Page 42 of Keeping Mr. Sweet

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

ASH

“What are we doing?” I ask as Sam leads me down the stairs. First the birthday presents, including the new dress I’m wearing, and now a surprise? I’m blindfolded, and Sam has a strong grip on my hand as he goes downstairs before me. It does nothing to keep me from freaking out about the situation though. Somewhere outside of my dark little world someone giggles. I could almost swear it was Summer, except… My stomach lurches. “Please God, no.”

“Shush,” Sam says, pressing his finger to my lips.

I take the chance to bite it, and end up with his finger in my mouth and my tongue wrapped around it as he presses me up to the wall. Even after this afternoon, and the last ten days of almost constant sex, I can’t get enough of him. It’s like our bodies are catching up on all the time we’ve been apart.

“That’s Mandy isn’t it?” I strain to hear more, but all’s gone quiet below. Still, her voice is unmistakable, and I get the urge to take one of those long meat forks Sam has downstairs and jab her with it. Not to hurt her exactly, just as a warning that this is my territory. Sam is my man.

“What vicious thoughts are going through your head?” I can practically feel him watching me, his gaze burning into the blindfold.

“Nothing.” I push away from the wall enough to turn my face away from the sound of his voice.

“Sure,” he says. “That’s why you look like you want to hurt someone.”

“I know where you keep the meat forks.”

“Hmmm.” He chuckles humorlessly.

“Why is she here?” I bow away from the wall, struggling against his hold. “I don’t want to see her. I don’t want to see the way she looks at you, like she’s a little too familiar with you.”

“Stop it,” he orders, crushing me to the wall with his body and taking my head between his hands. “She wanted to see you because she’s still your friend. If you’d told her otherwise, or I’d slept with her, or she wasn’t very happily taken with her perfect man then I would have told her not to come.”

“You didn’t sleep with her?” My heart stutters to a stop in anticipation of his answer. “I mean, it would be okay if you did,” I ramble. “It’s not like you weren’t free to do whatever you wanted. It’s just she’s one of my friends, and I can’t help—”

His lips caress my ear. “No. I did not sleep with her.”

“Not even a little bit?”

“Not even a little bit,” he echoes.

“So, just to clarify, you didn’t…”

“I’m not going to say everything was completely innocent, Ash. Wish I could, but I can’t do that. I can’t tell you I didn’t kiss her or that we didn’t get close. I just can’t. But I can tell you that we never really got further than kissing, and I can sure as hell tell you that I never wanted her the way I want you. No one’s ever come close to that for me. All I can say is that I didn’t think we’d ever end up here. Not in a million years. Or nothing and nobody could have made me get close to anyone else. I would have waited for you to be ready for everything we could be to each other.”

I don’t know why I’m so hung up on Mandy and him. The things I’ve done. The people. And Sam had to see it on the internet with thousands, soon possibly millions, of other people seeing it too. I’ve always caused him more pain than he’s managed to cause me. Stephen was right about that. “I’m sorry.”

“I know you are. And so am I.” He rubs his thumbs across my cheeks where the blindfold is a little damp. “How about we agree to leave the past in the past? Concentrate on the here and now. On us.”

“Yes.” I nod.

“Good.” He kisses my forehead, lingering with such tenderness that I struggle to recall how I can be jealous of another woman while his lips are pressed to my skin. “I’m just going to go down and ask Mandy to reschedule this visit for another time.”

“Leave it, please.” I catch his hand before he can walk away. Sam needs to know that I’m putting everything into us, and that I’m not going to willingly hurt him again. Perhaps being around Mandy will help me put last summer in the past. “I want to see her.”

“Okay.” He squeezes my hand and then puts his arm around my waist. “Only a few more stairs.” We get to the bottom and he guides me into the function room. His fingers tense on my hip and then fall away. “You can take the blindfold off now.”

I shift my fingers to the material over my eyes, cautiously push it up. The private dining room is bright, so it takes a moment for my eyes to adjust as Mandy yells surprise and other voices follow suit. I blink a couple times as I pull the blindfold off completely and hold it between my hands.

Summer rushes at me from her spot between Gabe and Dylan. “Happy birthday, Ash.”

Dylan steps forward and grips my hand between both his meaty ones. “Just because you’re getting older doesn’t mean you have to become more mature, all right?”

“Thanks for the advice.” I smile, glancing back at Sam, who is at the bar. I have a feeling that humorous counsel doesn’t necessarily fit here.

Gabe hugs me. “Shall I get you a drink?”

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