Page 53 of Craving Demons
Yeah, vibrating plastic just couldn’t compare.
I couldn’t stop grinning as I got into bed and snuggled under the warm sheets, imagining it was Grey wrapped around me, warming me. Of course, then my mind took things another step further and added Fen into the mix, both men holding me close and whispering their devotion to me.
I woke feeling rested and energized and my day only got better when Ramsey called mid-morning to say that he and Freyja would stop by at four that afternoon to have a look at Donny.
Thank God! Even Grey’s distraction last night and my dirty thoughts in the shower hadn’t completely eased my fears and I’d had no idea how long I’d be able to wait for Freyja. It could have only gotten better if she was showing up this morning and not in the afternoon.
The rest of the morning I spent in anticipation of my lunch with Fen, using that to help push my quarter of a billion dollar worry aside, and I was practically giddy as my cab took the 79thStreet transverse through the park and dropped me off about ten minutes early.
The alley I was supposed to walk down to get to the side door was clean, not even a hint of litter in the corners, and I easily made my way to a smiling young lady standing at the restaurant’s side entrance.
“Miss Baker?” she asked, and I nodded. “This way, please.”
She opened the door and led the way through a storeroom and into a long, plain hall. We walked past two open doors, both leading into a long, shiny kitchen where I caught glimpses of cooks and a few waiters hard at work, before coming to a closed door on the other side of the hall.
“In here, Miss Baker,” the young woman said as she opened the door to a cozy private dining room.
At the back sat a private booth: a half-circle with dark leather seats around a small table, and a few feet away was a decorative wooden sideboard where servers could set down their trays before bringing food to the table.
The lighting was low, coming from a gold and crystal chandelier, and the room was painted a deep plum purple with gold accents creating a sense of intimacy.
I stepped into the room and shivered with excitement at what was to come.
“Take a seat and Master Fen will be in in a moment. Would you like to see our wine list?”
I was fairly certain I couldn’t afford any wine from a place like this. But I was also fairly certain I wasn’t paying for this lunch.
“Yes please, do you have any Lambrusco?” I asked.
One of my previous bad boyfriends had been a chef and introduced me to all sorts of wines. I liked to show off my vintage vocabulary whenever I could. I didn’t usually drink — especially not out at clubs — but I sometimes had a little wine with dinner. The trouble was, now that I knew what I liked, it turned out I had expensive tastes.
“We do, do you want sweet or dry?” she asked. She knew what she was doing.
I felt like indulging today. “Sweet.”
She nodded and left, and I sat on one side of the booth, settling onto the soft leather cushion, and waited patiently.
A moment later, Fen stormed in, all haste and action, but then stopped dead.
“Oh… wow,” he breathed as he slowly took off his chef’s apron and set it on a hook to the left side of the door. “Wow,” he said again, taking me in.
For today, I’d chosen — what I thought was — my sexiest dress. It was a full-length gown, with slits up the front of both legs, high enough that it certainly looked like I was without underwear. Really, I just wore a high-strap thong, which ran up to the top of my hips. The top of the dress had a plunging V-neck that displayed all my wonderful cleavage, and the flowing, baby-blue, silk dress made me feel like some Grecian goddess.
Fen wore black pants and a black dress shirt and his sun-kissed, fair complexion was flushed. I imagined that heat on his cheeks was from seeing me, not from the heat of the kitchens he’d just come from. His wavy, blond hair was just a bit ruffled and messy, but still somehow looked perfect on him. Then there were those aqua-blue jewels of eyes, devouring me.
I rose to meet him, and he scooped up my hand and kissed my fingers lightly, making butterflies take off in my belly. How very knightly of him.
“I think I forgot to breathe for a moment,” he whispered as he kept my hand close to his lips. “You completely stole my breath.”
Wow, that got my blood flowing. His words made me blush all the way down to my cleavage.
I’m not sure what inspired me. Maybe it was the mention of breath or looking at those full lips of his, but I raised a finger from the hand he held and slowly traced his mouth. He smiled, a flash of heat in his eyes, then captured that finger in his mouth, sucking on it softly, his tongue flicking the end of it.
The heat that had been slowly simmering just under my skin, tingling all over my body, sizzled and rush down to my core. If he had even so much as brushed one of my arms or stroked my hair in that moment, I’d have blown through yet another pair of panties.
Screw the meal, I wanted this buffet of a man on that table. And from the look in his eyes, he wanted the same.
Then the young woman from earlier came in.