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ChapterEleven
They had spent the remainder of Friday afternoon and evening avoiding each other. The good thing about a house as large as Blake’s was that it was easy to do. The bad thing was that she was bored. Relaxing was hard. When she wasn’t playing with Bailey, she alternated between texting Maia and making aesthetic boards for imaginary events she might one day run.
Rose had never really been the type to fantasize about her wedding, except for the decor. She liked to think about what theme she might have, what sort of center pieces might pop, but she’d never stopped to think about who the man at the end of the aisle might be. In all honesty, she’d never had a relationship serious enough to even put a temporary face onto the imaginary groom in her mind.
Blake had put together another oversized meal for the two of them at dinner time on Saturday with endless amounts of potatoes, vegetables, and some kind of flavored rice that she had to begrudgingly admit was amazing. He’d cooked her steak to perfection and Bailey had drooled by her chair the whole time she’d been eating until she’d tossed him a tiny bit of the fat rind, and he’d given her a happy tongue loll after gobbling it down. The conversation had been sparse, nothing beyondcould you pass me the saltor confirming that Blake had, in fact, passed the photo on to Jones.
It had been hot and humid all day, the skies remaining a baleful gray, but Rose had at least hoped for a breeze and was left disappointed. Bailey was an active pup and needed walking a few times a day, but luckily Blake’s estate sat on a long run of land, the borders of which he had secured with motion detector cameras, barbed wire, and he’d even added a few extra security guards to patrol the area to ensure nobody snuck onto the land. It made her wonder why Blake took his security so seriously, even before all of this had happened. Or maybe she hadn’t been taking hers seriously enough.
It was true that she’d received plenty of both hate and fan mail, but she’d always opted not to have a personal security detail. She had her driver who pretty much took her everywhere, so she was unlikely to be accosted on the streets, but it just seemed so unnecessary – until it wasn’t.
Saturday’s gray clouds had given way to a rainy deluge overnight and left the green forested area Blake had outside both muddy and delectable. The scent of fresh earth drifted in through the open window and soothed her. It was odd being on the outside of the city. You could get to the heart of Cincinnati in about twenty minutes in the car, but what a difference it made in terms of privacy and the quiet. She could hear herself think, but she hadn’t yet determined whether or not that was a good thing. She’d tried to go out on a walk with Bailey yesterday, but the outdoors still left her feeling too exposed at the moment, so she’d simply waved them off and headed back upstairs, sitting in the cushioned nook of one of the bay windows as the rain slowly began to come down again.
The rain had stopped today, but the mud persisted and muddy paw prints were scattered along the wooden floor downstairs, ranging from the kitchen to the entrance hall, and she could hear Blake cursing as he chased the dog down to clean his feet. So far, Blake had managed fine without the staff members he usually had on hand to maintain the house and gardens, but Rose did wonder what would happen once they ran out of clean towels. A smile cracked across her face, there and gone in an instant. Her mood had been gently swinging up and down since her prescription had arrived Friday afternoon. She’d taken a pill before bed and knew she would need to wait until her body adjusted for them to start doing much good. Though fortunately, they’d made her drowsy when she’d first taken them years ago, and that seemed much the same this time around too, so at least she’d had a couple of decent night’s sleep without making her way to Blake’s room again.
Her body just needed to find a new rhythm, but if it would help stop the panic attacks that had begun creeping up on her more and more often, then it was worth it.
One thing she definitely didn’t remember from last time was the change in her libido. Most people were worried about it being stifled but, frankly, she could have done with that while she was living with Blake and thoughts of his taut, gold chest cradling a tiny Bailey drifted into her brain. Unfortunately, the opposite seemed to be true. It was like her skin was crawling with desire, almost like hot flashes of lust that had her gripping the edges of her seat. A few times Blake had asked if she was okay and she’d wanted to shout at him toshut upbecause even the sound of his smooth, deep voice had shivers skating over her skin and her core heating.
It would probably fade. She just needed to wait it out. The problem was, the hotter she got, the more she couldn’t stop thinking about things she really had no business to be fantasizing about, which then turned her on more. It was a vicious cycle of being horny, remembering Blake’s tongue in her, feeling it even more strongly until she was pacing up and down trying to resist the urge to hunt him down in the house. That was another pro to the large estate. Even if she succumbed to temptation, actually finding Blake was near impossible unless he was cooking or clattering about in his office.
She was so overly sensitized she wasn’t sure she could take it anymore. If she’d been in the privacy of her own home, with her vibrator, this wouldn’t have been a problem. She’d have just touched herself and come until her body stopped torturing her. She sat down heavily on her bed in the guest room as a tingling swept through her stomach at the thought, the temptation. But no, she couldn’t. She was in Blake’s house. He slept right down the hall. It would be… weird. A breeze swept through the window and lifted the escaping tendrils of her hair off her neck, sending another tingle through her skin. Her breasts began to feel heavier with anticipation, the nipples tightening even as she still mentally battled over whether or not to do this.
Rose let out a long breath and she shook her head in an attempt to clear it before making her way to the hallway outside. Maia had thoughtfully re-directed the dresses Rose had ordered for the gala to Blake’s house. They still had over a month to go until the event, but she wanted to make sure that her dress would off-set the room’s design perfectly. Plus, she would likely need a bit of time to get everything tailored.
Decision made, Rose headed for the small room opposite Blake’s that he’d left the bags of dresses in for her. Apparently, it was Cara’s dressing room and had at least three different floor length mirrors so she could properly assess each dress as she tried them on. Sometimes brands sent her dresses to wear and, if Rose liked them, she would snap a few photos of her in it for her socials. Other times, she would reach out to designers or fashion houses personally with a commission request.
Three dresses had been couriered over by a private firm, and she had tipped extra considering it was a Sunday rush delivery, but the problem was that she liked them all. Two of the dresses were wispy and gauzy, almost insubstantial even as they covered everything. They clung to her modest curves in just the right way and made her waist look even smaller than it was. They were pretty. Beautiful, even. But the third… it was striking.
Rose winced as she twisted her arm around to catch the zipper and let out a growl of frustration when it refused to budge all the way to the top.
“Let me,” a deep voice said and she jumped, catching Blake’s eyes in the mirror in front of her. A shiver skated across her skin as his warm hands balanced lightly on her back, and she cleared her throat, trying to push the sensations down. She’d tried to distract herself by coming in here to try on the dresses and now here was Blake, the reason she’d needed the distraction, busting in the room and putting his hands on her.
“Thanks,” she said, and silence descended, the sound of the zipper moving raising the hairs on her arms.
Blake stepped back and she let out a breath even as the tingling tightening of her breasts didn’t let up as their eyes collided once more. Rose bit her lip. The dress. She was supposed to be looking at the dress.
It was silver silk but was surprisingly heavy and when she moved, glimpses of red flared out from carefully concealed slits in the dress, almost giving her a train that made the air ripple when she walked.
It was stunning. It would also clash with the decor horrifically.
“What’s wrong?” Blake had moved closer to her while she’d been examining the dress and she took a hasty half-step away as the fresh smell of the outside drifted to her, mixing pleasantly with his cologne.
“Nothing, this just isn’t the dress.”
“What are you talking about?” he protested, laying his hands on her shoulders as he steered her back in front of the central mirror, and Rose couldn’t help but admire the way the fabric flared out again at the small movement. “You look beautiful.”
She gulped and looked away again. “I think one of the other dresses will look better. I can always save this for another time.”
Blake raised an eyebrow. “Trust me, this is the dress.”
“How do you know? You didn’t even see the other two.”
“I saw them,” he said, voice a little husky, and Rose licked her lips, ignoring her body’s desire to step closer to him.
“You were watching me?” She wanted to sound outraged. Instead she sounded… curious.
“Don’t worry,” he smirked, “I looked away when you got naked.”
