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I swallowed and blinked, reorienting myself. I was in the kitchen, making coffee. Not hiding in the bushes.
My eyes found his. "Don't do what?"
"Don't make sounds like that or I might forget to keep my cock out of your pussy." He made a face like he was in pain. My whimper must have turned him on hard. Any other time, I might have found it funny, but right now the memory of a black and red mask lurked in the back of my mind. It chased all thoughts of humour away.
"Right," I said distractedly. I grabbed another cup and started to make him a coffee.
Anything to keep my mind off the memory of that dark, bloody night.
Chapter Nineteen
Kennedy
My laptop slammed shut, narrowly missing squashing my fingers.
I jumped and glanced up to see Mannix, his face centimetres from mine. I hadn’t even noticed he was in the room.
Yes I did, I realised after a moment. I felt the air get heavier. Thicker. He had a way of filling a space just by being in it. Owning every centimetre of it. My nipples hardened in response to his presence, even if the rest of me was focused on work. Hussies.
"Time for a break." His hand stayed pressed down on my laptop. The expression on his gorgeous face suggested he'd throw it in the pool if I refused.
I glanced at the clock on the wall. How did it get that late? I hadn't even realised the sun set an hour ago. My stomach rumbled impatiently.
"I guess I could use a short one." I started working on this report three or four hours ago. I wasn't much closer to finishing, but I needed to eat. Maybe then I could focus better.
Every time I tried, my brain went back to that night, distracting me and making my palms sweat. Several times, I found myself scrolling through social media, just to take my thoughts of everything.
I couldn't even remember what I saw, or whose posts I liked. Everything was a blur of random videos, interspersed with a friend's photos of her poodles. Those, I remembered. Her dogs were too cute to forget. Unfortunately, cute wasn't going to get my report finished.
"Yes, you could." He was clearly not taking no for an answer. So what else was new?
"Come on." He grabbed my hand and pulled me with him through the sliding doors that led out the pool. On the grass beside it, a blanket was spread out, covered with pillows and a couple of large baskets.
"You organised a picnic?" When did he have time for that? Not to mention, how did he arrange food when I was working in the kitchen? I must have been very distracted by those poodles.
"I organised it, but one of the staff put it together. Since I can't cook, I ordered all the food in." He tugged me down to the blanket beside him and opened one of the baskets.
"I wasn't sure what you liked, so I got a bunch of stuff."
He drew out a box of spring rolls and one of fried rice. Another box contained everything we needed to put together tacos. Yet another contained pizza. The last one was full of a variety of rolls of sushi. In the other basket, was a couple of glasses and a bottle of wine.
"There's cola too if you don't like wine."
"I've never really had it." I leaned back against the pillows and tried to take in everything. "This is amazing." I was speechless that he did something so thoughtful. So… romantic. In a million years, I wouldn't have guessed he'd be into gestures like this. The unexpected sweetness made my heart flutter.
He flashed a smile. "Of course it is. You're worth it. The hardest part was getting the other guys to fuck off for a while."
"Oh." I glanced around. I wondered where they were. Neither was ever far from Mannix, especially Ice. If I had to, I'd have guessed they were lurking around somewhere, waiting for the food to be opened. Then, like a pair of vultures, they'd descend on it.
"I sent them to deal with some business-related stuff," Mannix supplied. "They'll be gone for hours." He growled like they better not hurry back, or they'd have to answer to him.
Ares might stay away, but we'd probably see Ice the minute he got back. Even if the food didn't draw him in, us being out here having a picnic would. Like the proverbial moth to flame.
"Also, my dad and Helen are having dinner in the city. They do that at least once a month."
"Right." I nodded. Mum mentioned something about that. She seemed disappointed it wasn't once a week, or every night. The woman did like her comforts. Although, since most of our meals were cooked by a Michelin starred chef, I didn’t think she had too much to complain about. Honestly, I was happy eating grilled cheese or instant noodles. I was used to that at uni. The food here was a whole new level of decadence for me. One I could get used to, even if my waistline couldn't.
"I gave Francisco the night off," Mannix added.
