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His eyebrows rise.
“Don’t tell me you’re not aware,” I scoff. “With all the ‘I told you to behave yourself’ comments and the spatula action.”
He frowns, though. “I know I can be terse, but I wouldn’t have said I was intimidating.”
“Oddly, I’m sure Finn would agree. He doesn’t find you scary.”
That earns me an amused look. “You do not find me scary.”
“A little bit.”
“Missie…”
“I’ve not met a man like you before.”
“Uh… not sure whether that’s a compliment or not.”
“It’s definitely a compliment.”
“Are you sure?”
“Oh yes. I’ve waited my whole life for a man like you to boss me around.”
He gives a short laugh and turns off the hob. Then he faces me, pushes me up against the counter, and nuzzles my neck. “So you do like being bossed around?”
I shiver. “I love it.” Then, as he nips my earlobe, I add, “Ow!”
“That’s for not eating today.”
“So every time I do something you don’t like, you’re going to punish me for it?”
“Yep.” He kisses back along my jaw to my mouth.
“You realize I’m going to misbehave on purpose now.”
He moves back a little to look at me, and we study each other for a moment. His eyes are hot and amused. My heart’s racing. Does he understand how much I want him?
He steps back, puts his hands on his hips, and blows out a long breath. “Food first,” he scolds. “Stop tempting me.”
“I’m just standing here.”
He huffs a sigh and turns to switch off the oven.
Trying to keep my frustration under control, I pick up my dress and go to put it on. I’m just about to put it over my head when he lifts it out of my hands with a clean wooden spoon and tosses it over one of the stools by the breakfast bar.
“You want me to eat dinner like this?” I ask.
“You took it off.” He puts two plates on the counter and serves up the steak. “Can you take the salad to the table?”
Muttering under my breath, wearing just the teddy, I carry the salad through to the dining area.
It’s a beautiful house. God knows how much it cost—it would have been several million, I would think. There are eight properties in this private country estate, and you need a code to get through the gate. A long deck runs the width of the house, overlooking the large lawn, and at the bottom a gate leads to a path that crosses the Avon to Hagley Park. To the right I can also see a pool glittering dark blue in the evening sunshine. Imagine having your own pool! Jesus.
This open-plan room has polished kauri-wood floorboards, with a big fluffy cream rug in front of the leather sofa. The dining area contains an eight-seater glass table and black chairs. A huge flat-screen TV hangs on the wall of the living room, with a PlayStation and an Xbox underneath. On the other side of the room is a work area—a computer sits on the table with two monitors and a host of accessories, and another table set at right angles to it is covered in paperwork, folders, pens, two tablets, and another phone, as his normal one is in the back pocket of his jeans. The leather gaming chair is the most worn piece of furniture in the room, so I can guess where he spends most of his time.
A smallish fiber-optic tree that looks brand new sits beside his TV, and a few strings of fairy lights are his only decorations, although Zelda’s big bed does have a Christmas blanket in it with pictures of Rudolph. The puppy hooks her head over the edge of the bed, watching me as I walk around.
He’s already put two placemats and cutlery opposite each other at one end of the table, so I put the salad bowl in the middle, then go back to the kitchen.
