyatt’s verysmart, and yes, I’ve got good dirt.” Going over to the fridge, Carter startedgetting everything out to assemble dinner. “I hope you like pizza. I made thedough earlier, but I wasn’t sure what you liked on it.”
He might have gonea little overboard with prepping the toppings. He wasn’t sure if Grant would bea complete pizza carnivore or if vegetables would be okay, so he’d gotten severaldifferent things ready. It wasn’t until he had the dough ready that he’d realizedhe didn’t know if Grant liked homemade pizza. That had just given him somethingelse to worry about.
“Oh, homemade?That sounds incredible.” Grant sounded entirely too enthusiastic for pizza.
“It’s not hard.”He didn’t want Grant to think he’d gone all out and done something outlandish.
“You’re talking tosomeone whose family can’t even boil water without ruining it. Trust me, I’mimpressed.” Grant was looking over the dough and toppings like it was some kindof all-you-can-eat buffet.
“How can none ofyou cook? Couldn’t your parents?” The guys could grill, and Carter had seen afew homemade dishes that looked good, but Grant wasn’t exaggerating by much.
“Yes, but teachingus was almost impossible. My dad said we didn’t pay enough attention, and mymom got tired of butting heads with us. It was one of those always thinking wewere right kinds of things. They finally gave up and said we’d better marrysomeone smarter than we were, or learn how to order enough veggies off thetakeout menu so we wouldn’t end up with scurvy.” Grant sounded serious enoughthat Carter didn’t think he was teasing, but he just couldn’t imagine hisparents saying anything like that.
“Well, it lookslike you haven’t died of malnourishment yet, so you’ve got takeout down.”
“And I plan onmarrying someone smarter than me.” Grant winked, making Carter forget what hewas doing for a moment.
Deciding that wasanother comment he was just going to ignore, Carter finished putting thetoppings on the table. “I wasn’t sure what kinds of things you liked on pizza,so I figured we could do that part when you got here. It’s not going to takelong to cook.”
Grant gave him a lookthat said he knew Carter was avoiding some of his comments. Carter walked overand turned on the oven to preheat before going back to the table. Yup,avoidance to the rescue. “So meat, veggie, or both?”
Grant’s eyestwinkled. “I like meat.” His eyebrows went up and down, giving him a comicallynaughty expression. “Vegetables are good, too. I’m not into just one thing. Ilike variety.”
They were talkingabout pizza, right?
