Page 1 of Bit's Bliss

1

BIT

My sister told me to imagine everyone in the room was naked when I stepped out onto the stage as the last man being auctioned for a date as part of the Wicked Winemakers’ Ball’s bachelor auction.

While Alex was trying to be helpful, I wasn’t as nervous as she assumed. In fact, part of me hoped no one would bid on my date. If that happened, it would be the last time she’d pressure me to do this.

As far as picturing anyone naked, there was one person in the room I wanted to imagine that way,Eberly Warwick. It would take more than two hands to count the number of reasons I shouldn’t—couldn’t—pursue anything beyond a professional relationship with her. The woman’s wide-eyed innocence meant she was hands-off due to the dark desires someone like me not only preferred but needed.

Restraining myself around her was most difficult when we worked side by side at the parties we hosted in the original winery building on my family’s property.

On her first day on her job as an event planner, I’d followed her as she looked around the space inside and out and jotted notes on a pad of paper.

“What did you write?” I asked when she stuck her pencil behind her ear and smiled.

“We’ll call it the Los Caballeros Stonehouse and Gardens.”

“We will?” I asked, taking in the sparse and mostly dead grass on every side of the building. “That might be misleading. Are you sure you don’t want to call it the old winery building?”

“Close your eyes,” she’d said.

Since, at that particular moment, I wanted her enough to willingly do whatever she asked of me, even bark like a dog, I squeezed them shut.

“Imagine the most beautiful gardens you’ve ever seen in your life.”

“Okay.”

“Where are they?”

“At the inn in Cambria.”

“Right! That’s perfect!”

I peeked through one eye, saw her writing something else on the pad, then shut it before she caught me.

“What are your favorite flowers?” she asked.

“I don’t know. Roses, I guess.”

“Also perfect. We’ll use them on the wall in the front. Then, behind the building, we’ll plant a kitchen garden, and on the side leading into the woods, we could build an enclosure and call it the secret garden. And here?—”

“Eberly, can I open my eyes?”

Her simple touch on my arm sent white-hot desire coursing through my body, making me flinch.

“Sorry,” she whispered.

My eyes scrunched as I studied her. Had I imagined the way her breath caught or the flush evident on her skin? What would the sweet Eberly do if I grabbed her wrists with one hand, pushed her up against the side of the building, spread her legs, eased my other hand beneath the short dress she wore, then under the panties I’d never let her wear if she were mine, and gave her pleasure like none she’d ever known?

As if sensing my plan, Eberly walked to the opposite side of the low wall encompassing the courtyard that led to the building’s entrance. “Can you imagine this space with Eden climbers and ivy covering the stone?” she asked in a trembling voice. “Roses,” she added when I didn’t react.

“I can’t,” I responded.

“Can’t what?”

“Imagine it.” I was too unwilling to let go of the vision of her clinging to me as I toyed with her drenched sex.

“Of course you can!”