Forbidden Bride

A perfect, bright, smile forms on her face. “That’s perfect. I can smuggle you things at work that I’d like to keep here.”

“I have the first thing to put in there,” I say, reaching into one of the still-full drawers and pulling out her thong from that day when I tasted her in the bathroom.

Her jaw drops. “You kept my panties?”

“Of course I did.”

She hits me lightly on the arm. “You’re such a pervert.”

“This is the part where I remind you that you left so fast that I couldn’t even speak to you, let alone tell you that I had your soaked panties in my pocket.”

“I suppose that is fair. I’m sorry about that.”

I smile. “It worked out in the end.”

“Yeah.” She grabs her bag and goes into the bathroom. “Be out in a second and then we can go. What are we having for lunch?”

Pulling out some jeans and a shirt, I slip into them while she’s out of sight because I’m still so tempted by her that being naked might just lead to leftover Italian food for lunch. “It’s a surprise.”

“Better be a good one,” she calls. But her tone tells me that she’s teasing.

“Don’t worry, it will be.” And after that I’m going to drag her back here and have her in my bed one more time before she has to leave. And maybe again in the shower.

I make quick work of the drawer I offered her, distributing the few clothes that were in it into my other drawers, so that when she steps out of the bathroom a few minutes later, I make a grand gesture to it. “Here you are, my lady.”

She leans up on her tiptoes and kisses me. “It’s perfect. Thank you.”

“Any time.”

“Ready to go?” she asks. “You’ve made me work up an appetite.”

I nod. “I hope you have that same appetite by the time we get back.”

“Don’t worry.” Nicola’s voice is low and sultry. “There’s a one-hundred percent guarantee that I will.”

10

Nicola

By the time I arrive back home in the evening I’m thoroughly exhausted. Tristan took me to the one good Thai place in Leighton City, and we had an amazing time. I’m really loving adjusting to the new normal that we can just have a date and hang out like a normal couple. That’s exactly what I want.

And after we finished eating, Tristan showed me just how serious he was about the second kind of appetite. I’ve never had a hotter shower in my life.

It’s still pretty early in the evening, but I think I’m going to go to bed and sleep in. Saturdays are my favorite day of the week because you still have all of Sunday before going back to work. And I’m going to need tomorrow to recover after all he sex in the last twenty-four hours.

Even if I know that given the chance, I would go back to him and have more.

Dad is in the living room when I come in, watching TV. “Hey, Dad.”

“Hi honey. You have a good time with Jill?”

“Yeah.” I hang my coat up. “The gala is going to be really great. She has such a good eye for that kind of thing.”

“I’m glad.” He mutes the television and pauses. I rarely see my dad look uncomfortable, but he does right now. “I need to ask you something.”

“Yeah?”

Dad clears his throat and sits forward on the couch, elbows on his knees. “I was out running errands today and I saw you and Tristan together at Leighton Thai.”

My heart starts to pound and my stomach falls down to my feet. “Yeah?”

“You didn’t mention that you’d be seeing him.”

Casually is the only way to play this, I think, so I shrug. “He helped me have a huge breakthrough on the ice cream flavor, so I decided to pick his brain about what he thought about more flavors. He did marketing for a restaurant chain the last few years.”

“He told you that?”

“Yeah, why?”

My dad shakes his head. “He just doesn’t seem the same. It doesn’t feel like I thought it would, having him back. But you guys seem to be getting closer. Like when he was here last weekend.”

I swallow. “Well you did kind of make it so we have to work closely together.” No lie there. “Have you reached out to him at all? Actually talked to him one-on-one other than that first drink that you guys had at the bar?”

He shakes his head, rubbing his hand across his face.

“Then no wonder you don’t feel like anything’s the same. It’s been a while, and you guys need to get to know each other as friends again. I know that may sound touchy-feely, but you have to bond again.”

“Yeah.” He gives me a thin smile. “You’re probably right. But everything’s okay with you guys?”

The smile on my face is completely real. “Yeah, Dad, everything is great. I promise.”