AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Goosebumps rushed up her arms, and not wanting to disrupt his food prep was the only reason she didn’t lean against him.
“That was a compliment, Mrs. Saraci,” he said. “I thought you’d hug me…at least.”
She wrapped her arms around him from behind, gently squeezed, and pressed her cheek against the middle of his back.
“How’s this?”
“Nice.”
When she tried to release him, he reached back to hold her in place, but she eased out of his grasp. They needed to eat, and she could have held onto him for hours.
He moved to the stove. “Can you show me more of the Japandi style?”
She found additional examples and swiped through designs while he cooked. By the time he had the food arranged on two plates, as picture-perfect as everything else he did, they’d chosen a sofa, two chairs, a coffee table, floor pillows, a couple of vases, plants, and artwork.
His phone rang.
“Can you grab that for me, Rai?” he asked.
“What if it’s your girlfriend?”
“Then tell her I’m busy making dinner for my wife.”
Laughing, she retrieved his phone from the counter and accepted the call. “Hello, this is Lucas Saraci’s phone. Raina speaking.”
A reasonably deep voice answered. “Oh, Raina! Hello! It’s nice to informally meet you. My name’s Adam. Adam Morris. I’m a colleague of Saraci’s. He talks about you all the time, so it’s nice to put a voice to the name. Is he there?”
“Yes. One second.” She handed the phone to Lucas. “It’s Adam Morris.”
He frowned, raising the phone to his ear. “Morris? What’s up?”
She busied herself by grabbing a bottle from the wine fridge, but as she went to open it, Lucas’ fingers circled her wrist.
“No, it’s fine. It’s fine. Yeah, I’ll be there.” He ended the call, looked at the food, and sighed. “So, I might have forgotten that I agreed to have dinner with Adam, his wife, and a few other colleagues tonight.”
“What time?” she asked.
He glanced at the clock in the living room, squinted, and then checked his watch. “In about an hour and a half, but you don’t have to come. I sprang this on you last minute. You should probably stay here. Eat something. Get some rest.”
His lips said one thing.
His face said another.
“I can hop in and out of the shower and toss on some makeup,” she said. “Finding something to wear won’t be an issue, and my hair—”
“Looks great, to be honest.”
She smiled. “You’ve got a lot of compliments tonight, Dr. Saraci.”
“I always have compliments.” He smoothed a few strands between his fingers. “You just tend to burn them to ash with your fire-breathing ways.”
“Well then, do you have any remedies for a serpent with a,” she stroked the column of her neck, “sore throat?”
No wonder the man did all sorts of gymnastics to relieve himself from her frisky-ass grip. Never had she come on this strong before, and if she didn’t rein it in soon, he would quickly figure out that her brain wasn’t operating on a three-month timeline.
His mouth twitched. “Go get ready, Mrs. Saraci. I’ll meet you downstairs.”
* * *
