Chapter 14
Chapter Fourteen
A fter checking the roast in the oven, Audra strolled into Damon’s bedroom. He was sitting up against the headboard, and when she entered the room, a slow smile eased across his lips.
“You’re wearing too many clothes,” he said.
She looked down at the T-shirt she wore. It was one of his—blue with Nike in gold letters. “I’m naked under here.”
“Like I said, too many clothes. You should be walking around this place completely naked.”
“You’re just horny all the time.” She crawled across the bed and slipped under the covers, throwing an arm across his chest.
Damon pushed his hand under the T-shirt and rubbed her bare bottom.
Audra squirmed. “Behave,” she said with a laugh.
“It’s hard, baby. You’re so damn fine.” He squeezed her tight and kissed her forehead. “When’s dinner gonna be ready?”
“I swear the only reason you keep me around is for sex and food.”
“Mhmm. But when’s that roast gonna be ready?”
Audra laughed again. “Thirty more minutes, greedy man.”
His fingers traveled a light path down her hip. “You’ve spoiled me with all that good home cooking, woman.”
“You have a personal chef.”
“It’s not the same,” he said.
He’d told her that before, which always made her feel special.
“Well, you spoil me too.” Audra kissed his cheek.
Earlier, they’d had a bout of intense lovemaking, and she was still in the hazy sex bubble that always enveloped her after she and Damon made love.
Made love.
That’s how she’d started thinking about it lately. Not sex. Certainly not hooking up. They made love—whether it was slow or fast, rough or gentle, she savored every moment in Damon’s arms.
In the past few weeks, they’d explored all kinds of positions, and most recently had incorporated the use of toys. With him, she was a willing pupil, and his lessons opened up a world she hadn’t known existed.
Their relationship had also been discovered. A hazy photo of them had been taken inside a restaurant while they ate dinner. Probably a fan, though the image was shared by a popular gossip blog on Instagram. Audra wouldn’t have known about it, but Damon shared the image with her after one of his exes—were they an ex if he claimed they were never in a relationship?—sent him the photo demanding to know who he was having dinner with.
According to the article, she was “the mystery woman with Flash Foster.” Claudia thought the whole situation was exciting, but Audra was less enthusiastic.
Despite all that, she had no intention of cutting her time with Damon. Finally in a healthy relationship, she was enjoying herself too much.
Damon tugged on his earlobe. “I’m thinking about getting another diamond, so I’ll have one in each ear. What do you think?”
Audra lifted onto her elbow and took a good look at him. “I could see it.”
“Yeah?”
“Two diamonds would be cute.”
“Cute?” he repeated, sounding disgusted. “I’m trying to be sexy, not cute.”
“ Fine . You’ll be sexy. You and your ego.” She shook her head in mock annoyance.
“Thank you. Much better.”
Audra played with a hair on his chest. “Hey, there’s something I want to ask you.”
“Shoot. You know you can ask me anything.”
That wasn’t entirely true. He tended to clam up whenever she tried to find out more about his childhood in Arkansas, which was odd, because he spoke fondly of his parents, and they seemed to have a good relationship. As a matter of fact, she had heard him talk to his parents on the phone a couple of times and couldn’t detect anything less than warmth and affection in his voice.
She suspected something had happened to him as a child, but it was clear he wasn’t ready to share with her yet. Meanwhile, she was an open book. She probably shared too much.
“I want you to come to dinner and meet my parents,” Audra said.
She’d thought about it for a while and now felt confident enough in their relationship to introduce him to her family.
“Okay.” He dragged out the word, a faint frown creasing his brow. “Are you sure?”
“Would you like to meet them?”
“Yes, but I want you to be sure about it. That means meeting your daughter, too, right?”
“Yes.”
“So I finally get to meet the mini-Audra. Or that would be the mini mini-Audra. Get it, ’cause you’re?—”
“So short. Yes, I get it. Ha. Ha.” He liked to tease her about her height.
He chuckled and then threaded his long fingers into her hair. The humor disappeared from his face, and his expression turned serious. “I would love to meet your parents and your daughter. Will you be doing the cooking?”
“No, and although you pay me lots of nice compliments, I’m not the best cook in my family. Don’t forget I have a brother who’s a chef.”
“Bruno.”
“Yes. He and I learned to cook from my mom. She cooks often, although we still have a chef and housekeeper. We have a whole staff, actually, though it’s not as big as when I was growing up and everyone lived at home. Sometimes she cooks, and sometimes she uses the help. It depends on her mood.”
“I don’t care who’s cooking. I just wanna eat. When were you thinking we should meet?”
“How about the next time you’re off on Sunday, you can come over? That way, you can meet my brothers too. They can be a little overbearing, but I’ll warn them ahead of time to be on their best behavior.”
What she didn’t tell him was that more than her brothers, she wanted her parents—especially her mother—to like him. Rose Santana’s eyes spoke volumes, and Audra sensed the concern. She likely had done her research on Damon and worried Audra was making another mistake.
Sunday dinner would serve two purposes. Not only did Audra want the man in her life to meet her family, but she also wanted to show them what she knew—that he was a funny, charming, kind soul, and she was lucky to have him in her life.
“I don’t blame your brothers. If I had a sister, I’d probably be an asshole to any man she brought home.”
“It doesn’t help that my last serious relationship went up in flames.” Audra grimaced.
He combed her hair with his fingers, smoothing the strands away from her face. “That’s in the past. People make mistakes in relationships. It’s part of life.”
“Have you?”
He pondered the question. “I didn’t make the mistakes. Technically , I was the mistake.”
“Whoa, should I be worried?”
“Nah, you shouldn’t be worried. I know we have something special. I’m not about to mess it up.”
He always said the right things. Sometimes she worried he was too good at it. Too perfect. There had to be a flaw somewhere, but she hadn’t found it yet. All she could do was wallow in the perfection of this relationship, a striking contrast to the mess that had been her relationship with Kerry.
She didn’t have to hound Damon for attention the way she did when she and Kerry were a couple. Damon gave her attention freely, and she ate it up. She looked forward to his morning texts before he started training. “Good morning, sexy” or “Good morning, beautiful” always put her in a good mood for the rest of the day.
When they weren’t together, they spent a lot of time on the phone talking—continuing to chat almost every day. In all this time, somehow, they hadn’t run out of topics to discuss.
“You better not screw up,” Audra said. She spoke lightly, in a teasing tone, but she was happier than she ever imagined and wanted this feeling to last.
“So your whole family will be at dinner, huh?”
“Not exactly. It depends on when you go. Ignacio is hardly ever around because he’s an actor. Thiago—he works at my stepfather’s company—is often out of the country, so he may or may not be there. Of course, you know Maxwell will be there.”
“The one who wanted my jersey.”
“Yes. He’s planning on being a doctor. At least that’s what he says. We’ll see if he sticks to it. Then there’s Ethan, the oldest. Monica might or might not be there because—well, she does her own thing. So, you up for it?”
“Yeah, I’m looking forward to meeting your family and Kerilyn. I’ve heard so much about them, I feel as if I know them already. I’m most excited to meet your daughter.”
“Be careful, once she gets comfortable with you, she won’t stop talking. You’ll be begging her to stop.”
“I doubt it.”
He was staring up at the ceiling, and she studied his profile. The way he talked about Kerilyn prompted Audra to ask the next question.
“You said before that you want kids. How many?” she asked tentatively.
“Lots.”
Her eyebrows shifted higher. “How many is lots?”
“At least five.”
Interestingly enough, she wanted a big family too. “Your future wife is going to be busy,” she teased.
He watched her for a moment, his dark eyes locked on hers. Then he smiled. “Yeah, she is.”