He gave me his tongue and his teeth, and, this time, brought me to orgasm. As the sensations shot through me, my heart constricted, and I knew this was the moment. The moment my feelings for Donovan took the leap off the cliff: a leap of complete faith that this man would hold my heart in his hands and cherish it forever.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Layla
“Layla, we need to go,” Donovan said in his impatient voice.
My head snapped up from what I was doing, and I glared at him. “Don’t use that voice on me.”
His brows quirked. “Which voice?”
“Your hurry-the-fuck-up voice,” I muttered, and looked back down at the table where I was in the middle of fighting with plastic wrap to cover the salads I’d made. Plastic wrap and I were not friends, and I was just about to throw it out of the fucking window.
Donovan moved towards me and stilled my hand by placing his over it. His warm breath whispered across my cheek when he murmured, “Let me do it.”
I turned my head slightly to look into his eyes. “How do you manage to piss me off and then make it all better in the space of two minutes?”
His lips brushed mine. “Just talented, I guess.”
I shook my head at his cockiness. “Okay, Mr Talented, hurry up, because we’re already running late and I don’t want to annoy your sister.”
He finished wrapping the salads. “Something tells me Madison is gonna love you regardless,” he said as he picked up both the salads.
“How do you figure that?”
As he began ushering me down the stairs to go to the car, he said, “My sister has been giving me grief for a while to start dating again. So you should probably expect an interrogation.”
I followed him to his car and waited while he opened the door for me. “Oh, God.”
His hand rested on my arm, stopping me. “Are you worried about this?”
There was no point lying to him, even though I would have preferred not to be this open so soon in our relationship. “Not worried so much as feeling a little anxious.” I held back the rest, hoping he’d let me off.
“Why?”
My eyes struggled to meet his, but he cupped my cheek and tilted my face up so I had no option but to look him in the eye. “I want your family to like me, and I’ve never had that feeling before. I’ve never given a shit if people liked me, so I’m a little rattled by it.”
His eyes glazed with the desire for me that was never far away. When he spoke, his voice had that growly tone to it I liked, but at the same time, there was softness there. “It means something to you that my family likes you?”
Butterflies fluttered in my tummy. “Yes,” I whispered.
“Fuck, you’re something else,” he murmured. “They’re gonna like you, and if they don’t, I couldn’t give a fuck.”
“Thank you.”
He kissed me and then asked, “We good now?”
I smiled. “Yes.”
He settled me in my seat, put the salads on my lap, and then drove us to Madison’s house. It was a good twenty-minute drive, and when we pulled up outside her home, I’d completely calmed down. Donovan’s words had eased my nerves, and I was glad I’d been honest with him.
I fell in love with Madison’s home the minute I saw it from the outside. A brick lowset, she’d landscaped the front yard with lots
of colourful flowers and a water feature. I sucked at identifying flowers, so I had no clue what kind they were, but there was such a mix of colours it reminded me of a beautiful painting. It turned out she loved colour. She’d filled her home with it: on the walls, in the decorations and with more flowers scattered throughout. I got the impression Madison loved decorating.
We walked through her home, down the hallway and ended up in her kitchen. Donovan placed the salads on the counter and smiled at Madison who was getting steaks ready for the barbeque. It wasn’t often he smiled, so I knew straight away they were pretty close.
“Blade!” She greeted him by flinging her arms around him in a welcoming hug.