“Oh.” I boxed up the leftovers and put them in the fridge. “They didn’t have all the money sorted out before you left?”
“I thought so, but it didn’t last.” She yawned, her wide-open mouth giving me lots of ideas.
If I couldn’t get into her pussy tonight, maybe she’d give me a blowy before bed. “I guess that’s not too surprising. Sending a limo to get you wasn’t the most cost-effective move.”
She turned and leaned against the sink. “I suppose not.”
I bumped my hip into hers, scooting her over, and flipped on the faucet. Doing dishes wasn’t exactly my thing, but if it got me closer to my goal, I was all for it.
“You don’t have to do that.” She grabbed a hand towel and stood at the ready to dry.
“I don’t mind.” I washed the first dish and passed it to her. “I have something to confess, so I figured getting brownie points was a good idea.”
She swiped the dish dry, her small wrist twirling the blue hand towel around the ceramic surface. “What is it?”
“While you were gone, I thought I saw you.”
The plate crashed to the counter, but didn’t shatter. She swiped it back up and placed it in the drying rack. “Yeah? Where?”
“I took a client to this fancy restaurant, but it was closed. I peeked inside and saw—you’ll never believe this—but I saw Sebastian Lindstrom fucking this smoking hot blonde.” I cleared my throat and handed her the next dish. “Not as hot as you, of course.”
She nodded and continued drying.
“But the crazy thing was, she looked like you.” I grabbed a fork and soaped it up. “On top of that, your student Mint kept coming at me with all these conspiracy theories about something happening to you. So, last night, I got to drinking and decided that Sebastian had kidnapped you and was keeping you prisoner at some big mansion in the Catskills.” I rinsed the fork and handed it to her.
“That’s crazy.” Her voice barely made it over the sound of the running water.
“Right? Worse, Mint convinces me to drive up there and check.”
“What?” She grabbed my wrist, her face ashen.
“Yeah. We drove up there last night. Found that fucking maniac Sebastian just walking along the road.”
“Was he okay?”
I laughed. “Yeah, as okay as a psycho can be.”
“What happened?”
“We confronted him about you.” I turned the water off and shook my head. “Crazy accusations, the whole nine yards. He denied it all, and then I got your text. Like, I was on the verge of busting down his gate, searching his house, and getting fired just because Mint convinced me to join in on his Nancy Drew nonsense. Can you imagine?”
“No.” Her voice shook.
“Hey.” I pulled her into my arms. “Don’t worry. He didn’t fire me. I don’t think he will.”
“Right.” She nodded against my chest, though she trembled.
“Seriously.” I pulled her back and looked into her eyes. “If he was going to do it, he would have done it while I was at his house. It was all so bizarre. He’s probably just as confused as I was.”
“Yeah.” She crossed her arms over her stomach. “Probably.”
I kissed her forehead. “Don’t worry.”
She gave me a wan smile as I tossed the dish towel on the counter.
“Now to the bedroom part.” I held out my elbow.
Her eyes narrowed. “Just tucking me in, remember?”
“Scout’s honor.” Cockblock.
She took my arm, and we walked down the short hallway to her room. Clothes were stacked on her dresser and overflowing from her closet. Weird.
“What’s with the clothes explosion?”
“Um, Veronica brought over some stuff she’d had in storage while I was gone.” Camille shrugged and sat on her bed.
I took it as an invitation and sat next to her.
“Link—”
“I know.” I sighed. Never in my life had I invested so much in a woman who wouldn’t even let me fuck her. But Camille was worth it. Somehow, I just knew. “I’m not going to ravage you, promise. But I do have a Christmas present for you.”
She winced. “I didn’t have time to get you anything. The whole coming home early thing threw me off.”
“Don’t worry.” I took her hand and kissed the back of it. “You already have what I want.”
“Listen, Link.” She took my hand in hers and turned to face me. “We need to talk.”
“I couldn’t agree more.” The ring in my pocket would seal the deal. Definite blowy tonight, at the very least.
She hesitated, as if picking over her words before saying them. “When I was gone, I had time to do some thinking about my future.”
“I did, too.” Maybe I was aiming too low with the cock sucking idea. After all, getting engaged should definitely include sex, right?
“And I thought about us, how and when we met, how my parents had just died, and I needed someone to be there for me. And you were.”