I put my purse to the bar, shrugged off my jacket, poured wine and asked, “You want more?”
“Top up would be good,” he muttered, reaching a long arm out to nab a bread knife from a knife block at the back counter.
I moved around the bar and topped up his wine. Then I assessed the salad stuff. After that, I assumed salad duty, keeping an eye on Nick who was very much sorting the bread. In fact, with an ease obviously born of practice, he was making homemade garlic bread, including microwaving crushed garlic, butter and olive oil, brushing, sprinkling bits of cheese and broiling.
I looked to the bubbling sauce.
“Homemade bread, does that mean homemade sauce?” I asked.
“Didn’t have time,” he muttered surprisingly, a mutter that alluded to the fact that, if he did, he could also have made homemade red sauce. “And hope you like meat,” he went on. “Sauce has got ground sirloin and Italian sausage in it.”
“I like meat,” I assured him.
His attention came to me on that but fortunately he didn’t treat me to some coarse, schoolboy, low-intellect comment.
He just gave me a look telling me he had one on the tip of his tongue and he was saving me from it.
“Thank you,” I replied to his look.
Another mistake.
He again started laughing.
It didn’t start with a surprised bark leading to audible hilarity with his shaking body pressed to mine making me feel we could have something that was beyond normal straight to amazing at the same time it was heart-stoppingly real.
But it was nearly as pleasant.
I concentrated on the salad.
All the veggies were fresh and high quality. With the latter, as was the wine.
“Did you shop for this?” I asked the tomato I was cutting into wedges.
“Found out no salon openings, called you, then yeah, I went to the market,” he answered.
He just didn’t throw this together.
He’d shopped.
God.
“Speaking of salons, booked us Wednesday night.”
I turned my attention to him. “I can’t Wednesday night.”
He lifted his brows.
I answered his unasked question. “Duty supper with my mother. After it, I have a habit of going to the emergency room to ask them to check my heartbeat, in other words, if there is one, and call in the on-call dentist to examine the possibility I’ve grown retractable fangs. This, since I’m relatively certain a vampire begets a vampire and so far in my lifetime those traits have been latent.”
More deep, pleasant laughter from Nick, this time with twinkling ocean blue eyes aimed at me.
And it was then I knew I was working for it.
I needed to get smart and fast. He might be able to respect boundaries but I already knew my heart had no clue what they were.
“Not close with your mom,” he pointed out the obvious, eyes still twinkling my way.
“How’d you guess,” I murmured, looking away and tossing tomato wedges into the greens.
“Olivia,” he called.
I looked to him.
“I’ll book it another night but we’re not scheduled to be there until ten thirty. Do your duty. Later, meet me there. I’ll examine your gums a way you’ll like better, and you turn vamp, there’s a lot of places I don’t mind you suckin’ me.”
I shook my head and again looked away, allowing a slight curve to form at my mouth.
“Christ, she can smile,” he teased, reminding me my life didn’t offer me many occasions to do this, and to play it safe with Nick Sebring, I shouldn’t let him give them to me.
Thus, the curve evened out.
My name didn’t sound close to teasing when he called, “Olivia.”
I didn’t look from the salad. “I’m hungry, Sebring. Feed me then fuck me. Then I need to get home. I have a busy week next week.”
There was silence broken only by bubbling from the stove before I heard end-of-cooking noises as I focused on the finishing touches on the salad.
I was done and about to go wash my hands when I felt Nick fit his front to my back.
He didn’t wrap his arms around me and hold me but there was warmth in his closeness all the same.
“We both like what we got,” he said softly into my ear. “That means you’ll be here again. So you gotta know, the invitation is open for you to stay after we fuck. You feel you need to make your point by leavin’, your call. But I figure with the way we fuck we’re not gonna be done with each other for a long time. I like you at my side in bed because that means I get more in the morning. You want that too, stay. You’re not in the mood, go. If I got shit on I need to give attention to first thing in the morning, I’ll share that we need to see to business and I’ll walk you to your car. But outside that, you need to know, the invitation is always open.”
I twisted my neck and lifted my eyes to him.
I didn’t know what to say. What he just gave to me was more than anyone had given to me in my life, outside Tommy. And what Tommy and I had had been dangerous and stupid and we both knew it even if I was just figuring out the full extent of that years later.
So I just said, “Thank you.”