“Stay and relax. I brought us some steaks to grill. When they’re almost done, you can get changed.”
Lily wasn’t sure, but she thought she felt the faint touch of his thumb against the lowest globe of her butt. She started to stiffen; however, Shade was already up and moving away.
Lily turned her head, seeing that he must have been here for a while since the steaks were already on a plate, waiting to be put on the grill he was heating up.
“How did you get in?” Lily asked.
“I have a key.”
“What? How?” Lily asked.
“Beth gave me her extra key when you were in the hospital. She’d asked me to pack some clothes for you.”
Her sister had neglected to tell her that it was Shade who had brought her clothes to the hospital. Lily was horrified at the thought of Shade going through her bedroom, opening drawers. She remembered the red panties that had been packed for her. Lily was going to let Beth have it when she returned home.
“You can grab a quick shower. The steaks are almost done.”
Lily didn’t want to get up from the lounge chair. Her top was indecent and her large breasts were barely held inside the tiny cups.
Fussing at herself for not bringing a wrap, Lily got to her feet and hurried toward the back door, keeping her face averted from Shade’s.
A hard arm went around her waist, pulling her toward him.
“Wait a minute.”
A finger pressed on the skin just above the flesh of her breasts. “You’ve gotten too much sun. Put some lotion on before you come back downstairs. I’ll keep the steaks warm.”
“I’m a grown woman,” Lily snapped.
“I can see that for myself.” His eyes were on her breasts.
“Jerk.” Lily started to wiggle away but was released before she could do so.
“Get changed.” Shade grinned.
“I planned to.” Lily stomped away, but then walked more demurely after she glanced back and saw his eyes on her butt.
“Don’t say anything unless you want to learn my lesson on respect,” he said, seeing the fire in her eyes.
Lily muttered something unintelligible under her breath.
“What did you say?” he asked with a warning glint in his eyes.
“I’ll be back in a minute.”
Lily showered, washing her hair thoroughly. After drying off, she smoothed some body lotion onto her skin before sliding on a pale green maxi dress that came to her ankles. Leaving her hair to dry naturally, she went back downstairs to the smell of the steaks, making her hungry.
Outside, Shade was already putting the steaks onto a platter. He had also packed out the tea pitcher and glasses with ice. There was even a big baked potato placed on each plate.
“Exactly how long have you been here?” Lily asked, taking a seat at the table.
“Long enough.” Shade grinned, setting the plate of steaks down onto the table.
“I would complain, but the food looks too good,” Lily said with wry amusement.
Shade placed one of the big steaks on her plate before serving himself. Lily cut off a piece of the tender meat then took a bite.
“It’s delicious,” she complimented.
“You didn’t think I could cook?” Shade raised a brow.
“Why would you need to cook? You have a bunch of pretty women cooking and delivering it to you,” Lily teased without rancor.
“I’ll have you know that we all take turns cooking and sharing chores.”
“I bet that’s interesting. How often does Winter get stuck doing chores?”
“Not often, unless it’s a punishment. She has a way of finagling things to get her way.”
“I know. It comes from being a high school principal. She was a mastermind at making the kids do things that they didn’t want to do.” Lily remembered her own experiences at losing to Winter’s machinations.
“Really?”
Lily nodded her head. “The seniors wanted to cut class on the first day of spring—it was a tradition at our school—yet students every year would manage to get into trouble. The previous principal had tried to stop it but wasn’t successful. Winter, on the other hand, acted all gung ho for us to have the day off. She told us that if we volunteered to clean the kitchen of the school’s chef training program she would let us have the afternoon off. What she didn’t tell us was that the students had made pizza the day before and hadn’t used pizza pans. It took us all day to clean those ovens. I had nightmares about burnt-on cheese for a month.”
Shade had stopped eating. Lily looked at him in question before it dawned on her what the look meant. She couldn’t stop the laughter from bubbling from her throat.
“Don’t tell me she got you on that one?”
“Let’s change the subject before I decide to stuff her into our oven.”
They talked the rest of the meal about the different things people ordered through the factory.
“Knox put Diamond on a budget,” Lily said when he described Diamond sneaking into the factory when a new shipment arrived.
“She finally calmed down. She’s too busy decorating her new house.”