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Smiling, I gave her a quick kiss on the lips; anything more would have me succumbing to my weakness. “Yes. I did this for us.”
And just because I wanted to kiss her again, I raised her hand to my lips before leading her to her seat. “I’ll let the chef know we’re ready.”
As I walked away, I heard her gasp. “Chef?”
“Yeah, there was no way I’d have been able to pull this off without a chef. Unless you wanted flavorless food for dinner.” I grinned before leaving her looking at me with eyes that made me want to clear the table and take her on top of it. She looked at me in awe, gratitude, and admiration. That did something to me, arousing me wickedly.
Matteo walked out of the kitchen alongside me and as I sat, he greeted Tiffany with a smile. “What can I get for you?” he asked in his Italian accent before letting her know all the items that were on the menu for tonight.
“Ooh,” she said in response to his accent, winking at me as if she was teasing me.
I grinned as Matteo looked between us in confusion.
“I’ll have the shrimp pasta.” She smiled at Matteo.
“I’ll take the steak,” I said in return, smiling at her.
Matteo dropped his brow at me as if he were wondering why I didn’t overreact when it was positive he thought she was flirting with him.
“You know you didn’t have to do all of this. You’re still going to get lucky tonight,” she said, reaching for my hand.
“Having you here… I’m already the luckiest man in the world. I don’t need anything else but your company,” I responded although need and want were two different beasts. “Unless you think this is all too much, too pretentious?” I asked, wincing a bit in embarrassment at the thought.
She smiled. “It’s perfect. Wow, when did you get so romantic?” She leaned in.
Grinning and perhaps blushing a bit, I leaned in to her as well. I was sitting at the head of the table, and she sat on my right.
“Since I realized I’m not ready to let you go anytime soon,” I said, running my fingers through her hair and pulling her closer to me for a kiss.
She kept me locked there with her arms around my shoulders, thumbing my hair as she scooted even closer to me. “Do you mean that?” she asked, and there was a subtle tremor in her voice.
I nodded. “Yes, I do. I know I haven’t been consistent over the past few days, and you probably weren’t sure where we stood. I’ll admit, with everything that was happening, there were doubts on my end too. Not about how I feel about you. I never doubted that. But I was scared. Watching the way you fought for us, though? It made me feel safe. You make me feel safe, Tiffany, and I want to keep feeling safe with you.”
She kissed me hard, and everything around me disappeared until it was just us. She moaned against my lips, and my dick hardened again. Damn, she was delicious, and this amount of self-control I was trying to exercise with her was wild and exciting. I groaned into the kiss, struggling as my mind told me one thing, and my body said something else.
We sighed together, and my hand, needing to touch her skin, dropped to her leg. Everything inside me wanted to push my hand further up her dress, but in trying to hold myself back, I gripped her thigh. She gasped and broke the kiss, looking at me with ‘fuck me now’ eyes.
“Ahem.” Matteo’s voice broke through the haze, making us both jump in shock. We forgot that he was even here. “Your meals,” he said, and I looked up at him smirking as he held our plates in his hands.
Tiffany grinned and fanned herself, sweeping her hair over her shoulders to reveal her neck. Her sweet neck that I wanted to kiss. But hell, I was going to do my damnedest to be a gentleman tonight.
Chapter 37
Tiffany
WhenIfirstarrived,Mario’s words were still on my brain. They’d been playing over and over in my head as I wondered whether I should’ve said something in response, questioning what he may have thought of my silence. I didn’t want him to get the wrong impression that I didn’t care for him; that wasn’t the case. The words were right on the tip of my tongue to say them back, but I didn’t want to say them if I didn’t know what they meant.
Concern over whether saying nothing would cost us what we were trying to build burned through my brain but at the same time, it felt nice to hear the words. Despite the fear that came with them, my heart had taken off flying like a gentle butterfly, and my cheeks had reddened as I walked up the three steps onto Jared’s white-tiled porch. Mario made me feel his love in his actions and damn, did I feel his love tonight. Being loved by him made me light up. It made me feel perfect, special, cared for, and adored, and that was why it scared me. I didn’t want to become dependent on that feeling, only to lose it in the end. Committing to such a feeling? Saying it back felt heavy.
Thankfully though, as Jared opened the door, looking even more delicious than I’d ever seen him, my racing overthinking thoughts were silenced. His cool, woodsy, and ocean-reminiscent cologne hit me as soon as he opened the door. The look he gave me made it hard to speak. He’d invited me in, and the lights were low. Bright enough though for me to see him and the black, long, L-shaped sofa over to my right, in front of a modern, lit fireplace. In the center of it was a sleek, low, wooden coffee table, and all except the fireplace sat on a clean, bright-gray carpet. The carpet was only in the living room though as the rest of his place from what I could see was shiny, wooden floors. The scent of pine mixed into the wood of his cologne was stimulating.
His subtle shed ceilings made the already large space appear wide and opened. A chandelier that wasn’t too imposing hung from the center. The walls and ceiling were all painted white as far as I could tell from the dim lighting. Toward my left was a bending staircase with the steps painted white and the railings painted black. The staircase was all I could look at with thoughts of the bedroom when he wrapped me in his arms, melting all my concerns away.
When he traced his finger across my skin, dropping my strap around my shoulders to kiss me, I thought that was where we would have been heading. The smooth sounds of lovemaking music heightened that expectation. Instead, he led me toward the dining room. My folds begged to be spread open, and my nipples beaded at the sight of the table and the effort he put in for me.
Obviously, I knew what it was like to have a personal chef every now and then. I’d grown up with money and basically lived in a mansion for most of my life. But with everything we’d just been through, it felt a little different. Knowing he cared enough to do this much to make me feel special was doing something to me. Damn, I didn’t think there was a moment I wanted to be fucked by him more.
Now, as I sank my teeth into my dessert of chocolate-covered strawberries and cheesecake, the juices against my lips were like a sweet tease, and the decadence of the cream cheese and sugar oozing into my blood was like being sexed. Man, I was dizzy from his charm, his smile, his kisses, this food, and the wine. My body and my mind were relaxed. Everything inside me felt loose as if the gentle current of the ocean swept it away.
