Bachelor Unleashed - Brenda Jackson [44]
She broke eye contact with him and glanced around. They were in a room that he probably used as a den. It looked rustic with dark oak plank walls, the kind you’d find in a mountain cabin, and the fireplace was encased in whitewashed stone. The furniture looked sturdy and masculine, including the gigantic pool table in the middle of the room. He had mentioned that he enjoyed playing a game of pool every once in a while.
She glanced around the room again as she removed her coat, and as if he knew what she was thinking, he said, “No, I didn’t decorate the place. It was bought as is. I figured the last owner wanted the feel of the Smoky Mountains in here, which is something I didn’t have a problem with. In fact I think that’s what enticed me to buy it.”
She nodded as he came over and took the coat out of her hands. She automatically eased down on the sofa, a little surprised she was still wearing clothes. She had really expected him to strip her naked the moment she had stepped over the threshold. It seemed he was going to take things slow. Slow was good. But if he started showing signs of wasting too much time, she knew how to take things into her own hands, literally. She inwardly smiled, thinking how she’d done that several times before.
“Here, you probably could use this to get your blood warm.”
He handed her a glass filled with wine. When had he poured it? She took a sip, liking the sparkling taste, but then she’d always enjoyed his wine selections. She licked her lips and glanced across the room knowing he was watching her. That was good. Let him look. It would make things easier later when she threw her new idea out to him.
She cleared her throat. “Whatever you’re cooking smells good, Xavier.”
He chuckled. “Thanks, but I didn’t cook it. Ms. Blackburn did it all.”
She lifted a brow. “Ms. Blackburn?”
“Yes. My housekeeper, cook, gardener. You name it, she does it.”
She lifted a brow again. “Umm, does she now?”
He laughed. “Except for that. For crying out loud, Farrah, she’s old enough to be my mother. But I would admit to coming close to asking her to marry me one day after eating a slice of her apple pie.”
“It was that delicious?”
“Honey, delicious doesn’t come close.”
She swallowed. No one could say the word delicious quite the way he could, and no one could do things deliciously quite like him. She’d bet no one could even come close.
“So, will you be meeting with those women again tomorrow since no closure came about today?”
She glanced over at him. He had moved to sit on a bar stool. His taut thighs strained tightly against the denim of his jeans, and his abs were outlined in his form-fitting sweater. Not an inch of flab anywhere. She knew in reality he much preferred beer to wine, but unlike some men, he didn’t have a belly to show it.
And speaking of his belly…she thought he had a nice looking one, especially when it wasn’t covered with clothes. She remembered quite well how a sprinkling of dark hair adorned it. And then there was that trail of hair that tapered off to his groin area. She felt her mouth watering again, and it wasn’t for anything his housekeeper had left cooking on the stove.
She took a sip of her wine before saying, “Yes, I’ll be meeting with them, but if everything continues in the same way as today, I’m hoping we’ll wrap up by tomorrow. But that depends on—”
“One of the women’s husband’s involvement,” he finished for her.
She nodded and smiled. “You remembered.”
“Yes.”
“And here I thought you were listening just to humor me and weren’t really paying attention.”
He met her gaze and held it. “I’m sure since we’ve met that you’ve made a number of assumptions about me that aren’t true, Farrah.”
She blinked, surprised he would say that. “Like what?”
“You’ll find out soon enough.”
She wondered what he meant by that. But then she would admit that maybe she had made a few assumptions. Being here in his home challenged one of them. She had always assumed his home, his domain, was off-limits to any woman. He’d never said that, but given the way he’d meticulously made his booty