Page 78 of Reaper
However, judging by her blush when we get to the top of the stairs, I’m pretty sure she knows how she was affecting me.
I pause in the landing area at the top of the stairs. “There are three bedrooms up here. The master bedroom has its own attached bathroom, but the other two share a bathroom which is here,” I tell her as I point out each of the rooms.
“I love how spacious everything is,” Lark says as she peaks her head into each of the rooms before heading down the hallway to our room.
She walks into my room and my muscles tense when she gives a little sigh.
Walking up behind her, I wrap my arms around her waist as I try to look at my room through her eyes.
There’s a king bed with nightstands on either side of it and it has a dark navy comforter over it. At the foot of the bed is a little staircase with a ‘landing’ for lack of a better word that runs all along the foot of the bed. Timber had built it for me years ago and secured it to the bed, so that there was no chance Igor could fall in between the stairs and the bed. Off to the side of one of my nightstands is a door leading to the bathroom. Behind us is a walk-in closet and along the rest of the wall are more bookcases. The walls are painted a sort of blue-gray and the floors are hardwood. In fact, all the floors are hardwood except for the bathrooms which have tile flooring.
“Is that a good sigh or a bad sigh, Darlin’?” I ask tentatively.
Lark relaxes into me. “A good sigh.” She turns in my arms and once again wraps them around my neck while her fingers play in my short hair. “If you haven’t noticed, this is very similar to my own tastes. So yes, it’s a very good thing.”
She pauses and goes up on her toes to give me a quick kiss.
“I love everything about your house, Anthony.” She pauses again before smirking. “And I’m almost a hundred percent positive that Void loves it here too.”
Lark points toward the bed and I turn, smiling when I see Igor and Void snuggled up together on the padded landing of his stairs.
A moment later, Lark looks shyly back up at me. “So, what was your plan for today?”
“I figured we’d head over to the clubhouse later and hang out with the guys.” I pause and internally grimace. “If you want, there’s a party tonight at the clubhouse. There usually is at least one a week—either on Friday or Saturday or both. It kind of depends on what’s all going on.
Lark’s body stiffens in my arms for a moment before it relaxes. She swallows hard and even though she tries to mask it, I can see she’s worried about something.
And I think I know what.
Or I should say, who.
“I’d like to hang out with everyone and get to know them a little more.” She pauses again as she swallows a few times. “Will the bunnies be there?”
“Yeah, they will, Darlin’. Once the party starts that is. They’ll probably try to stir up shit when it finally sinks in that I’m taken.” Pausing, I cup her cheek and raise it, so she has to look at me. “Darlin’, what I told you at your house that day, is still true. I’m yours and only yours. I haven’t been with any of them since that day at the supper club.”
Pausing again, I cock my head as I think. “Actually, that isn’t true.”
Lark’s body tenses, and I give her hips a gentle squeeze. I hadn’t meant to scare her.
“It’s been longer than that. It was a bit after New Year’s. I felt like I was just going through the motions, and I felt worse afterward than I did before.”
She blinks a few times in shock and her mouth parts slightly. She seems to shake herself mentally and she licks her lips as she stares at me, almost as if she’s trying to find the lie, but she won’t find that.
“You really mean that,” she all but whispers and then exhales slowly as she gives me a slow smile. “Though you almost had me freaking out there for a moment.”
I brush my thumb across her cheek and shake my head. “I wouldn’t lie to you, Lark. Especially about something like that.”
She gently tugs on my neck, and I bend down, kissing her.
The kiss turns heated, and I reach down, grab her ass and lift her. Lark squeaks a little in surprise and pulls away from the kiss while tightening her legs and arms around me.
“Anthony! Put me down! I’m too heavy, you’re going to hurt yourself!”
I scoff as I carry her over to the bed. “Darlin’, like I told you earlier, you are most definitely not too heavy for me.”
Her grip around me loosens slightly. She stares at me for a beat, but then must come to the decision that I’m telling the truth because the next second, she gives me a sassy look.
“Well then, Hercules, why don’t you take me to bed.”
