“Don’t get too comfortable.” I leaned forward and licked it off.
“Oh?” His eyes like molten chocolate, his tongue followed the path mine had taken.
I wasn’t going to let him distract me, though. “We’ve got some serious planning to do.”
“We do, don’t we.” He smiled lazily.
“Yeah.” He had said that since he’d asked me to marry him, I could choose the day, and I’d been giving it some thought. “How does August 31 sound?”
“My birthday? As?”
“The day we get married?”
He flushed. “Are you sure?”
“Well, yeah. It’s a Sunday, so it would be perfect, don’t you think?”
“Don’t I…Oh, Theo.” He jumped up, grabbed me, and hugged the breath out of me, and I prayed I never grew used to the feel of his body pressing against mine. “What a birthday present you’re giving me.”
I ran my fingers over the curve of his ear and tugged the lobe. “You’ll never have an excuse to forget our anniversary.”
“As if.” He paused in scattering kisses up the length of my neck. “That’s five months away, though.”
“Is that too long an engagement for you?”
“Yeah, but I guess we’re going to need the time to get everything organized.” He sighed and let me go.
“Yeah.” I bumped my shoulder against his. We were really doing this. “Let’s get the table cleaned off. We’ve got work to do.”
In the kitchen, I put away the leftovers and prepared a pot of coffee, and Wills loaded the dishwasher.
While the scent of my favorite coffee filled the kitchen, I readied a tray with the coffee things, then took a platter with the baklava I’d made earlier in the day from the fridge and put it beside the tray.
“Wills, why don’t you get pens and a couple of note pads? I’ll meet you in the dining room in a few minutes.”
“Okay.” He grinned, and I wanted to yank down the jeans he wore—not the 501s. If they had been, in combination with that grin, we never would make it out of the kitchen. He knew, too. That grin deepened, and he winked at me. “I’ll be waiting for you.”
“Take the baklava, will you?”
“Sure thing.” He dipped a finger into the honey that I’d drizzled over the pastries and sucked it off, making sure I was watching. “Anything else I can do to help?” he asked innocently.
“Get outta here, hot stuff. I’ll be with you as soon as the coffee is ready.” I watched his ass as he sauntered out of the room and licked my lips. Contemplating the plans I had for that ass later, sans a condom, I waited until the coffee settled, then placed the pot beside the cups and saucers on the tray.
There were two yellow legal pads on the table, and Wills was munching on a pastry, already scribbling down names.
“You’re the best cook, babe,” he mumbled around a mouthful.
“I know. That’s why you’re marrying me.”
“Among other things.”
“Don’t I know it.” I put a coffee cup and a dessert plate at his elbow, pulled out the chair next to his, and sat down. Before I began to write, I put a pastry on my own plate and licked my fingers clean of the honey. “Is Vince going on my list or yours?”
“Um…probably yours, since he’s been your friend longer than he’s been my boss.”
“Okay. I’ll put down ‘and guest.’ What?” There was a strange expression on his face.
“I never thought I’d see his name in conjunction with ‘and guest.'”
“Any idea who he’ll bring?”
“You make it sound as if it’s a done deal that he’ll come with someone.”
“Sure, why not? I found you. Why can’t he have found someone? What about that cutie we saw him with on New Year’s Eve? What was his name?” He opened his mouth then quickly closed it, but I kept rambling on. “Y’know, I just remembered something. When I went after you on Friday, the security man in the lobby…”
“Sanford?”
“Um…yeah, that was his name. Anyway, he seemed really surprised when I said I was Vince’s friend. What’s up with that?”
“Mr. Vincent is the original lone wolf.” Wills regarded me thoughtfully, as if trying to decide how much he should tell me. “No one at the WBIS knows anything about his private life. In the five years I’ve been there, as far as anyone knew, he had no private life.”
“Everyone has a private life.” Even we rent boys did to some degree.
He shrugged and turned back to his list. “Go ahead and put down ‘and guest,’ Theo, but until Mr. Vincent shows up at our wedding with…someone, I have no intention of speculating about it.”
“But…” I shut up. Vince had never talked about it, and if he’d wanted me to know, he would have. I wouldn’t tease Wills about it. “Okay, babe.” I went back to my list.