“What was that for?” I asked in a quiet voice, mostly because there was no way in hell I had it in me to speak louder seeing as I could barely breathe.
“That was because I like, a fuckuva lot, all the reasons you love me. But more, I like that you laid it out, no hesitation, all real, and didn’t make me work for it.”
I made a mental note to do that again, and often, as my insides warmed in a way that had nothing to do with the heat created by his kiss.
“Just to keep that goodness coming, right now, would you like me to give you my top ten of your anatomy?” I offered.
He smiled, but he did it while pressing his body into mine (and, incidentally, that meant nearly all of his top tens were pressed tight to me, including my number one). And since my back was to the wall, that meant I felt him deep.
I liked the feel.
Then again, I always had.
“We’ll wait on doin’ that when we’re naked,” he replied.
“Sounds like a plan,” I muttered.
His smile got bigger and my happy place got happier. He tipped his head, touched his lips to my jaw and pulled us from the wall, turning.
He got to facing the table and stopped dead.
“Christ,” he whispered.
Apparently, he’d been all fired up to show me his appreciation about what I’d said earlier and hadn’t noticed my preparations for the evening.
“Baby, what—?” he started, dipping his chin to look down at me.
I interrupted him to ask, “Was last night the only night I get to show you special?”
He said not one word. He just stared at me, his arm around my waist, his body unmoving.
“Zano?” I called.
“I love this. This is beautiful,” he said in his sweet voice. “And hear me, honey, I get what you’re doing, but I need you to know that you have nothing to make up for. You gave me you and that’s all the special I need.”
God!
Seriously?
This guy was unreal.
I loved it at the same time it was undoing me. The thing was, I didn’t mind the idea of coming undone and that freaked me.
To communicate this to Ren, I curled into him and shoved my face in his chest.
His hand came up and curled around the back of my neck.
More sweet.
I couldn’t hack it.
“I need to pick a fight,” I told his shirt.
His body jolted slightly and his voice held a vein of humor when he asked, “What?”
I dropped my head back to look at him.
“I’m Ally. I’m not the romance and candlelight and flowers and champagne and sweetness and soft words that mean everything kind of girl. We need to pick a fight. This is freaking me out. And anyway, you’re an alpha badass hothead. You’re not supposed to notice flowers and candlelight. And no alpha badass hothead has the capacity to say the right thing at the right time and do it repeatedly. I know. I’ve been witnessing them in action for a while now. Counting Dad and Indy’s dad, Tom, it’s safe to say I’ve had a lifelong study.”
“Maybe your girls don’t share everything,” he suggested.
He clearly hadn’t been around to overhear the Rock Chicks gabbing.
I decided not to reply as that information might freak him.
“I’ll do my best to ignore it from here on out,” he offered.
“Appreciated,” I muttered.
He grinned, bent his head to brush his lips to mine then he let me go and ordered, “I’ll get the champagne, you get the food.”
Since this was an acceptable arrangement, I complied.
He got the champagne. I went to the table to light the candle I didn’t get to when he’d rushed me. Then I set out the food. Ren set out a champagne bucket filled with ice and the opened bottle. He handed me my glass as we both sat.
I stared at the champagne bucket.
“Babe,” he called and my eyes drifted to him.
“You have a champagne bucket,” I told him something he knew since it was him that filled it with ice and put it on the table.
His head tipped to the side. “Yeah.”
“I’m not sure what to do with that,” I shared.
“And I’m not sure why you’d have to do anything with it,” he returned.
“Um… I don’t think I know anyone with a champagne bucket, except my parents, and they got theirs for a wedding present thirty-nine years ago.”
“Which would stand to reason this is the bucket Ma and Pop got at their wedding thirty-eight years ago.”
“Oh,” I mumbled. I tipped my head to the side and proceeded cautiously, “Why do you have it?”
He took a sip of champagne, set his glass aside and picked up his fork. He did all this not looking at me, which was all kinds of strange with Ren. He was a straight talker and a big fan of eye contact.