“I haven’t had much time to dedicate to it lately. I did just take on a new job, my first in a while.”
Maddie hated for her doubts to creep into this moment, but she had to ask. If he was working for her grandmother, would he admit to it? “What are you working on?”
“A built-in bookcase for Connie Jackson.”
Maddie breathed a sigh of relief and leaned across the table to kiss him. “It’s beautiful. Thank you.”
Chapter Sixteen
“It’s late,” Emmett said as he glanced down at his watch. The evening had flown by with Maddie at the bar. Even when he had a good crowd of customers, he still had time to finish dinner and chat with her. He could tell she was running out of steam, though. She was getting that glassy look in her blue eyes that told him she was exhausted. “It’s almost eight, past your bedtime.”
“I know,” Maddie said with a pout that told him she wasn’t ready to go yet.
Maybe she didn’t really have to, he thought. “I have an idea.”
Maddie perked up in her seat, curious. “What’s that?”
“Why don’t you go upstairs to my apartment and get some sleep? I’ll be up to join you when I close at ten thirty. You can stay the night and go home in the morning when you’ve got to open up the bakery.”
“I’ve got a better idea,” she countered. “How about I go home and you come over to my place when the bar closes? You’ve never been over to my house before. At least not past the front door.”
“That works just as well,” he said. “Leave me a key?”
“Yep.” Maddie reached into her purse and pulled out her spare key. It had a large glittery cupcake keychain hooked to it, so there was no doubt whose house it went to. “See you sometime after ten thirty?”
Emmett snatched up the key and gave her a long good-bye kiss that promised more. “You bet.”
He watched her slip out of the bar with her basket of dirty dishes. It was a good night in the end, but he’d gotten concerned during dinner. The conversation had been fine until he mentioned the party at Grant and Pepper’s. She just seemed to shut down. He hadn’t planned on giving her the swan tonight, but he needed something to break the tension. It’d worked. She relaxed and the rest of the evening was great, but he didn’t know what the problem was.
He wondered if she was embarrassed of him. Her grandmother, at the least, knew they were dating, but probably not her parents. She may not have even mentioned it to most of her siblings. Was meeting the rest of her family a step too far for her? Was she just slumming with the bartender but didn’t want her high-and-mighty father to know about it?
Emmett hoped that wasn’t true. He thought Maddie had really made a breakthrough on that front. She didn’t seem to be deliberately hiding their relationship from anyone, but was her daddy a different matter? He didn’t know for sure and he hadn’t wanted to push tonight. He’d certainly find out before they went to the housewarming, though. Emmett didn’t want his appearance and the subsequent drama to ruin Pepper and Grant’s party.
He tried not to worry too much about it. Thankfully, the rest of the night went quickly. The last patron left at nine thirty, so Emmett was able to clean up and run his receipts early. At closing time, he was able to flip off the lights, lock the door, and jog across the street to Maddie’s house.
When he locked the front door behind him, he realized he wasn’t quite sure where he was going. Maddie’s house was a large two-story home with a million small rooms, the way old houses used to be. Assuming her bedroom was upstairs, he started in that direction and found one of her little ballet flats on the bottom step. Halfway up, he found another. On the landing, he found the sweater she’d had on earlier.
Maddie had left him a seductive little trail of bread crumbs. Her jeans were down the hallway to the right, so he followed the trail. Hanging on one of the doorknobs was a cream-colored satin bra.
Bingo.
Gripping the knob, Emmett opened the door. The queen-size bed was just to the right of the doorway, with a massive, white-washed, carved headboard and footboard. A tiny lamp was on beside the bed, illuminating the swan figurine on the table and the outline of Maddie in bed.
He could see a peek of something that looked like she was wearing a lacy red nightie. Most of it was covered by the plush floral quilt spread across the bed. She might have planned a grand seduction tonight, but sleep had won the battle. Her pink lips were softly parted, her dark hair scattered across the lacy white pillowcase. He knew he was supposed to wake her up when he got there, but she looked so peaceful he didn’t have the heart to do it. Instead, he walked around to the other side of the bed and slipped out of his clothes. He left a condom on the nightstand, just in case.
Emmett left his boxers on and crawled into the softest bed he’d ever slept in. It was like snuggling with a cloud. If Maddie couldn’t fall asleep in this bed, his bar really was disruptive. It wasn’t even his bedtime yet and he could feel his own eyes getting heavy.
As gently as he could, Emmett rolled onto his side, spooning against Maddie. Even in her sleep, she was drawn to his body heat. She curled her back against him and sighed in contentment without waking.
Before he knew it, he was out cold. He was roused some time later by a heat spreading through his veins like an erotic dream revving his engine. His first waking sensation was the feel of fingers stroking his erection.
He groaned and pressed against it. His hands sought out Maddie beneath the blankets. She was still lying on her side next to him, reaching behind her to stroke him through the thin fabric of his boxer shorts. His palm glided along the silk-covered indentation at her waist and up over her hip. Maddie arched her back, pressing the curve of her rear against his erection.
“Damn,” he cursed. This was one hell of a way to wake up. Emmett snuggled closer, wrapping his arm around her waist to pull her tight against him, and then planted a trail of kisses along her shoulder.
He was still foggy from sleep, every sensation almost like a dream as they rubbed against each other in the dark. When Maddie’s hand slipped beneath the waistband of his boxers, she curled her fingers around him and squeezed.
“Maddie,” he groaned against her shoulder.