Aubrey laughs and then looks over at me. “I might need a chauffeur next weekend.”
“I’m happy to,” I reply. “Sounds like fun—if you’re a girl.”
Luke laughs, and Natalie narrows her eyes.
“Good thing I’m a girl,” Aubrey says and smiles at the waiter as he approaches.
“Can I interest you in dessert?” he asks.
“Yes.” Aubrey nods. “Dessert is always a yes.”
“Oh, I like you,” Natalie says, also nodding at the waiter.
“I’ll bring the tray so you can see tonight’s selections,” he says and walks away.
“You and I are going to be good friends,” Natalie says to Aubrey, who just beams back at the other woman.
“What can I bring on Saturday?”
“Just yourself,” Natalie replies. “We have everything else handled.”
* * * *
“Okay, you were right,” Aubrey says when we walk into the condo a couple of hours later. She slips out of her shoes and takes off her earrings. “They’re really nice. And, somehow, I got invited to a girls’-night-out party. I’m not even sure what that entails, but I’m really looking forward to it.”
“I don’t have any idea what it involves, either.” I pull her against me. “Men aren’t allowed to know what happens at those things. I don’t think I want to know.”
She laughs and kisses my chin. “You were charming tonight.”
“Really? How so?”
“You’re just a good conversationalist. You’re good with people. And you’re not a jerk.”
“I used to be,” I admit. “There was a time that I had an ego the size of Beverly Hills and could be a punk. Mostly, I learned that I was angry. And I had no right to be, really. So, I got some therapy, and I’m not such a jerk anymore.”
“I’m glad I didn’t know you during your jerk phase,” she says. “Because then I wouldn’t be interested in living with you. Or kissing you.”
I quirk a brow. “Oh? Are you interested in kissing me?”
She smiles but then shrugs as if it doesn’t matter. “Maybe.”
“Is it just kissing you’re interested in?”
“You have so many questions,” she replies. “Maybe you should just kiss me, and we’ll see where it goes from there.”
“You’re a smart woman.” I lean in and kiss her. Just a peck. “How was that?”
“How about this?”
She boosts herself up and plants one on me. She’s not at all as shy as she was, and her confidence is its own aphrodisiac.
My body tightens. My dick hardens.
And when she pulls back and raises her eyebrows in question, I simply pick her up and march to her bedroom.
“I guess that was better,” she says and laughs when I toss her onto the bed.
* * * *
“It’s not a good idea,” Hugh says into my ear. When I made the calls for my idea today, word traveled back to my manager, and he’s been trying to talk me out of it ever since.
“It’s already been set into motion,” I inform him and check the rearview mirror to make sure the truck behind me is still there.
It is.
“But you’re supposed to be lying low,” he reminds me. “This isn’t lying low, Zane.”
“It’s one classroom. We didn’t alert the media. I want to do this for her, Hugh. I’m not giving out my address. I’m not doing anything shady. Stop worrying so much. If anything, if this gets out, it will help my reputation because I’m doing something nice.”
I hear him blow out a breath in resignation.
“I’ll be in touch.”
He clicks off, and I pull into a parking space in the lot by Aubrey’s school. I already cleared this with the principal, but I asked for confidentiality. Which, she assured me, she’d respect.
We’ll see if she’s a liar or if she holds true to her word.
“Thanks, guys. You can follow with the boxes. Just wait outside the classroom door until I give you the signal.”
“Can do. Man, I wish I’d been in this classroom as a kid.”
I grin at the delivery driver named Mack and lead them into the school and down the hall to Aubrey’s room.
So far, it’s quiet. Everyone’s in class. It looks like the principal was good to her word and kept my plan to herself.
I open Aubrey’s door and poke my head in.
“Miss Stansfield?”
She turns in surprise and then frowns, glancing at her students and then back to me. “What are you doing here?”
“Well, I heard there was a debate going about whether or not you know me.”
I step inside, and the kids start to murmur, point, and someone even says, “That’s Captain America!”
I grin at them, wink, and then turn back to Aubrey. “And I brought you these.”
I pass a bouquet of pink roses to her and smile when she narrows her eyes at me, then buries her nose in a bloom.
“Holy crap,” a little boy says in awe.
“Is that him?” I whisper to Aubrey.
“Yep.”
I turn and squat next to Timmy. “Hey there.”
“Uh, hi.” His cheeks get red. “Sir.”