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“Wow.”
I jumped and spun around to face the woman I’d forgotten about. Feeling rude, I tried to shake her hand and froze when I felt Jeremy in one hand and the blanket in the other. “Um. I would shake your hand, but… I’m Memphis.”
“Memphis, you’re my hero.” Her face lit up and her rosy cheeks rounded perfectly as she smiled. “Remington Hawke just eye-fucked you ten ways till Sunday. Whoa. I’m Bea, by the way. Beatrix Summers. I’m part of the staff here.”
Fighting the urge to go to the door and stare after the man, I shook my head. “No, that’s crazy. Nice to meet you, Bea. I’m sorry that I tried to attack you.”
“With a sex toy. If I had a dollar for every time that happened…”
I hesitated. “Would you have more than one dollar?”
She laughed and shook her head. “Nope.”
9.
***Wells***
Sittingacrossfrommybrothers at a dining room table that was too large for a dozen people, much less the three of us, I found myself antsy and bouncing my knee. I’d come down from my makeshift studio to have lunch with Memphis, but there was no Memphis to be seen. Having lunch in the middle of a work day with my brothers was strange, but waiting around on a woman to join us was something we’d never done before. I wasn’t sure if I’d ever waited on a woman, come to think of it.
Sophie strode into the dining room with her hands clasped behind her back and an amused look on her face. She kept her thoughts to herself, though. “Should I go check on Ms. King?”
Remy grunted and looked at his watch. “Please.”
Boone stretched his neck from side to side and rubbed at the muscles there. “We should’ve asked if she gives massages.”
“She’s not here to work for us, asshole.” Remy checked his watch again and stood up. Walking over to the wall to wall windows that looked out over the backyard, his shoulders stiffened as he seemed to focus in on something in the yard.
“What is it?” Curious about what could get Remy’s feathers up, I moved over to see what he saw. It took me less than a second to spot Memphis. “Shit.”
She was bent over, her face shoved so far into a bunch of flowers that I almost wondered if she was inhaling or eating them. The curve of her full ass was on display in another dress and I couldn’t remember why I’d ever thought any other figure on a woman was attractive. Pete, our gardener, stood off to the side, so inconsequential next to Memphis’s curves that I almost didn’t see him. He pointed to something else and Memphis went down to her knees and leaned forward to do something in the dirt.
“What the hell is she doing?” Boone stood on the other side of Remy, his voice amused. “Is she playing in the dirt rather than having lunch with us? Should we be insulted?”
Memphis came up with something dirty in her hands and I could tell she was grinning, even in her profile. She handed the thing to Pete and moved back to her feet. Suddenly she turned around to face the house and I could see the way her cheeks turned red from that far away. She started moving immediately and then turned back to Pete, saying something that made the man smile, before stepping back onto the pathway. She dusted her hands together, trying to clean them, but she hadn’t even noticed the dirt on her knees yet.
I watched as Sophie joined her and linked her arm through Memphis’s. The two women disappeared from our view and the three of us moved back to our seats like we hadn’t just watched that scene. It took me a moment to notice I was smiling.
“That was interesting.” I rested my elbows on the table and saw that both Remy and Boone had thoughtful expressions on their faces. “She’s going to be different, isn’t she?”
Remy’s mouth quirked up in a rare grin and he nodded. “She threw her vibrator at me this morning.”
Before I could demand an explanation and a detailed description of what the thing looked like, Memphis’s presence filled the room. The dining room was like every other room in the house, dark and somehow oppressive, despite being massive and roomy. When Memphis walked in with a light pink sundress on, a wide smile on her face, the room brightened. It was almost like watching the clouds part over the table.
“I’m so sorry! I ran into Pete on the way in and I had a million questions to ask him. Poor guy. He looked terrified at first. I think I came on a little strong.” She seemed to realize there were twenty chairs around her and stopped. “Wow. This is big.”
Her southern accent wasn’t something I’d known I’d find sexy as hell, but when she spoke, it was like each word stroked over my skin a little slower than the last. Her cheeks were red, but her skin was bright and clear, her green eyes wide and alert as she looked around.
Remy cleared his throat and motioned for her to sit in the chair next to me. I was sure he was as uninterested in talking about the flowers as Boone and I were, but none of us were willing to start that conversation. “I’m sure Pete was happy to talk to someone about the flowers.”
“Oh, they’re lovely. I hope it’s okay, but there’s a breed of dahlia I’ve never seen before and I begged Pete to plant one of the tubers near the guest house.” She sat down and the sweet scent of honey and vanilla teased me. “Not that there aren’t already a ton of amazing plants there. One more never hurt anyone, though. I joined the horticulture club my first week at Yale. Flowers were always my first love, so this is my heaven.”
I noticed a spot of dirt on the bottom of her dress and grinned to myself. She wasn’t what I’d expected. Boone and Remy seemed speechless and Memphis seemed happy to fill the silence.
“The guest house is amazing. I don’t know how to thank y’all. It’s beautiful and magical. I’m going to read so many books in that swing in the backyard.” She looked around the dining room and some of the light in her eyes dimmed until she saw the windows and the flowers beyond. “If I lived around all these flowers, I’d never get anything done.”
Remy finally snapped out of whatever trance she’d put him in just as Sophie came in carrying two plates of food, with Rork carrying the other two. Rork, our chef, looked at Memphis and I swear the man looked like he was going to speak. It would’ve been a welcome change from the man who barely said two words a month to us.
Memphis sat up straighter and her mouth stretched into an even wider smile as she eyed Rork. “That smells delicious. Thank you so much for cooking for me. I hope my being here doesn’t make your job any harder.”
