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The last month with her has been the best I’ve had in a long time, if not ever, and I don’t want my baggage and our responsibilities to get in the way of what we have. The frankness and honesty Summer possesses are beyond refreshing. It’s another thing that I don’t ever want to corrupt.
Getting out of the car, I lock it so that she has no choice but to wait for me to let her out. When I help her out, she eyes me with a hitched brow and a questioning gaze that makes me feel sorta great about what’s waiting for her inside.
“You look really pretty,” I tell her, but the truth is that she’s breathtaking enough that if I admit it out loud, we’ll never get to have our date.
I focus on the way she runs her red-painted nails that match her lips and strappy heels through the shorter tendrils around her face. A cute flush colors her cheeks as she looks up at me through thick lashes.
“Thanks,” she murmurs when I grab her hand and guide her toward the house.
We reach the double-width front door, and I pause, turning her toward it as I open it a crack. It’s not the nicest with its bleak modernism, but as she said, doors are replaceable.
We stand in silence for a beat. The coconut scent of her shampoo wafts in the air as the slight breeze picks up a tad. All I can do is breathe it in deep as I brush the stray strand from her face.
“Close your eyes, baby.”
Summer giggles nervously at my soft command. “What are you doing?”
“Surprising my girlfriend.” My reply makes her sigh.
Something she does without fail when I call her “my girlfriend,” because with her, it’s really those small things that matter. Belonging matters to her, and it wasn’t until she walked out of my place the other night after Easton became unsettled that I realized it.
Keeping things normal and on the down low has also meant that she’s still on the periphery where Easton is concerned. And given that he is the constant in my life, I think that it’s also keeping us apart.
Lightly covering her eyes with my hands, I walk her through the door. The lights are all off, with the exception of the candles flickering along the hallway that leads past the dark wood staircase toward the large open living space at the back of the property.
A small table is all that sits in the middle of the vast room, making our footsteps echo around us. The waiter that Kate hired for tonight walks out of the shadows, pulling back a chair for Summer before pouring us each a glass of wine. When he disappears again, leaving the service cart to the side of the table, I guide Summer in front of her seat.
“Sit,” I tell her, dropping my hands from her face to her shoulders. Her low gasp as I brush her hair to the side makes my blood thrum through my veins. Something that makes it difficult to control my whisper. “Don’t open your eyes yet.”
I want to see her face when she takes in all the blossoms around us. The floral scent is incredible, but the sight of all the colors and the twinkle lights that lend to the sparkling mountain view ahead of us will steal her breath. And that makes my insides squeeze with a thrill that has me smiling. Broad enough that it actually hurts.
“Okay, open up,” I tell her, barely able to disguise the quiver in my voice as I pull in a bated breath.
It feels like forever as Summer does the same before blinking her eyes open. Of course, I’m the thing she focuses on first, as though I’m what she wants the most. The one thing that truly matters to her right now. And it’s only when I grasp her hand over the table that she exhales, slowly looking around us. Awe flutters her lashes as she sucks in her lip.
“Did you do all of this for me?” Her fingers stroke over the silverware that’s engraved with an S. A personal touch that I have to give Kate credit for.
“I had help.”
With a shaky breath, Summer levels me with her soft stare. “It’s…it’s really nice. Really freaking beautiful, and I don’t know what to say because no one has ever done anything like this for me, and thank you doesn’t seem right. It’s not enough.”
I guess that maybe she’s starting to realize how I feel about every second she’s around me. Every sweet moment she shares with Easton. All those little things that seem like nothing to her but actually mean the world to me.
“I guess it’s a first both ways. I’ve never done anything like this for anyone else.”
Turning her hand so that her palm kisses mine, Summer grins. “You didn’t need to do all of this or go to all this trouble…you know, if you wanted to finish what you started.”
This is exactly why she deserves this and so much more. There isn’t a single moment with her that doesn’t make me happy. Something I haven’t been in so damn long that the feeling almost feels alien to me at times.
“We’re not finishing anything,” I tell her, tugging her hand up so that she stands from her seat. Reeling her to me, I swivel so that I can sit her on my lap. “Wild Thing…” The trailed whisper makes her shudder deeper into me. “I’m going to wine you, dine you, and then I’m going to give you a personal tour of the place. Limb—” I nip at her neck. “—by limb. Until you physically can’t take it anymore.”
“When does that stop you?” she rasps, arm curling back over my shoulder before her fingers tug at my hair.
“Never.” At least not with her.
The way she makes me feel when she’s maddened with need for me is empowering. When she gives herself to me without a single ounce of restraint, it’s impossible to hold on to my own. It doesn’t make sense to be so out of control and yet hold so much power over her, and I’ve given up trying to understand it. All I can do is give in to it, because I know that she craves it all as much as I do.
Especially when she sits across from me, eyes on mine while we eat the dinner that Kate’s private chef friend prepared. Nothing holds a candle to her gorgeous face—not the view, not our surroundings, or the elegant dessert torte that I place in the middle of the table between us.
