19. Chapter 19
Chapter 19
Paige arrived at the loft promptly at 7 p.m. and was greeted by David with a kiss. For a weird moment, she almost felt shy with him because the last time she’d been with him, she’d had his cock in her mouth, so the smile she gave him was a little self-conscious. It became a little more self-conscious when she pulled back and saw his expression, which was a cross between uncertainty and apprehension.
“What is it?” she asked as he closed the door. “Is something wrong?”
“I wouldn’t say something is wrong, but …” he trailed off. “You might have a different opinion.”
“About what?”
“My mom said to tell you ‘Hello’.”
“She did?”
He nodded. “When I dropped Jacob off a little while ago.”
Paige had smiled at the unexpected mention of Valerie, but was now a little confused. “What’s wrong with that?” she asked, trying to think of a reason, only to have one hit her like a brick to the face. “Wait. Does that mean she knows you’re seeing me tonight?”
David nodded again and the utter dismay on Paige’s face made him quickly add, “But that’s all she knows.”
Her purse slipped from her hand, hitting the hardwood floor with a thud that echoed in the entryway. “That’s all? That’s too much, David. How does she even know that?”
“She got it out of me.”
“How did she get it out of you?”
“She tricked me.”
Paige stared at him. “What, are you five? Seriously. How does she know?”
“I swear I didn’t tell her,” he said, cringing at his childish, defensive tone and then went on to make it worse. “Not directly, anyway. But she has mom sorcery or something—”
“I’m sorry … mom sorcery? Is that something she learned at Hogwarts?”
“Okay, your sarcasm isn’t helping.”
“Sorry. I didn’t know how else to respond to hearing about your mom’s ‘sorcery’,” she said, going against her hard-and-fast rule of never using air quotes and using them, because the situation absolutely called for it. “Anyway, my apologies. Please continue.”
The apology had been pretty sarcastic too, but David managed to overlook it because it wasn’t part of the bigger picture. “She asked about my plans for the evening and when I wouldn’t tell her who they were with, she started badgering me. Then, she asked if I was being secretive because I was hooking up with some random woman and I told her no—”
“You should’ve just said yes. That probably would’ve been the end of it.”
“Actually that would’ve been the end of our date,” he told her. “If I’d said yes, she wouldn’t have watched Jacob, so I’m glad I didn’t. Not that I would’ve, anyway, because I don’t want her believing I was hooking up with some random woman.”
Paige took a moment to appreciate the importance he placed on his mother’s opinion, even if it had led to Paige’s cover being blown. “So how did she find out, then? And please don’t mention sorcery again.”
He gave her a dirty look before answering. “After I told her you weren’t a random hookup, she asked if you were someone I was dating and I had no choice but to tell her yes. But I made it clear that it was very casual. She then wanted to know the name of the person I was dating, and I refused to tell her—”
“You should’ve just given her a fake name. That would’ve ended it.”
There was a long pause. “I could have ... if I’d thought of it.”
She threw her hands up in the air. “Why am I better at this than you?”
“I don’t know. That’s a good question,” David said, before shaking his head. “Anyway, it doesn’t matter. Even if I had thought of it, I probably wouldn’t have done it. Mainly because I don’t like lying to her, but also because whenever I have lied to her in the past, she always knew I was lying. She’s a bloodhound for lies.”
“So,” Paige said slowly, “you can’t lie to your mom, but you can lie to me?”
“When have I ever—”
“You lied to me about all those songs that night at dinner. Then you lied to me again, an hour later, when you told me I looked fine and sent me out to talk to Dolly in the hallway, even though I looked like I’d been mauled by a bear.”
“Okay, in my defense, the lies about the songs were harmless and I came clean almost right after, so that negates those lies—”
“Not really, no.”
“—and I only lied about you looking fine because it was necessary. If I hadn’t, you wouldn’t have gone out there and that barracuda would’ve gotten into your apartment and seen me with my massive hard-on, which I really didn’t want to happen. So I lied for the greater good.”
“One could argue that lying to your mom tonight would’ve been for the greater good,” Paige pointed out. Then, before David could respond in any way, she went back to the main issue. “So, if you didn’t tell her my name, how does she know I’m the one you’re seeing tonight?”
“Like I said, she tricked me. She pretended to give up, so I thought it was over. As I was getting ready to leave, she told me to have a good time, and—”
“She told you to have a good time?”
“Yes, but that was part of her trickery. To get me comfortable so I’d let down my guard. I thought she was just being nice, so I said, ‘I will’, and then she said, ‘Be sure to tell Paige I said hello’, and I just automatically replied, ‘I will.’ And that was that. Game over.”
“Game over?”
“Yes.”
“Jesus.”
“I know. Tell me about it.”
“No, I mean, Jesus. As in, you’re acting like your mom is this villainous mastermind out of a James Bond movie, when in reality, she bested you with very little ... trickery.”
“Says you, but you weren’t even there, so you don’t know what you’re talking about. You’re wrong about how much trickery she used. She used a lot, skillfully taking advantage of the fact that I was nervous and distracted, to weasel information out of me.”
Paige sighed. “This is bad, David.”
“No. It’s fine.”
“It’s not fine. Your mom thinks we’re dating. And knows we’re spending the night together, which means she’s probably assuming we’re having sex …” Paige trailed off and took a deep breath. “Oh, God I can’t even imagine what she’s thinking about me right now.”
“Trust me, my mom’s not thinking anything bad about you. She wasn’t horrified or outraged, or anything like that. You could kill the pope on Easter Sunday and she would still think you’re perfect,” he said, barely exaggerating.
“That might actually be worse,” Paige murmured, before asking, “What if she starts to have ... expectations?”
It was likely Valerie had already started having them, but David kept that to himself. “She won’t.”
“She won’t?”
“No, because I won’t let her.”
“You won’t let her?”
He cleared his throat. “Look, I don’t want you to worry about my mom, okay?”
“Okay,” she agreed after a long pause, even though she was inwardly scoffing.
“Paige.”
“What? I said okay.”
“I mean it. I’ll deal with my mom, all right?”
“You mean … like you dealt with her tonight?”
“That was a fluke. But now that I know her strategy, I won’t fall for it again. Trust me.”
“Okay,” she said again, this time sounding marginally convincing.
Relieved, he motioned for her to come to him. “Now, get over here. I haven’t seen you in three days.”
She moved forward until she was enveloped in the circle of his arms and as she melted into him, breathing in his laundry detergent and cologne, she forced all troubling thoughts of Valerie out of her mind for the time being.
When David finally pulled away, he kissed her again, this time with substantial heat and promise, then took her hand. “Come with me,” he said, turning and tugging her behind him. “I have a surprise for you.”
Wondering what it could be, Paige left her purse where she’d dropped it, and followed him down the hall, glad when the door to what was probably Jacob’s room was closed so she didn’t have to see inside. Just shy of the master bedroom’s threshold, David stopped. “Close your eyes.”
Like the night he’d drawn her a bath, he seemed oddly excited, so instead of rolling her eyes at his directive, she obliged him and a moment later was guided several feet into the room before being brought to a standstill. “Okay. Open your eyes.”
A single lamp was on, bathing the room in a golden glow, and David watched as Paige blinked at the sight of his bed, which he’d spent part of the afternoon basically transforming into one of those displays in a high-end department store. He’d gone all out, inflicting some serious damage to his credit card balance as he bought all new bedding to include: a waterproof mattress pad, bazillion-thread count, Egyptian cotton sheets that felt like silk, a ridiculously expensive Jacquard duvet cover with matching shams in a silvery-gray paisley pattern, and coordinating throw pillows.
Yep, he’d actually paid good money for useless pillows whose only purpose were to look nice ... and then be tossed onto the floor at night. Thankfully, Evan hadn’t seen them, because otherwise, he would’ve given David enough shit to fill the Grand Canyon.
The hardest part had been wrestling the goose-down comforter into the duvet cover but when he was done with everything, the end result was luxurious, expensive, and sexy as fuck.
“Well, what do you think?” David asked, rather proud of himself as he wrapped his arms around her from behind. “Is this a bed you’d be willing to spend time on?”
She tore her gaze away from the bed and looked at him, his question slowly sinking in. It was clear that the bedding was brand new, but was he telling her the mattress underneath was new, too? By using her words from a few nights ago?
“Did you … buy a new mattress?” she asked.
“Yes.”
“Holy shit.” Her eyes went back to the bed in shock, her heart starting to beat a little faster as the extent of his thoughtfulness threatened to overwhelm her. Not for one second had she thought he would do something like this; she had simply assumed they would use her bed until their sex arrangement was over. “You did all this for me? New bedding and a new mattress?”
“Of course. Do you like it?”
Of course? Did she like it? “I don’t even know what to say,” she told him, turning in his arms and putting her hands on his face so she could bestow quick, smacking kisses on his lips. “I’m astounded.” Kiss. “And … extremely appreciative.” Kiss. “And really fucking thrilled.” Kiss. “And I love it.”
He gave a low chuckle. “Does that mean the bed gets a green light?”
“Yes.”
“Good. All that back-breaking effort was worth it, then.”
Paige knew he was joking, but also knew there was an element of truth in there, as well. He’d gone to a lot of work to pull this off, and while it made her feel really good, it also made her feel kind of … bad. “Jesus, I really can’t believe you did all this.” She gave him another kiss, this one much longer, with less smack and more substance. “It’s unexpected, to say the least.”
“That’s how surprises work,” he teased, returning her kiss with a considerable one of his own before adding, “And speaking of which … I have one more.”
“You have another surprise for me?”
He nodded. “And it’s probably going to be even more unexpected.”
His tone and expression were slightly hesitant, which gave her pause. “What is it?”
Gently, he turned her back around until she was facing the bed again, and waited.
Thinking she must have missed something on the bed, Paige did another quick inventory: sheets, duvet, pillows. Nothing. It wasn’t until she raised her eyes to the headboard that she saw something new, and it took her several seconds to realize she was looking at a pair of leather handcuffs, attached together by several feet of chain, looped around one of the corner posts.
Handcuffs? Well, David was one hundred percent correct, because this surprise was even more unexpected.
Slowly, feeling his gaze on her back, Paige walked over and took one of the cuffs in her hands, examining it carefully. They were actually really nice, padded on the inside for comfort, with a heavy-duty prong for closure—much like a belt.
“This is my surprise?” she asked softly.
“Yes, but they’re actually for me.”
She looked at him over her shoulder, eyebrows raised. “For you?”
“I thought you might like to restrain me and have some fun.”
The offer was made so easily and without any self-consciousness, that Paige couldn’t help but wonder if he’d ever—
Ignore the elephant.
Ignore. The. Elephant.
She took a deep breath, then cleared her throat. “You want me to restrain you? And not the other way around?”
“Oh, I’d be interested in cuffing you to my bed in the future,” David said evenly, watching her very carefully. “As long as it’s not a trigger.”
“I don’t know if it would be. I have no memory of ever being restrained, so we’d have to try it and see.”
“Maybe we will,” he told her, his eyes lighting up. “But tonight I’m more interested in seeing what you’d like to do to me. So what do you say?”
There were several long beats of silence as his question hung in the air and Paige gazed down at the handcuffs. “Okay,” she agreed with a nod. “Let’s do it.”