Page 102 of Moonlight Hearts

He inspected his nails.“What did I say?”

“To ask you very nicely.So, please?Please, Soyer?I want to get a tree cookie cutter.Oh, and we can get those candy pearls, right?And I’ll take some to the diner so we can share.Please, Soyer.”

He sighed.“Of course.We’ll do that.We’ll make an extra batch so you can give them away to…people.”

“I’ll give them away for smiles and thank-yous, which is what you take for letting you pour me my coffee.I’m taking a leaf out of your book.”

He raised both brows.“My heart, I mostly made a point of enforcing that yesterday so I’d have a chance to get my hands on you.I didn’t do it so you’d be nice to other people.”

I shrugged.“Well, that’s what I took from it.I think you definitely have a point about letting others do stuff for you so they can feel good about doing something nice.Giving away a few cookies is going to make me feel good.”

He crossed his arms.“Fuck.I shouldn’t let you leave the house.You definitely shouldn’t be nice to others, Amory.Be nice to me.”

I grinned at him over my coffee cup.“Iamnice to you.Or do you mean you want me to help you clean the kitchen like a nice fiancé?”I pretended to size up the kitchen island.Actually, Vico and Chef had left everything pretty clean the previous day, not that I was going to say that to Soyer, who I knew could be very particular about the smallest things.

“We’re ending this conversation now.You’re just making me horny, talking like that, and I don’t think you’re ready to deal with my libido right now.”He stood.“What do you want for breakfast?Roasted pumpkin?”

“Sounds good.”

As he went to the kitchen and opened the fridge to put together two plates, I thought about him and his libido.Soyer warmed up the food in the microwave, and while it was running, he brought over the cutlery but stopped to run his fingers through my damp hair.

“Why do you have your thinking face on, hmm?”

I looked up at him.“Did you want to have sex after breakfast?”

He snorted.“Don’t ask me that.I thought we could do something fun today, something you’d enjoy.A shopping marathon, maybe.”

“To buy you a second pair of red underwear?”

His nostrils flared.“Careful.And no, I’m not in need of more colorful underwear.Shopping is just a suggestion.You tell me what you want to do.”

I knew.I knew exactly what I wanted, and my eyes flicked to the couch, which had been moved back to its original place, along with Oboe, who sat on the backrest.

Soyer nodded.“Lake Eureka it is.”

“Mind reader.”

“Hardly.”The microwave dinged.“Good thing you picked a savory breakfast.I can buy you candy again.”

That sounded like a pretty good idea, actually.

We’d taken Soyer’s car, not a cab, and I was pretty excited by the time we got there.

“Whoa, looks like it’s going to be really crowded today.”

“Oh, do you think so?”Instead of going right where the other cars went, to the regular parking lot, he went straight.We passed a No Entry sign, and in short order, we arrived at a closed gate.

“Uh, I think we have to turn around.”

“You think so?”

Soyer’s tone of voice—slightly amused and secretly pleased—made me look at him instead of all the other cars that were going to the regular lot behind us.

“What did you do?”

He examined his nails.“My fiancé wanted to go to the amusement park on Black fucking Friday.Did you think I’d let you stand in line for any of the attractions?Did you think I was going to take us to that parking disaster back there with every stressed-out family trying to forgive yesterday’s argumentsfor the fucking children?”

“I sense that question might be rhetorical.”