Page 57 of My Casanova

“Hold on, let me word this differently.” Olive typed quickly, then grinned. “Yeah, I got you. Hummingbirds are promiscuous.”

“Aww,” Sloane sighed. “You want a puffin, not a sleazy hummingbird.”

“Hummingbirds are so pretty,” Fallon sighed. “Why do they have to be cheaters?”

“Puffins are cute, too,” Olive pointed out. “We’re all puffins at this table.”

Yarder let out a loud whistle. “Everyone shut the fuck up about hummingbirds and puffins unless you are Smoke or Dani.”

Poppy wiggled her finger in her ear. “I really don’t like when you do that,” she mumbled.

“Then stop talking so Smoke and Dani can talk.” Yarder motioned to us. “Or better yet, take this to your room.Otherwise, it’s going to take you two hours to have a ten-minute conversation.”

I looked at Dani. “You good with taking this someplace more quiet?”

“Uh, I mean, yeah.”

That was all I needed.

I swooped her up into my arms and stalked down the hallway to my room. The feel of her in my arms felt right, and the way she curled into me sent a heat through my chest.

I reached my door, opened it with one hand, and stepped inside before setting her down gently. The door clicked shut behind me, and I twisted the lock to make sure we wouldn’t be interrupted.

We stood toe to toe now, and her wide eyes locked onto mine.

“Now we’re really going to talk, angel.”

Chapter Twenty-Six

Dani

This was real now.

It was just me and Smoke.

Not even any cameras. At least, I didn’t think there were.

“Are there cameras in here?” I asked.

Smoke shook his head. “Nothing in the bedrooms or the bathrooms, angel.”

I had been told that, but I wanted to make sure. “Okie dokie,” I whispered.

“You want to start this from the beginning?” he asked.

“Uh, well, we probably should, but I really doubt I am going to make any better sense. At least we had Olive Googling stuff for you, so you weren’t confused.”

“Is what she said about the birds and shit right?”

I nodded. “Well, about the mating for life and promiscuous hummingbirds. I’m not really sure about the specialized diet.” That had been news to me, though it wasn’t like I knew about the puffins and hummingbirds before Stan had told me. I chuckled. “Leave it to the girls to throw in some crazy info.”

“Yeah,” he laughed. “They sure do make things interesting.”

We stood there awkwardly for a beat.

“You go first, angel.”

I nodded and licked my lips. “Uh, I’m just going to go off the top of my head and hope I don’t confuse you. I’ll try to keep the birds out of it this time.”

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