Page 49

DEKE

I don’t know what came over me when I saw Davina at that door. For a second there, I thought she wouldn’t come.

I came to the lake house that morning to mentally prepare myself for her arrival. I missed her, and I didn’t want to waste a single second, but as the clock ticked and the sun made its descent, I figured she wouldn’t show.

I tried swallowing my pride and accepting the loss before the night could end ... but then I heard that doorbell ring, and I’d never jumped up so quickly. My heart was hammering, and I was as giddy as a kid on Christmas morning.

When I saw her, I wanted to cry, I shit you not. I’d never felt such relief, such joy.

After I finally cleaned my mess on the kitchen floor and helped her find her clothes, Davina went for a shower while I ordered dinner. When she came back down, the pizza boxes were set up in a row on the countertop, with a wine bottle freshly removed from the fridge and two cool bottles of water right next to it. She wore white shorts that I wouldn’t have exactly called shorts and a teal cropped tank top with no bra.

I fought a smile and cleared my throat as I grabbed two plates from the cabinet.

“What?” she asked, meeting me in the kitchen.

“Nothing.” I laughed anyway, like a dumbass.

“Deke, seriously? What’s funny?” she asked, her smile melting a bit.

“Nothing,” I tried again, placing the plates on the counter. “It just hit me how it was a waste of time for you to take a shower when those clothes are gonna come off again.”

She sunk her teeth into her bottom lip and leaned over the counter. “We’ll see about that.”

I jerked a thumb over my shoulder, pointing to the deck. “I’ve got a fire going if you wanna eat outside.”

“ Ooohhh. Yes, please.”

I filled two wineglasses while she grabbed one of the boxes of pizza and a roll of paper towels. I eyed the fancy plates from the cabinet, realizing they were kinda pointless. I was trying so hard to impress her.

When we were on the deck, she shivered as she placed the pizza box on the four-top table.

“Yeah, it got cool out here. Let me grab a blanket.” I collected one from the basket full of blankets Whitney had handpicked herself and brought it outside, wrapping it around Davina’s shoulders as she sat.

“Thanks.” She looked up at me with a coy smile, a hand on one shoulder to keep the blanket in place.

I grabbed a slice of pizza after she did and listened to the fire crackle, sinking into my chair and basking in the moment. It was too dark to see much of anything beyond the water flowing beneath a swollen crescent moon and the silhouette of mountains.

When she took a bite of her pizza and some of the cheese drooped onto her chin, I ripped off a paper towel and handed it to her.

“What made you come?” I asked as she wiped grease from her chin.

Her eyes connected to mine, and the bright embers of the fire reflected in them. “It felt like something I needed to do.”

I nodded, biting into my pizza. “I think it was the right choice.”

She laughed. “Of course you’d think so.”

“I’m sorry about Giselle,” I said, studying her face. Her features softened as she placed her pizza on a loose paper towel.

“What did you do for her to talk that way about you?”

“I didn’t do anything,” I returned. “I just saw her for who she really was.”

“And that is?”

“A selfish person.”

“Hmm.” She dropped her gaze. “So you’re telling me that you’d rather be in this lake house with me, an ordinary woman, than with a supermodel most of the world knows and adores?”

“Damn right.”

“Why?” she asked, and there was genuine curiosity in her eyes.

“Because you’re not just ordinary to me, Davina. You’re beautiful, nice, and you give back. You empathize.”

“I’m not perfect, Deke.”

“Neither am I.”

She accepted that, picking up her pizza again and finishing it off.

As she sipped some wine, she sat back and said, “You know this won’t last forever, right?”

I smirked, grabbing my wine too. “We’ll see about that.”

After eating, we went inside, and Davina did a little squeal when she noticed the stack of board games beneath the TV stand.

“We have to play Scrabble.” She pulled the red box out and waved it in the air, causing the wooden letters to rattle.

She was really good at Scrabble. I, on the other hand, was trash at it. This game had never been my strong suit.

“What happened?” she asked when the game concluded. She was studying the final score on the loose sheet of paper on the coffee table.

“I have a confession to make,” I said, stifling a laugh.

“What?”

“I’m the worst at Scrabble. My sisters used to whip my ass in this game. I’m more of a Trouble or card game type of guy. Play me in Uno and I’ll win every time.”

“Well, that’s okay.” She came my way and straddled my lap. We were sitting on the floor next to the coffee table, my back resting against the bottom of one of the couches. It was the perfect position. “Not everyone can be smart like me and your sisters,” she murmured on my lips.

She kissed me slowly, gently, and my dick twitched as she settled into my lap and laced her arms around the back of my neck. She stroked the hair at the nape of my neck and rocked her hips. The sweet wine was still fresh on her tongue, and she gave me a taste as she slid it between my lips.

I groaned as she kept rocking her hips, making me hard as fuck again. We kept going this way, breaths ragged and my hands sliding beneath her shirt to palm her breasts, until she broke the kiss and laughed.

She climbed off my lap, picked up her wineglass, and grinned over her shoulder.

“Getting a refill,” she announced.

“Wow. So you’re teasing me now?” I watched her walk away, her ass bouncing with each step in those white shorts.

I looked at my own shorts, and it seemed like someone had pitched a tent in them.

This woman was going to be the death of me.