She stares up at me and then shakes her head. “You’re unbelievable.”
“I’ll take that as a compliment.”
Rolling her eyes, she sighs. “I need to go before someone figures out I’m in here with the only single King who, by the way, isn’t single, but he doesn’t want anyone to know that.”
I slip my arms around her waist and pull her to me, loving how good she feels against my body. Staring down into those gorgeous green eyes of hers, I smile as the perfect thought crosses my mind.
“What do you say to us doing it right here? I’m sure there’s something purely Freudian about that since this used to be where my mother would bring each of us when we scraped our knees, and she’d kiss our boo-boos, but putting the freaky deaky psychological issues aside, I don’t think I’ve ever wanted you more than I do right now. Can you feel my hard-on? I swear I could cut fucking glass with my cock right now.”
I’m more than a little disappointed when she pushes me away and reaches for the doorknob. I grab her and push her up against the door, loving how excited she makes me.
“Marius, do you hear yourself when you say things like that to me?” she asks, the anger rising in her voice with each word.
Shrugging, I answer, “I was only sort of joking about the Freudian business. Forget that. It’s not a big deal, and I promise it won’t affect me. I’m ready, willing, and able to roll. Come on. What do you say?”
She draws her dark eyebrows in toward her nose to make them like two very angry slashes. “I say I think you’re insane. If I didn’t love you, I’d want to smack your face. In fact, I think I want to anyway.”
I slide my hands down her back and squeeze her perfect ass. “I don’t mind if we do things rough. Oh, baby.”
She squirms out of my hold and glares at me. “What the fuck is wrong with you? Are you going to be like this all night? I don’t think I’m going to be able to handle it if you are.”
I choose to ignore her questions since I don’t believe there’s anything wrong with me, and to be honest, I’m not sure how I plan to handle the rest of the night. “So that’s a no to a quickie here in the powder room? It was the Freudian stuff, wasn’t it? Mental note to self: Eden does not like any talk about psychology when it comes to sex.”
Her mouth hangs open as she looks at me in horror. “Marius, I don’t know what’s going on with you, but I have to go now. It’s only a party, the man is no one to me, but I have to pretend that I like him for Ava’s sake. Now unless you want to tell everyone the truth, I have to get back out there.”
She leaves without my answering her. It’s not that I don’t want the world to know I’m in love with her. I just want to keep that between us for a little while longer. I keep telling her that, but she doesn’t seem to understand.
Unfortunately, Rob from IT and this being their second date has gotten to me. I thought tonight would be a chance for Eden and me to sneak away to have some fun. Now it seems I’m going to be stuck watching the woman I love pretend to like a man while all the other couples act like it’s some kind of fucking reboot of the Love Boat.
Well, I’m not doing it.
A half hour later, Ava begins to gently herd us all into the formal dining room for dinner. I don’t immediately join them, so she comes over to where I’m standing near the front door and nudges my arm.
“Hey, dinner is ready. Aren’t you joining us?”
“Oh, yeah. I’ll be right in. I’m just waiting for someone.”
She looks at me like she doesn’t understand what I mean. “Waiting for someone? Is someone coming as your date tonight? I didn’t set out enough place settings if that’s the case.”
Always the consummate hostess.
I wave away her concern about dishes and silverware. “Don’t worry. She can share my plate. It’s all good.”
“Oh. Okay. Well, when she gets here, you two make sure to come to the dining room. I’ll tell Eleanor we need to hold dinner until then.”
“It’s okay. No need to stress Eleanor out. Have dinner now, and when my plus one gets here, we’ll join you.”
I can see by the look in Ava’s eyes that she’s dying to find out about who’s coming to dinner as my date. She doesn’t ask, though. That’s good because I have no interest in explaining myself. What I’m doing is more to show Eden how it feels to watch the person you love on a date with someone else. Nobody else needs to know what’s going on.
Ava smiles and begins to walk toward the dining room. “Okay, Marius.”
I head outside and see my assistant Sam pull up a couple minutes later. When she gets out of her car, I have to admit I’m a little impressed. I told her to wear something nice that shows some skin. I didn’t expect her to wear a long, red, backless dress with slits up to her hips and a nice bit of cleavage.
She might need to get a raise after this.
“Marius, this place is stunning!” she says as she stares up at the house I grew up in. “Do you live here?”
If you’re wondering why Sam doesn’t know anything about where I live, it’s because she’s my assistant for my photography work. I pay her handsomely to essentially be a calendar that sends me texts when I have a shoot.
