She gaped at me. “You’re okay with me just hanging out here?”
“I’m more than okay with it if I get some fresh bread out of it.” As she licked her lips and went to speak, I told her, “Samuel, my driver, will return here after he takes me to my office. I’ll give him your number, and you can arrange with him when you’d like Sam to take you home. Okay?”
There were a million questions in her eyes, but she just nodded. “O-Okay.”
She didn’t eat much else, and I frowned down at her half full plate and my empty one. “Not hungry?” I inquired.
She shot me a tight smile. “Not really.”
Narrowing my eyes at her, I murmured, “Was that a lie, Aoife?”
Her shoulders stiffened, and I wasn’t sure if that was because she’d been caught out or if it was in umbrage. When I leaned over, cut off a piece of flapjack with my fork, speared it on the tines then pressed it to her mouth, she parted her lips and accepted the offering.
“Never underfeed yourself around me, Aoife,” I ground out, not sure why I was so mad, just aware that I was.
She licked a drop of syrup that quivered along her bottom lip, and I almost groaned at the sight. “All right, Finn. I won’t.”
I fed her a few more bites, loving how she accepted them, how she didn’t question this weird need I had to feed her.
“Honestly, I’m full,” she told me after I’d given her several mouthfuls, and this time, I believed her.
“Good,” I stated as I climbed to my feet. When she made to move, I asked, “Aoife? Who’s the Senator to you?”
That her tension immediately reappeared at that question had irritation battering me, but I forced my temper back. I’d gentled her so far this morning, and I didn’t intend on wrecking my advance.
“Does it matter?” she squeaked.
I clenched my jaw.Did it matter?The man wasn’t fucking her. I’d had the proof of that around my cock last night. Whoever he was, though, he had to mean a lot to her for them to visit as often and as clandestinely as they did.
I had my suspicions, but I could wait to have them answered.
As I’d fed her, her cheeks had grown rosy with pleasure. Her eyelids had been drooping lazily. Now? After my question? She was tense again.
Though I’d raised the topic, I despised the fact another man had brought some walls up between us. Then I had to remind myself that Aoife had only known me for a few hours, and that what she did know of me wouldn’t make anyone all that at ease with ‘sharing.’
She’d learn, though. And soon.
I moved to her side and dipped my head, pressing a kiss to her mouth, I bit at her bottom lip, raking it with my teeth. I fucking loved how she whimpered at that move, her tension of seconds before bleeding out like it had never existed.
“Later on tonight, I’m going to think of you, baking in this kitchen, and I’m going to jerk off to it.” I reached back and pressed my finger to her mouth. When she sucked it in, my cock leaped to attention, and I was hard pressed not to moan as I thrust my finger between her lips for a few seconds.
When I pulled out, she nipped at my fingertip, making me groan. Her eyes were sparkling for the first time that morning and I knew, point blank, that the way to get her more comfortable around me, the way to make her at ease with my sudden intrusion in her life, was to overwhelm her with sex.
Because I couldn’t do that to her, not when she had to be sore as fuck, I had to take myself out of the equation.
Earlier on, I’d known that. I had business to take care of, I needed my focus, while she needed to heal. But now? The very prospect had me cursing.
My hands turned into fists as I gritted out, “Be good,” and then, without a backward glance, I stormed out.
Fifteen hours later, after several meetings from hell with Aidan and my brothers, when I walked into my home, the sweet scent of freshly baked bread hit me.
I’d forgotten.
Not Aoife, never her, but my request. I’d forgotten that I’d asked her to make me some. Now, my house scented of the gift she’d left me, and it reminded me of how fucking empty the penthouse was.
I stalked toward the kitchen, uncaring that all I’d intended on doing was heading for the shower to jack off and clean up before diving into bed.
The sight of five loaves on the counter had my lips curving.