Priceless (Forbidden Men 8)

Straightening, he crooked his finger for me to follow. “This way.”

He could’ve been leading me straight to the center of Hell, and I would’ve followed him eagerly. Looking the way he did and being so playfully cryptic, Brandt was just too tempting to resist.

As we entered the front room where Reese was braiding Issa’s hair, Brandt snapped his fingers and pointed to her. “Can I borrow something from your kitchen?” he asked. “I swear I’ll give it back when we’re done.”

“Uh...” Reese blinked before grinning slyly. “Well, sure. Go ahead.”

“Thanks.” He darted from the room, and I gazed after him, wondering what the heck he was getting.

Feeling a little drool at the corner of my mouth, I quickly wiped it away and sent my sister-in-law a confused glance. “Do you know what this is about?”

“No clue,” she answered, then whispered, “Maybe he wants to kiss you again.”

My face heated. “Shh!”

Reese snickered. Then she started laughing.

“What’s so funny?” Brandt asked, sweeping back into the room.

“Nothing,” Reese and I yelped together.

He sent us an odd look before murmuring, “Okay,” and held the door open for me.

I glanced at Reese again, curious about his overly nice behavior.

Eyes twinkling with mirth, she blew me a kiss. “Have fun.” The wink that followed told me she definitely thought I’d be getting kissed again before the night was over. God, I hoped she was right.

I flushed and couldn’t meet Brandt’s gaze as I rolled past him out the door.

He said nothing on the way to his truck, but once we reached it, he leaned ahead of me to open my door. Then he helped me stand and climb into my seat before folding my chair. I watched him with a slight frown, wondering why he was being so...attentive. Usually he let me do all that by myself because my independence was so important to me. But this evening, something was different.

As soon as he shut my door, the most heavenly smell hit my nose, drifting up from the rear of the cab. I tried to twist around to see but couldn’t quite manage it.

“What’s that smell?” I demanded as soon as Brandt climbed into the truck.

He laughed as he tossed what looked like Reese’s wine bottle opener into the back. “You and your super sniffer. I should’ve known you’d catch on to that immediately.”

“Brandt Gabriel,” I growled. “You have food in this truck.” He’d better be planning on feeding me because it smelled really, really good. I might do him bodily harm if he made me smell that all the way to our destination and then denied me a taste. “What is it?”

“Garlic herb rotisserie chicken,” he answered as he started the engine. “I picked it up on the way here.”

I nearly whimpered. “Are you going to give me some?” Perking to attention when he turned toward the university, I wrinkled my brow. Where the heck was he taking me? “Where are we going?”

My confusion amused him. He just couldn’t seem to stop laughing. “Patience,” he was finally able to say. “We’re almost there.”

We wound through buildings on campus, past the library, tech center, and football stadium until we reached a small body of water that everyone called the campus lake. The grass around it was mowed short, and it was surrounded by benches and a couple of walking trails. A small bridge led into the center, where there was a tiny island with a monument dedicated to the first president of Ellamore University.

I glanced at Brandt curiously, wondering why he’d brought me here. We passed this lake almost every day on the way to class.

Watching a fountain out in the middle of the water, he told me, “Last week when we passed by here to pick up our graduation gowns together, you saw a couple having a picnic out on the island and you said it looked nice.”

Slowly, he turned to me, and when our gazes met, something warm and liquid flowed through my veins, something that made me feel more alive than I’d ever felt with any other person.

“You’re taking me on a picnic?” I asked, touched to the core.

“I’m taking you,” he murmured, “on a real, live, honest-to-God date.” Reaching into the backseat, he grabbed something and drew it up to the front before handing me a single, long-stemmed pink rose.

“Oh my gosh,” I gasped, reaching out with shaking fingers to collect my rose. Closing my eyes, I pressed it to my nose and inhaled its sweet fragrance. Roses were my favorite. “I think I’m going to cry. Brandt...” I opened my lashes. “You didn’t have to do this.”