His mouth quirked. "I noticed that when you booted your handyman off the property."
"Let's go to a bed—your room or mine, I don't care which—and do that again."
"I'd love to." He drew me into his arms and kissed my forehead. "Maybe you need a glass of water first."
"Sure, that sounds good. Water and a cookie." I rolled my eyes in the direction of the cabinet above the fridge. "I hide the best ones up there."
He padded to the fridge and reached over it to open the cabinet.
Damn, he was tall enough to reach that without standing on his toes.
The phone rang.
I grabbed the handset off the wall. "Hello?"
"Evie, what's going on?" Ruth asked. "We saw Quentin stomp out of your house looking fit to kill someone, but then he drove off. That was one big cloud of dust he kicked up."
"Yeah, I fired him."
"Why?"
"It's a long story. I'll tell you later."
A long pause followed before Ruth said, "Is everything okay? Are you okay?"
"Yes, Val's taking care of me." I glanced at him, where he stood beside the fridge holding a box of cookies, a question on his face. "We'll share the story with the whole gang at lunch."
"Sure. See you then."
We said goodbye, and I returned the phone to its cradle.
Val arched one brow. "We'll share the story?"
"Not everything, obviously." I ambled up to him and took the box of cookies. Flipping the lid up, I dived my hand inside to grab a fistful of chocolate-chip yummies. I shoved a crunchy cookie into my mouth and gobbled it up. "Maybe I should crumble these all over you and eat my snack off your skin."
He chuckled. "I've had women lick whipped cream off of me, but never cookies."
"You're a cookie-crumble virgin?" I started for the hallway, aiming for his room. "Let's go. It's my first time too."
I took off at a dead run.
Val's feet slapped on the wood floor as he sprinted after me.
Chapter Fourteen
Val
After Eve had her fun crumbling cookies onto my body, we made lunch for everyone and ate with the rest of the guests in the dining hall. Eve's playful, naughty side had surprised me, but only in the best way. I supposed I shouldn't have been surprised. She might've been a workaholic who refused to go nude in public, but she did like to wear sexy outfits that showed off her beautiful body.
When Eve and I strolled into the dining hall, she was waylaid by Ruth and Sylvester who wanted to discuss what activities were on tap for the afternoon. Ollie approached me. After the usual pleasantries, he eyed my chest with a strange expression.
He leaned in a touch and asked, "Is that a chocolate chip stuck to your chest?"
I glanced down and realized it was in fact a chocolate chip, half melted and pasted to my skin. Eve had missed one.
"Ah, yes," I said, grabbing a napkin off the buffet table to wipe off the chocolate. "I had cookies earlier."
"You got cookies?" Ollie faked a pout as if the news offended him. "Eve never lets anybody near her secret cookie stash."