Page 68 of Taking The Virgin

Chapter24

Chaos isn’tthe word for the celebration that follows Owen’s proposal.

The kids keep on him, asking him even more questions, and I find out that they’d actually started to grill him when he showed up with the flowers and waited for me on the porch.

Where did you meet Juliet?(Um…online. Yeah, that’s the official answer.)

How long have you known her?(Long enough to have helped your sister raise money for the house and lawyers…)

Why do you have on such a fancy suit?(Whynot?)

Then, once we get into the house, Jemma recruits Owen to help her in the kitchen with the Swedish meatballs that she knows I love, as well as the cake. The boys then ask Owen more about the sports he likes—especially surfing—as they set the table. Jazzie merely stares at him in rapt fascination while sticking to my side until she gets up enough guts to sit next to him at dinner and ask him all about NewYork.

When it comes time to sing me Happy Birthday, the glow of the candles lights up all of our faces.

Everything feels so, so right.

After the cake is gone and the table cleared, Owen tells the kids that he’d like to take me out for the rest of the evening. They’re reluctant to let him leave at first, but I tell them this is an actual date, and they let me go, waving at us from the porch as Owen drives us away in the Mercedes Benz that he’s rented.

It doesn’t take very long for him to drive us to the same exclusive South Beach hotel where we stayed in the penthouse the lasttime.

This time we don’t go out to the privatepool.

We don’t even make it past the dining area, where the low lights reveal a birthday cake Owen has ordered forme.

He puts flame to each of the twenty-three candles, one at a time, until the pale room takes on a soft, warmglow.

“I had them deliver this a few moments ago,” he says, then blows out the long match.

“So that’s what you were doing on the phone. I thought it was business.”

“No business tonight, Red,” he says, smiling at me until my pulse skips. “Justyou.”

Just me…and him. And as I look at all those candles, plus one to grow on, I close myeyes.

I wish every day going forward would be as perfect as this oneis.

When I blow out the candles, there’s still a glow in Owen’s gaze. Afire.

He’s been waiting all day to get me alone.

I see the beast in his eyes—the one who still has some growl to him, even though he’s been tamed.

With my hands trembling from excitement, I cut a piece of the cake, slip it onto a plate, then start to walk toward the bedroom that we never did have the opportunity to share the last time we were here. It feels as if thick, warm syrup is flowing over my skin, inside of me, oozing from my knotted belly to my pussy. I’m bathed with desire for him as I smile, inviting him to come withme.

“Where’re you going?” heasks.

“Someplace where you can have your cake and eat it, too.”

An explosion of lust zings through his gaze just before I disappear.

I’m already aroused, pounding brutally for him, my breath already quickening. The wide, pale bed overlooks a floor-to-ceiling window with a view of the ocean where the stars are reflected, twinkling in the dark sky. I kick off my shoes then slide the plate onto the bedcover and get to my knees, already undoing the buttons of my light sweater. The hem of my short skirt plays with the sensitive skin of my thighs, and as Owen appears in the doorway, he’s already got his jacket off. He’s working at histie.

I glance down at the cake while I strip off my top and throw it away. I begin to unclasp mybra.

“The maid’s gonna wring our necks with the mess we’re about to make,” Isay.

“The maid’s going to get a big, fattip.”

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