Chapter 9
CHAPTER
NINE
Kyle couldn’t stop smiling.
Madison was humming in the kitchen as she made their café crèmes, Pierre joining in the spicy Latin medley from his perch on her shoulder.
She’d been humming for days in a row now, and today was only Saturday, nearly a week since they’d taken the next step together. They were well ahead of schedule.
He had a running list of signs her happiness meter was full.
The way she’d danced up the stairs the other night after he grabbed the ice cream from the freezer.
The belly laugh she’d made when he’d tickled her in bed.
Her jumping up and latching her arms and legs around him last night, still on a high after her incredible dinner service with William Silver.
The enthusiastic kiss she’d given him this morning upon learning that he’d closed the deal and hired the former Michelin star critic.
Now, they were nearly at their weekend—he’d switched up his schedule to take Sunday and Monday off with her, while checking emails, of course. They’d have two days off for him to think up even more ways to fill her happiness meter.
When she brought his coffee over, he pointed to his lips. Even though she arched her brow like he was pushing his luck, she still leaned in and kissed him softly, making Pierre fly to his perch.
Kyle drew out the kiss by grabbing hold of her black T-shirt, and they were both panting when he let her go.
“You’re shameless,” she whispered after making a satisfied sound and caressing the morning scruff on his jaw, something she loved.
“Completely,” he agreed as she took her seat across him at their circular two-top table and dropped her napkin on her lap.
Her lips were twitching, but she reached for her crème with her usual ease, not eyeing the bouquet of flowers he kept replacing.
Brooke had moved some items around in the kitchen to give their little romantic corner more breathing room when she and Axel had come over to meet about redecorating the house.
Either Madison hadn’t noticed, or she was settling into things easier than expected.
He liked easy.
Apparently, so did Brooke and Axel. From the delighted glints in their eyes as they studied the space, he knew Dean had shared the news about them hooking up. Sawyer was too much of a gentleman. Brooke hadn’t asked how Operation Madison was going, perhaps because his mood made it obvious.
He was on top of the world.
Of course, he knew their roommates were giving Madison a wide berth, keeping their bubble intact.
He and Sawyer had come up with a painting schedule, and since he and Phoebe were looking at bigger apartments, he’d added a studio space to his list of necessities as a second option for when it would be easier for him to roll out of bed and paint.
Which Kyle could see the need for. Still, nice of Sawyer…
“You do remember that we’re hosting Sunday dinner tomorrow,” Madison reminded him, calling Pierre to her by holding up an almond. “We’re going to need to get out of bed, get our game faces on, and take down the Romance Shrine.”
His insides tightened. He was not removing all evidence of their romantic relationship from the house. Some of their friends had already seen it. Still, he’d need to navigate these waters carefully.
For once, he wished they could go another week without seeing everyone as a couple. He craved more alone time with Madison right now, but that was normal. They were ravenous for each other. “I could think of something to get it postponed, you know. I have this tickle in my throat.”
“Funny.” She tossed an almond at him, which bounced off his chest. “They’ll all think we needed to bang more than see our family and eat.”
He picked up the almond in his lap and flicked it back toward her, and she deftly caught it. “You’ve discovered my true colors at last. All I want is you naked in our Romance Shrine. How is that wrong?”
She pulled her face into a horrified cringe. “Gee, let me see… Maybe because we’re trying to keep our sex life out of our roommates’ minds, and don’t even get me started on destroying all evidence so Nanine won’t think about us that way.”
An ache throbbed at the corner of his heart at the whole destroy all evidence part. He gripped his knees, searching for the right words because suddenly it felt like they were on shaky ground.
“Hey!” She threw another almond at him, hitting some invisible bullseye on his chest. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it like that.”
His throat thickened at the anxiety he saw on her face. “I know you didn’t.”
She charged out of her chair. “Oh God! I hurt your feelings, didn’t I? See! I told you I was going to suck at this feelings stuff. Don’t be upset. Tell me what I can do to fix it.”
He shifted his chair back and patted his lap. Her gaze flew to his before she plopped down on his thighs, searching his face. Then he pointed to his mouth.
“Like I said, shameless.” She leaned in and gave him a sweet, soul-searching kiss. “Don’t be mad.”
Her whisper was rough with emotion, and he drew her to his chest. “I’m not.”
“You so are.” She pushed her finger into his chest before she twined her arms around his neck. “Maybe not throw a plate at the wall mad, but you’re upset. I know you, Kyle.”
He let his face nestle into her neck. “Consider it a reflex reaction, like a hammer to the knee.”
“I just thought the five hundred candle votives might be a lot for our family to take in.” She paused and then groaned. “But some people have already seen the Romance Shrine, haven’t they? God, now who’s feeling like an idiot? Sawyer did. Then Dean, and—”
“Brooke and Axel have been over a few times,” he supplied, tightening his grip on her when she tried to slide off his lap with another groan.
“I thought I noticed some new decorating thingamabobs here and there—which are nice, by the way.”
Which meant she’d barely registered them, per her usual non-interest in anything lifestyle related. No, judging by the way she was gently banging her head against his chest, she was more concerned with their roommates knowing what had been going on between them.
“Did anyone ask if we’d started a romance cult or anything?” she groaned. “Like the Blissful Bangers or the Luminous Lovebirds.”
He couldn’t work up any laughter yet. “No, but Axel thanked me for the idea, which had Brooke’s eyes dancing.”
She lurched up, blinking rapidly. “So we gave people ideas? That’s…okay then. Maybe— No, I’ve got nothing. Thea and Jean Luc haven’t seen it yet, but they’ll love it.”
But she didn’t like being on display, and they needed to find a compromise. He brought her back to his chest, caressing her nape to soothe her tension. “How about I move the candles from the common area and line the hallway toward our bedroom with them for now?”
“That’s great, but you like them so much…” Her hesitation had him tightening up. “Maybe we could leave them up this once. I could say we were celebrating the Epiphany with lights like people do in Miami.”
God, that was sweet of her. He leaned back, cupped her cheek, and kissed her. Long and tenderly. Until she wove her hands into his hair and moaned. “Do you think anyone would believe that?”
“Thea might. She’s probably dancing on a cloud after returning from their honeymoon yesterday.”
“I appreciate your give here, but it’s okay. You’re right. We need to move them sometime.”
“But you love our Romance Shrine.” She eased back and cupped his unshaven jaw.
“I mean, you’ve been lighting five hundred votive candles every night.
If you keep this up, we’ll have people knocking on our front door asking if they can sit and pray since Notre Dame is packed. Wait! I have an idea. Be right back.”
Sliding off his lap, she crossed the kitchen to where she stored her phone in the kitchen drawer closest to the doorway.
He’d finally asked about the reason—since he’d noticed she also kept her purse and work bag in a drawer in her bedroom.
She’d only responded it was an old habit to keep her possessions safe.
His reaction had been a wave of outrage. She’d talked about men bothering her before. Recently she’d confessed to baking her own birthday cakes and keeping her dad pacified. Now this…
What had her life been like?
He took a deep breath as he watched her retrieve the phone, thinking about all the awful things she’d been through that had made her feel unsafe. Those thoughts made him really angry. Fighting angry. That shit was never going to happen to her again on his watch.
“Hey! I have a text from Chef Marcel. He said William Silver messaged him after his meal last night and told him Nanine’s is his new favorite restaurant. Huh.”
He waited as she scratched her head, her brow knitting as she continued to read.
“Chef also asked if you’d call him. He’s thinking about coming back to Paris to be closer to his ailing mother.
La Fleur is in good hands. He wanted to know if The Paris Roommates Group is considering expanding into more restaurants.
If so, he’d like to talk to you about working together because, and I quote, ‘retirement will only happen when I die.’”
Resting his fist against his mouth, Kyle let the idea germinate. “Well… My first thought is yes to talking more. Imagine opening a restaurant with the famed Chef Marcel here in Paris…”
Her dark eyes were practically squinting at him. “You want this. Bad.”
He could feel excitement surging inside him. “Yeah. I’ve said all along I want to open more restaurants.”
“I’ve worried about what you’re going to do once our businesses are more established,” she admitted, her gaze serious. “Honestly, I can’t think of anyone I’d love for you to work with more than Chef Marcel.”
He almost asked, even Rico? But he kept his mouth shut.
“He’s great in both the business and culinary aspects. Plus, he’s always wanted to come back to Paris to be closer to family. He hadn’t found the right partner before.”
Tapping the table, he was already mentally laying out a game plan. He’d been eyeing a perfect property in the First Arrondissement not far from the Louvre. “Tell him I’ll call him. Of course, I’d need to run this by our friends.”
“I think they’d be happy to have The Paris Roommates Group expand—especially since it will make you happy. Consider this part of Operation Kyle. You like new challenges. I mean, how many restaurants did you have when you were part of your Austin restaurateur group? Ten?”
“Fourteen.”
She snorted. “You need a new restaurant stat. We’ll talk to our friends when we see them at dinner tomorrow. On that note…”
She did more typing on her phone before storing it back in the drawer.
“Okay, we have the Romance Shrine for at least another week. I asked Brooke if she and Axel could host Sunday dinner. In fact, she thought spreading it around would be great so it wouldn’t always fall on our shoulders to host. I get points for sending a thumbs-up at that last part.
I’m not used to the whole ‘us’ thing yet. But I’ll get there. I promise.”
Powerful emotion was coursing through him. Love and gratitude. She was making room for him and also looking after his needs professionally as much as personally. Because opening a new restaurant with a well-known chef like Fournier would kick ass.
“Major points.” He crossed to her and brought her to his chest. “I hadn’t thought of asking for a round robin hosting for Sunday dinner.”
She fingered the exposed skin at the V of his shirt. “I have good ideas too. Ah… Is it okay that I texted her? Am I supposed to run that kind of thing by you? God, I don’t know the rules here.”
“You did great, but sure, why not kiss me and whisper your suggestions in my ear?” He caressed her chin with a seductive smile. “I’ll do the same.”
“So joint decision-making. I run things by you. You run things by me. Kinda like we do with the restaurant. Like you getting the contractors in fast to start the upstairs renovation since we’re so booked up.”
“Exactly.” He ran his hand slowly up her spine. “Another brilliant outcome of others hosting is that we don’t have to pick up anything around the house. Including our clothing.”
“I love the sound of that,” she silkily agreed, opening a few of the buttons on his shirt and running her hand inside.
“Also…” Desire was pouring into him now. “We can be late.”
She gasped and followed up with a huge grin. “Like Dean and Jacqueline always are!”
“They always have an excuse—”
“But everyone knows the truth.” Madison ran her hands over his abs under his shirt now that she had it unbuttoned all the way. “I guess we’ll be following in Dean’s shoes. I’ll make some comment about not being able to find my coat—”
“Or you couldn’t figure out what to wear,” he joked, tugging at her black shirt.
Her laughter paved the way for him to unsnap her jeans and slide her zipper down. “You’d better put Pierre in your office. Like Dean would say. Not in front of the kids.”
He kissed her hard before stepping back and heading toward Pierre. The parrot squawked as Kyle held out his arm. “Good job, Pierre. Now, step into my office for a second.”
When he returned, Madison was lying on her side on the kitchen island, completely al fresco, a wickedly tantalizing light dancing in her eyes.
Desire pooled in his belly. Thunderbolts struck his heart.
“I think we should celebrate.” She patted the counter playfully. “We just made our first compromise, and you might be opening a restaurant with my mentor.”
He peeled off his shirt, thinking she wanted the new restaurant too. Stepping out of his pants, he slid her an amused glance. “I like these spontaneous celebrations.”
“What’s not to like?” She patted the marble again, his very own sybarite come to life. “Now get your gorgeous butt over here. I don’t have to be at the restaurant for a few more hours and I know how I want to spend them.”
He grinned. Their mornings were shaping up exactly as he’d hoped, filled with awakening together, making love, and showering before breakfast. He’d hoped she’d stick around the house for a while afterward.
So far she had. Not rushing off to the restaurant hours early like she had before they’d begun this relationship.
Better yet: her culinary prowess was at an all-time high.
Their relationship was growing, her career was thriving, and they were compromising.
Now all he had to do was keep things going great.
Sunday dinner tomorrow was going to be their first big test.
They just had to get through it.