Page 24 of Dangerous Encore

Her eyes go straight to me. Her lip corners turn down as she notes that I am, in fact, decent. "I missedthesuit."

Mary, Violet's mom, laughs. "He does look like a different guy in the suit." She steps inside and nods hello. "It's always nice to see you,Ethan."

"You too." I fight my desire to tense up. Violet loves her parents, even if they drive her crazy sometimes. That means I love them too. Even if they think I'm not good enough for her. I look to Mary. "Any way I can bribe you for a picture of Violet in herdress?"

Mary shakesherhead.

"That's what I figured,"Isay.

Mary smiles. "She looked beautifulinit."

"I can't wait. Though Vi would look beautiful in a potato sack,"Isay.

Violet sticks out her tongue. "Please don't picture me in apotatosack."

I wink at my fiancée. "I'm picturing youinless."

Her cheeks flush. She motions tohermom.

Mary just laughs. "Don't worry, sweetie. Once you get married, everyone expects you to have sex. It's alwayswhen is the baby coming?" Her expression softens. "I'm not goingtoask."

"Good." Violet smooths her dress. "It will be a while." She gives me a long, slow once over. Her eyes screamhow about we get back to you in a suit. Or you out ofasuit.

Very fucking soon. I stare into Violet's gorgeous green eyes. "Two days and that suit is allyours."

She nods. Her lips curl into a smile. She's not thinking about me inthatsuit.

I'm not thinking about her in herdress.

Planning a wedding three days after a reunion was a bad idea. We're always like this after a week or two apart. We can barely drag ourselves outofbed.

But this isn't a time to think about making Violet come. Not yet. Thoughts of our upgraded hotel room attempt to distract me. Then thoughts of her in some tiny bikini, running around a Hawaiianbeach—

"What's this?" Violet's voice pulls me back to the moment. She's staring at the cake samples sitting on the dining table. She moves closer. Examines the firstsample.

It's a small slice of sheet cake, covered in purple icing, decorated with dark brown and black lines in an abstractpattern.

"Try it,"Isay.

She looks to me and raises a brow. "You want me to eatmorecake?"

"Maybe just the one on the right." It's decorated the same as the one on the left—black on purple. The slice in the middle has the opposite color schedule, purple on black. The three flavors should be perfect for a three-tier cake. "You like the lookofit?"

"Yeah. It's perfect. I guess you saw my fifty Pinterest boards,"shesays.

"More like a hundred," Maryteases.

Violet grabs a fork from the kitchen and digs into the slice of cake on the right. Her eyes go wide as she takes in the greencolor.

She looks to me. "Isthis—"

Inod.

She takes a bite. Her eyelids flutter closed. She lets out a soft sigh ofpleasure.

Slowly, she chews and swallows. "Matcha with vanillaicing."

My lips curl into a smile. The pleasure spreading over her face is everything. "Youlikeit?"