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Charlotte joked, handing her the bottle as they neared a large wine fridge. “But I like it. It feels like you might survive the apocalypse nicely in here.”
Alex’s face didn’t convey any level of amusement, so Charlotte moved on quickly. She hadn’t meant to be insulting, but her nerves had gotten the best of her.
She recalled the stables she’d noticed while driving toward the house. “Do you have horses?”
“Not anymore,” Alex replied, popping open the Prosecco before setting out two glasses from a cabinet under the granite counter. “I traveled a lot a couple years ago, and they deserved better than a part-time bond.” She handed
Charlotte the filled flute. “Come on, I want to show you something.”
Charlotte couldn’t imagine how much more there was to see, but she sipped her drink and followed. As they walked, Charlotte’s fingers itched to reach for Alex’s hand, but they stopped at a glass door hidden behind the pool’s waterfall before she dared. Somehow intertwining their fingers was a thousand times more intimidating than kissing her.
When Alex opened the door, Charlotte consciously suppressed a gasp, but she couldn’t keep her eyes from widening to take in the magical portal Alex had unlocked.
The door led to a huge tunnel made from innumerable dried branches fashioned over a wire frame and covered in lush ferns and other plants. Several feet above Charlotte’s head, tiny colorful birds whizzed around, appearing and disappearing into a thousand purposefully placed hiding places and nests.
Charlotte was only barely aware of Alex’s smirk as she stepped carefully into the aviary. Light streamed into the space in streaky patches. Just enough light for all the mature succulents lining the floor.
“This is amazing,” Charlotte decided as she watched a little red bird plunge into one of a hundred di erent bird baths.
Alex checked one of the seed dispensers concealed among the foliage. “It started with a rescued pair of Zebra Finches and grew rather exponentially from there.”
The further Charlotte traveled down the verdant path, the more impressive the feat became. “How many do you have?”
“I lost count at five hundred,” she admitted. “But two thousand square feet can hold quite a few finches, or at least that’s what the vet tells me. We probably won’t get another count now that we’ve built the hurricane enclosure to protect them rather than having to catch them all and keep them inside if a storm comes.”
As they continued through the living hallway to where it ended at a circular glass solarium, Charlotte realized that the bird habitat was over twice as large as her apartment. It made her happy for the endlessly chirping and rustling birds.
Careful not to let any of the birds follow her, Alex opened the screen door and let Charlotte into the sunroom. The enclosure was all glass except for the hip-high bookshelves built into the lower part of the walls. The tops of the bookshelves were covered in various plants of all sizes.
Opting for the metal frame daybed at the end of the room rather than any of the comfortable reading chairs or poufs, Charlotte sat down and sipped her drink. Alex sat next to her, tucking one leg beneath her as she turned her body to face Charlotte. With her hair tumbling down one side in waves and her lightly perspiring skin, Alex was breath-taking.
“It’s so peaceful. If I were you, I’m pretty sure I’d never leave,” Charlotte decided as she drained her drink in two gulps. The sunroom’s fans were little protection against the heat radiating from above.
Alex leaned back against a wall of colorful throw pillows.
In casual repose, she exuded the easy power of some ancient Roman empress. “Sometimes I’m tempted,” she admitted, her eyes fixed on Charlotte’s face.
“Temptation,” Charlotte echoed before setting her empty glass on a small side table next to the daybed. Her pulse was dancing in her neck as the anticipation squeezed her lungs.
“Doesn’t that imply that there’s something you can’t have?”
She took a dramatic beat and hoped her eyes were catching the light as she held Alex in her gaze. “I can’t imagine there are many things you can’t have.”
Alex’s lip twitched, a reaction Charlotte was starting to read as a momentary loss of control. A quickly repaired crack in her facade. “Can and should are two di erent propositions, Charlotte.”
The tone was stilted and dry but almost exaggeratedly so.
Charlotte leaned in, resting her elbow against the back frame as she leaned her head against her palm. “And who is to tell the great HBIC Alexandra Leon what she shouldn’t do?”
“How is it that we have crossed the boundary into fraternization, yet it still feels like you’re trying to provoke me?” Alex asked, her eyes slipping down the column of Charlotte’s exposed neck, dissipating any concern that she’d caught on to her secret plot.
Charlotte reached out, took Alex’s glass, and emptied the remaining sip before setting it down next to hers. The adrenaline and alcohol swirled around her body to create a confident haze that propelled Charlotte forward.
“We still have so far to go,” Charlotte murmured before lunging toward Alex’s mouth.
Without hesitation, Alex met Charlotte’s kiss. Her arm wrapped around Charlotte’s waist and pulled her in until she’d maneuvered Charlotte to straddle her hips.
Drunk on Alex’s lips made sweet with wine, Charlotte couldn’t resist deepening their kiss as she slid her tongue into Alex’s warm, waiting mouth.
