“You planned on missing it because of me?” I ask, and he nods.
“Yes.” He eats his forkful. “I figured you might not be ready to travel to Berlin yet, but the best solution all round would be if you could be there with me.”
I can’t believe this is happening. One off the cuff question about his job and he’s asking me out on a weekend celebration in Berlin, wanting to introduce me to his colleagues. It’s too quick to fathom. Next weekend we’ll be in Bucklebury, meeting my family. The next I’ll be in Berlin, meeting his work team.
And there’ll be a stranger’s dick I’ll be meeting in the meantime.
“Might be a shocker for your colleagues though, don’t you think?” I laugh. “Congratulations on the work figures, and by the way, this is my brand new girlfriend out to join us on our evening.”
He shakes his head. “Won’t be a shocker for them at all. They already know all about you.”
I really am taken aback to hear that. It must show on my face.
“Why the surprise?” he asks. “We’re going to visit your family together and you’ve been telling them all about us. Did you really think I haven’t been doing the same on my side?”
I shrug, unsure why I’m so surprised. “I just didn’t think…”
“Didn’t think what?”
I don’t know what I’m trying to say, so he jumps in, reaching for my hand across the table.
“Cass, I’m so proud of having you that I’d scream it to the world from the rooftops. Believe me, I’ve told everyone I give a shit about that you’re mine.”
I hate how there’s still a part of me that doesn’t believe I’m good enough. It screams loud and clear in situations like this, but it doesn’t need to. The strength in his voice makes the little girl in me do a happy dance. Maybe Janie’s predictions aren’t so absurd after all? I feel like he could get down on one knee right here, right now.
“Ask Fiona, please,” he says, breaking the tension. “I’d love to know if you can join me for Finn’s celebration.”
I grab my phone as we’re still eating, sending her a text with a grin. Sure enough a reply comes through in just a few minutes.
“Yeah, the vacation time would be fine.”
“I’ll book your flights,” Ant says, keying into his own phone with a nod of his head. “Done.”
We’re grinning at each other across the table as I give him a thanks.
I’m going to Berlin with Mr Perfect, just one week after he meets my family.
We clear up together, chatting like we’ve known each other for ever while my soul is still soaring. I set the dishwasher going while he wipes down the counters, and I join him as he takes his suitcase upstairs, kicking my ridiculously high heels off on the way.
My two suitcases are still on the floor by the wardrobes, both of them open with clothes bundled inside. I haven’t even attempted to unpack them since I’ve been here.
“You need your own space in this room,” he says, and yet again, he’s so assured about it. He opens one of his wardrobe doors and scoots his shirts along to another rail.
“Here you go, baby. This one is yours.”
It’s another bout of surreal, having my own wardrobe in Ant’s house. He helps me unpack, giving me hangers for every item of clothing I have.
I step back when we’re finished, and it looks far grander than any display of my clothing I’ve ever seen.
He’s smirking at me when I shut the door and his eyes look different somehow. It’s the filthy side of him staring at me as I zip up my empty suitcases and put them aside. I’m getting to know the switch in him.
“Ready for your filthy dessert now? Because I’m sure as fuck ready for mine.”
Such a contrast.
One second a smiling guy wiping down counters and laughing about a childhood cat I called pussy, to the man in front of me, with eyes so hot they could burn me alive. It’s as though he’s two men in one – back and forth, back and forth and back again. It doesn’t matter either way. I’m absolutely besotted with both of them.
“Filthy dessert?” I give him a coy look.
“Yeah,” he says with a grin, stepping forward to take off my dress. “Time for you to go get in your place for me now, you dirty slut. On that cheap, shitty mattress where you belong.”
It doesn’t feel like a cheap, shitty mattress, not with Ant kissing me, holding me, fucking me.
“You’re going to be incredible tomorrow night,” he says as he comes inside me. “So fucking incredible.”
He kisses his way down my tits, my stomach, sucks my clit into his mouth while his cum dribbles from me. I can only moan and grasp at his hair as the orgasm stirs.