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“Well, I haven’t—”
“I’m going to show her around, see you later.” I tightened my grip on her hand and strode from the kitchen, headed for the dining room. I felt a finger poking my shoulder and slowed my pace, turning my head to glance back at Sienna. She didn’t say anything, and I stopped to face her fully. “What is it, baby?”
She raised a single eyebrow. “Oh, am I allowed to speak now?” I grinned and motioned with my hand for her to continue. “Are you always going to be this bossy?”
“Probably,” I answered immediately with a shrug.
Sienna rolled her eyes to the ceiling and sighed. “At least you’re honest about it,” she muttered. Damn, she was cute. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d smiled so much. “Well,” she continued, “cut the ventriloquism act. I’m not a puppet and can speak for myself.”
Something inside me burst with warmth and before I could check the instinct, I tugged her forward until she fell into my chest. My arms went around her and I lowered my head to brush my lips over hers. “Fuck, you’re as soft and sweet as you look,” I murmured. I allowed myself one more touch of our lips and enjoyed the sight of her brown eyes darkening with desire and a sweet blush gracing her cheeks.
The fog cleared, and she quickly took a step back. I let her leave my embrace but once again, took her hand firmly in mine.
“Is kissing you in the job description?”
I smirked and tapped the end of her nose. “Nope, just a perk.”
Her eyes dropped to my lips for a second before she seemed to realize what she was doing. She huffed and muttered something as she marched past me, entering the seating area of the restaurant. My eyes followed her example and dropped down, except they were glued to her ass as she walked ahead of me.
I showed her around the rest of the space and introduced her to the staff on duty. Her eyes sparkled, and it was easy to see her falling in love with the place. I was extremely pleased with her reaction as I always hoped my wife would be as passionate about Saphyre as I was.
Wife.
Fuck, that sounded good. I couldn’t wait to put my ring on her finger and my baby in her belly. However, for the moment, I kept those thoughts to myself.
Saphyre was just opening their doors for lunch when we finished, so I commandeered a small table in a secluded corner and ordered lunch. She asked me about my plans now that my show was done and I told her about my goal to open another restaurant, as well as a guest spot I’d agreed to. I was going to be a judge on a reality cooking show.
I asked her questions about her classes as well as her family. Her parents apparently lived in a small town a couple of hours away, and she had a brother who was a pilot and lived in Chicago.
“Do you have class tonight, baby?” I asked when we finished eating. She shook her head as she sipped from a glass of sparkling water.
“I go to school in the mornings and twice a week I have labs at two in the afternoon.”
I stood and held my hand out to help her up. “Great. I can take you to your new home, and we’ll get you moved in this weekend.”
She placed her napkin on the table before allowing me to help her stand. Straightening her shoulders and spine, clearly attempting to close as much of the gap in our height difference as possible. She looked me square in the eye with a determined glint. Part of me wanted to laugh at her effort to be intimidating, the other was wary of what she had to say.
“I told you before, Owen. I’m fine with my current living arrangements. You don’t even have to add the cost that you would have paid in room and board to my salary.” I was about to steam roll over her and demand that she move in with me, but then I saw a shadow pass over her face as she mentioned her place. I decided to dig into that a little later, while taking the bees and honey route for a moment.
“Let me at least show it to you and then you can decide.” I smiled hopefully and in the next breath, her shoulders sagged and she agreed. We headed to my office to gather my things and while she was a few steps ahead, I pulled out my phone to text a friend of mine. He owned a security company, and I wanted him to run a check on Sienna. I needed as much information about her living arrangements as possible so I could come up with leverage to move her in with me as quickly as possible.
4
Sienna
“Mmm,” I sighed, waking up feeling deliciously warm. I stayed where I was, keeping my eyes closed, and enjoyed the sensation. It wasn’t until I stretched my arms above my head that I realized most of the warmth was coming from a body sprawled next to me. I tried to scoot away, but I was pinned to the mattress by a heavy arm draped over my belly.
“What the—” I twisted to the side and found Owen there, sound asleep. It all came rushing back to me. My interview that resulted in a job offer I hadn’t been expecting. The way he’d maneuvered me into visiting his undeniably gorgeous home. How we’d sat outside and chatted about everything and nothing at all over a glass of wine. One glass turned into two, and then Owen insisted that he had to feed me since I’d been drinking. I’d watched, enthralled by the sight of him in the kitchen, as he’d whipped together a delicious meal with only the contents of his pantry since he’d been out of town and didn’t have anything in the fridge. He was even more impressive in person than on television... which is why I’d helped to polish off another bottle of wine with dinner.
The surreal situation I’d found myself in had definitely called for liquid courage. If only I hadn’t taken it a glass (or more) too far and landed myself in an even more unbelievable position—me, in bed with an incredibly sexy man. I wasn’t completely certain how I’d ended up here, let alone with him asleep beside me. The details after dinner were kind of fuzzy.
Did I?
Did we?
I couldn’t even finish the thought in my own head. Lifting the sheet up with a trembling hand, I heaved a huge sigh of relief when I found myself dressed in a long T-shirt and a pair of boxers. If I’d been too drunk to remember losing my virginity to Owen, then surely I would also have been too drunk to think to ask for clothes to sleep in. Right?
The only person who could answer that question pulled me closer to his body and whispered in my ear, “Morning, beautiful.”
Holy wow, the sound of his raspy morning voice would have had my panties melting off my body... if I’d been wearing any. My silent freak-out ratcheted up a couple of notches as I once again thought about what might have happened between us last night.
“You sleep okay?”
“Yeah.” My reply was barely audible, more just my lips moving without any sound coming out. But that didn’t make my answer any less truthful. I’d slept better than I had in months, which was crazy considering it was the first time I’d ever spent the night in bed with a man. You’d think that would make for a restless night.
“Good.” He dropped a kiss on my shoulder—a freaking KISS—and rolled out of bed. My gaze slid down his sculpted chest, counting the ridges as I skimmed down to his black boxers. I yanked my head back up when it dawned on me what the tented material meant. He was hard. And freaking huge!
“Umm.” My cheeks filled with heat, and he smirked at me with a knowing look in his eyes.
“Get used to it, baby. You’re going to be seeing a whole lot of me.”
“About that.” I jumped out of bed and searched the room for my clothes. “How much of you did I see last night?”
“Not as much as I’d have liked.”
That’s a shame.
What? Where did that thought come from? My head jerked up as I paused in my frantic search. He was stalking towards me, and I backed up a couple of steps, holding my hands up to ward him off. “So we didn’t? You know, do the horizontal tango?”
“No, Sienna. All we did was cuddle and sleep.” His green eyes flared as he took another step closer. “When I have you under me, there won’t be any doubts in your head about what happened between us. You’ll remember because you’ll feel where I’ve been for days.”
/> I couldn’t bring myself to think about the second half of his answer and what it meant, so I focused on the first part. “We cuddled?”
“Yeah,” he admitted sheepishly. “Normally, I’m not much of a cuddler, but I wasn’t about to pass up the chance to have you in my arms.”
“The only chance,” I gasped, bumping into the wall as I tried to back further away from him. “If you’re going to be my boss, this”—I waved between us and the rumpled bed—“can’t happen again.”
He moved closer, wrapping his hands around my wrists and yanking me into his body. “There’s no if about it, Sienna. I am your boss, and this is going to happen again, along with a helluva lot more.”
