Page 87 of Nailing Heat
“That man can’t not touch you,” Cassie says, grinning at me. “It’s really hot.”
“It sure is,” I admit, blushing a little bit.
Chapter Thirty
~DEX~
Maxwell Cromwell has a way of making sure that you stay on his timetable when he’s around. Not yours. So, I ended up leaving the Blaze an hour after I wanted to. I still had time to make her a delicious dinner, not the one that I had originally planned. I also wanted to bake her my mother’s special “death by chocolate” brownies. But I wasn’t sure that I would get all of that accomplished with the meal I originally planned.
I had to improvise.
She was still getting those brownies. But I couldn’t make her pasta by hand anymore. Instead, she would be settling for steak. Which isn’t something that most would consider settling, but those people haven’t tasted my homemade pasta noodles. Homemade drunken noodles is literally my specialty. But she’ll have to wait for another meal to sample that.
I haul ass to the market and pick up the best cut of steak that I can find, along with some asparagus and baby red potatoes. I want to make sure she has a good meal but one that’s not too filling. She needs to be able to have room for dessert. I grab the dark chocolate and the semi-sweet chocolate chips that I needed forthe brownies. I had checked her cabinets this morning to make sure she had the basics. Only a few things were missing, like flour, a rather important ingredient, so I grab that too.
I also grab a throwaway pan for them to bake in because in all my inspections of that mess of a kitchen, I could not find baking dishes. My guess is that she doesn’t do a lot of baking despite having a sweet tooth.
I follow the signs into the wine section and grab a red wine that will complement our dinner and head home to begin preparing everything. Little does he know that Cassie is under strict orders to keep her out of the apartment as long as she can, thanks to a quick message through Jase. I hope it’s achievable. I want to make sure most of my dinner is prepared before she enters the apartment.
I’m leaving the market when my cell phone rings. I look down and see that it says “Elise.” I shake my head. “I do not want to talk to you,” I tell her. She can’t and won’t rain on my parade tonight. I have an awesome dinner planned with the woman, I love, and nothing is going to change that.
I hurry back to the apartment and begin preparations for our amazing dinner together. I’m hoping she likes it because acts of service is kind of my love language. I want to feed her an amazing dinner before I have her for seconds and even thirds. I can’t get enough of her.
Things are coming together beautifully by the time I hear her key in the door. I walk over to the door to see if she needs any help with things.
“Hey,” her face lights up when she sees me standing there ready to help her.
I love that because I feel my face doing the same thing when my eyes find those wide brown ones.
“Something smells amazing in here,” Amelia says as she moves into the living room, doing her best with the crutches. She drops them by the couch, her normal spot for ditching them. From there, she’ll hobble all around the apart, doing her best to keep her leg straight for the time being.
“Thank you,” I walk over to her and gather her into my arms. “I have quite the meal planned for you, so I hope you didn’t eat too much at lunch.”
“Well, I had a good lunch. But Cassie took me on took me on a meandering trip to Target, which, now that I think of it, was probably a stall tactic for you. So, I am hungry now after walking all over Target on my crutches. Which is quite the workout.”
I chuckle. “She was probably trying to make sure that you kept up your strength up and had a good appetite for my dinner.”
“Uh-huh, so now you’re roping my friends into your exploits,” she teases me.
“Well, I wanted to make sure that you were surprised.” I stare at her for a second, noticing the way she’s standing with her hands on her hips, trying to hide her smile. “You aren’t mad at me anyways,” say as I advance on her a bit more. “Even if you were, you wouldn’t be able to stay mad at me because of my death by chocolate brownies.”
“You made me brownies!” she squeals.
That sound alone makes all of my preparing and planning for this dinner worth it. “I sure did, peach. I hope you are hungry.”
“Oh, football, I’m hungry alright.” Her voice drops to a sultry low. “I don’t know that it’s for dinner.”
I grin at her. “Well, as much as I want to indulge that fantasy, I think you should wait a little bit.”
“You would really deny me?” Her eyes look up into mine.
I lean down a bit so that we’re more eye level. “I totally would only because it’s so worth it and I promise you won’t be disappointed with a little delayed gratification.” I wiggle my eyebrows and wink at her. “Just trust me.”
I let my lips meet hers before she can answer me. Our kiss isn’t tentative, because ever since that first night, we’re always hungry for each other. It’s fast, furious and hungry. I swear if that woman had two good legs, she would be climbing me like a tree. But she doesn’t, so I take advantage and back up a little bit.
“If you’ll excuse me, we will get to the dessert part of our evening a little later. But for right now, I need to go and check on a few things. Please make yourself at home at the table. We’ll be eating there tonight,” I say before turning on my heel and heading back into the kitchen.
“No couch picnic?” Her voice is full of surprise as I hear her hobbling into the small dining area that’s off the kitchen.
