AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Me? Brilliant? I move around him, tidying the kitchen. “How so?” I grab the half-and-half carton, putting it back in his mostly empty fridge.
“People.” He leans on the edge of the counter, his arms crossed over his chest. “You just seem to know them. Know what they need.”
“Thanks?” I say.
“You’re welcome.” He strides past me, his arm brushing mine as he goes. “But don’t let it go to your head. I still think you’ve got a lot to learn about this world.”
“I may be sheltered, but I’m not naïve.”
“About some things you are.”
I’m not up for another conversation about how ridiculous he finds my hope in the upcoming marriage working out.
Moving on.
I want something from him. I follow him to the stairs. I’m going to get what I want.
We’ve reached the foyer, the base of the stairs. “I am innocent, though,” I say, reaching for his shoulder. His muscles are warm and firm under my touch. I draw my hand away.
He stops, turning around to face me. “Tell me about it.”
“In the bedroom. As you can imagine, as the daughter of Bronson Bachman, boys wouldn’t touch me with a ten-foot pole. Sure, I’d play basketball with them, flirt, joke around. But if any got too close, there was my dad, standing a few feet away, staring, hard, his arms crossed over his chest.”
“I get it.” He eyes me warily but appeases me. “I’m sure it wasn’t easy to get a date in the Hamlet.”
“Not for lack of options, which I’m sure is what you’re thinking. I can’t imagine how many available men there are in the city, but no one outside of our ways would really be my type anyway. There were plenty of boys I would have dated at home, given the opportunity.”
“But you weren’t,” he says.
“Exactly.”
“Which brings us back to your point. About the bedroom.” He raises a dark brow high. “What are you asking me?”
I put a hand on my hip. “How’d you know I was asking for something?”
“You’re not the only one who can read people,” he says.
So he can read others. Just not himself. Interesting.
“I want something from you. I’ll tell you after the party. When we get to the house.”
“No promises.” He puts his hand on the stair rail, signaling my time is up. But when our eyes meet, there’s that electricity buzzing about. There’s a new tone in his voice. It’s deeper, sultry, lined with the hint of a promise. “But I’ll see what I can do.”
I hope he gives me what I crave. What I so desperately need. It’s a lot to ask.
Will he agree?
thirteen
Savage
The drive passes quickly, us chatting for the first half hour, her telling me why the Hamlet is better than the Village, me negating all her points, then falling into an easy silence.
She doesn’t bring up the fact that I spanked her ass last night.
I don’t ask what her favor is, fine with waiting till she’s ready to tell me.
We arrive in the Hamlet at four. I drop Paisley off at home to get ready for the dinner. I already showered and dressed at home. Black pants and a blue button-down, no tie, but my family cuff links at my wrists.
