Page 8 of His Sweet Reward

“Thank you,” I say to the attendant, and she nods.

“Have a good evening and take your time. I’m here for the night on the property and I’ll see on the cameras when you exit. Enjoy.”

I open up the basket of food and start laying it out on the blanket between us.

“I have a confession,” Brooklyn says.

“Have you decided not to run away?” I tease and she laughs.

“I thought this date was going to be terrible. But you’ve somehow proven me wrong.”

I lean in and smile as she bites her lip. “I hope to keep proving you wrong.”

With those words I close the distance between us and give her a quick kiss. Her lips are so damn soft and warm against mine and I don’t want to stop. I force myself to sit back and not rush this. It’s not enough but it will do for now.

That one kiss was enough to whet my appetite. As I’ve already discovered, when it comes to Brooklyn, I’m starved.

Chapter Five

Brooklyn

I lick my lips as he brings another bite of creme brûlée to my mouth. For the first time in my life I hate the dessert because it takes away the taste of him. The kiss was over too fast but I’ll never forget his flavor.

“I think we’re supposed to eat dessert last.” I open my mouth for him to give me another bite.

“We can do whatever we want.” This time he steals a bite for himself.

That seems pretty apparent after being inside of a closed zoo. They’re treating Dash like he’s the owner.

This cannot be the same man my friends all went on dates with. There is no way. He’s charming in the most aggressive way, which I didn’t know was a thing until now. Clearly I’m into it, because here I am with a missing phone and letting the thief spoon-feed me dessert.

“Isn’t that how they do it in France?” He gives me the last bite.

“I don’t know, but I’ve always wanted to go there.” Charlotte went after graduation, but I’m pretty sure the only reason she got her degree was because Dad gave the school a giant check.

“Quite a few countries do. It’s common in Europe.” He pulls out more food from the basket and opens the containers.

“I should visit them all and see if this is true. You can’t trust everything you read online.”

“So on our next date then.”

I laugh, because he has to be joking. “If you get a next date,” I tease as I take a bite of my steak and it melts in my mouth.

“There will be a next date.”

I wish I could be as confident as him. “Okay. We’ll have a next date,” I agree. “As long as you’ll come with me to my family reunion,” I add in quickly. Hey, if he can throw things out there with such certainty, then I can too. His fork pauses in front of his mouth. “I mean, you will go with me to my family reunion.” There, that’s more his style.

“If you want me to.” He takes a bite of his food and shrugs. Damn, that was easy.

“You’re going to make my stepsister Charlotte so jealous,” I blurt out, but I might as well get it all out there.

“Did she do something to you? You don’t seem like the vengeful type.” I look down at my food, chagrined. I’d gone out on this date with revenge in mind, but that hasn’t played out. But I’m totally sure this Dash is the same Dash my friends went out with. It has to be because it was the same restaurant and the same first and last name. Crazier things have happened before, although I can’t think of any off the top of my head.

“I guess it’s a little more like sass. I’m going to take a date so they’ll stop teasing me about my love life.”

“They?” I peek back up at him, feeling guilty. When he calls it revenge it makes it sound so bad. This is not what I’d tell one of my students to do.

“My stepmom too.” I let out a long sigh. “Never mind.” I shake my head. “I should go alone and face them. It’s petty of me to only bring a date to shut them up.”

Dash’s nose flares for a second before he lowers his fork. “I’ll go with you.”

“No, it’s fine.” I shift, feeling uncomfortable. I can’t read his mood now and he’s gone from teasing to something else. I look down at my food again, willing myself not to fidget, which is a habit of mine when I’m unsure of myself. One my family brings out in me.

“It’s not fine.” My head jerks back up to look at him. Now he really sounds angry. “Not only does your stepsister fuck with you, but the mom does too?”

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