Page 105 of Delicious Surrender
“Fabulous?”
She rolled her eyes. “I take my coffee with cream. Unless you have some, I am not staying.”
“I do.” He pointed to the counter with stools. “Sit down and I’ll make you some toast.”
She pursed her lips. “Butter and marmalade?”
“My god, you drive a hard bargain.”
“Said the kettle to the pot.”
He laughed, feeling an ease he hadn’t experienced in a long time. He pulled what he needed out of the fridge and set two place settings.
“You live alone.” She waved at hand at her surroundings and asked, “Why do you have a fridge the size of a Sherman tank and a bathtub that can fit four people?”
That struck a nerve he wasn’t willing to acknowledge, so he feigned nonchalance. “Blame the designer. I was too busy running the club to be involved in those decisions.”
In truth, he and Sierra chose everything in this house, butshe didn’t need to know that.
He poured her a cup of coffee, and the toast popped a moment later. Brynne took a tentative sip and closed her eyes. “Oh wow, that’s good coffee.”
He poured himself a cup and took a deep breath.
“I have a proposition.”
“I’m listening.”
“I’ve seen the conditions your aunt placed on you.”
She bristled and bit into her toast.
“You have substantial repairs to make to the house livable and money is in short supply.”
“We’ve already established that you’ve unearthed every detail of my life. I told you—”
He stopped her with a hand. “Must I gag you so I can finish?”
“You’d like that, wouldn’t you? Then you could lecture me uninterrupted.”
“I would do a lot of things. Lecturing is not among them.”
She bristled, but he saw the heightened color on her cheeks.
“Shall I continue?”
“Yes please.” That sounded sarcastic as fuck. A punishable offense.
“I had a gentleman’s agreement with your aunt, which is a moot point now, but the fact remains, my company needsaccess to this strip of land. In exchange, I’m offering to pay for the repairs and improvements to your house. I’m sure there are things you’d like to modernize.”
“Go on.”
“You need to finish your book. You’ve said you want an education in BDSM, which you will not get from surfing kinky websites or joining dangerous chat rooms.”
She looked at him over her mug. Her eyes were first questioning, then incredulous. Her face and neck reddened in shock. “How? What the hell? You hacked into my Wi-Fi?!”
“It’smyWi-Fi, Brynne. I put Josie on my plan months ago, so she didn’t need to deal with those idiots at SkyeNet. Imagine my surprise when I received an invoice for 980 GB of data usage.”
“Oh my god. I can’t believe this. I’ve heard enough.” Brynne hopped off the stool and grabbed her jacket.