Page 78 of His Own Heaven

His silence spoke for itself.

Dangerously close to earning another spanking of the not-fun variety, Lucy laughed at him. “Seriously? You’re afraid of heights? But you’re a giant!”

“Oh, like you’re not afraid of anything?”

She scoffed then polished her fingernails on her shirt. “Of course not. I’m invincible.” But Toby saw something akin to fear flit over her expression, and she didn’t hide the shudder rolling through her shoulders as well as she thought.

Oh yeah. His girl was scared of something. He just had to figure out what.

Then crush it.

Chapter Twenty-Three

Jane’s awake. She’s coming home Friday. Family barbeque Saturday. Bring your lady friend. Gotta go. Love you. Bye.

The text message from Toby’s sister seemed to be the catalyst that sent the rest of the week into overdrive. And Lucy didn’t help. She had so many people coming and going from the garden centre, Toby couldn’t keep track.

On top of the massive landscaping job he and his crew were undertaking, new software was installed on the office computers, every single fire alarm was replaced with the latest models available, and the number of fire extinguishers around the garden centre almost doubled.

Professional cleaners were called in to give the café a thorough going over, as was the administration building. His office manager had also informed him the conference room was being repainted the following week, and told him to choose a colour from a palette of nine different shades of grey.

Toby didn’t know the first thing about decorating, and he told her so. “Give me a bare patch of earth, a shovel and a truckload of plants and I’m your man, but if you want to know what colour to paint the walls, call my brother Crispin. He decorated my house, he may as well do my office too.”

And then Friday afternoon rolled around. Toby had been looking forward to clocking off and spending a relaxing evening at home before taking Lucy to meet his family on the weekend.

He’d planned to tie her up, drip hot wax all over her beautiful body then fuck her into oblivion. And he would have done exactly that if a team of people hadn’t shown up at closing time, ready to install the new security system Lucy had ordered.

Instead of introducing his woman to the wax play he knew she craved, he’d spent three hours completing paperwork and staring at Lucy’s sketch of his soon-to-be updated conference room, complete with chic grey walls and indoor palms.

He dreaded reading the mounting stack of bills his lover was racking up, but Lucy had assured him they could afford everything she had planned, and he found he trusted her judgement and experience. Plus he’d almost kissed her when she’d said “they” in the meeting where she’d laid out those plans for him, asking for his approval. “They” meant them. A unit. A team. A couple.

A future.

“They” had made his dick hard and gotten him in trouble for being inappropriate in the workplace during office hours.

“I never used to have this problem,” he’d grumbled.

“Because you had rules and you followed them,” Lucy reminded him. “And if you’d follow my rules now you still wouldn’t have this problem.” Then the cheeky minx had cupped his aching cock through his cargo shorts and leaned up to whisper in his ear, “I promise I’ll make it up to you at home, Master.”

That was the other word she kept using. “Home.”

She still hadn’t agreed to move in with him but when she stayed over, which she had almost every night that week, she’d referred to his house as “home”. He didn’t know if she was even conscious of it, but he sure as hell was.

Now it was Saturday morning and he was taking her to see his other home. The Forge. The Bennett family home was in Melville’s Cross, a tiny town hidden away in the Sunshine Coast hinterland, and the weather was perfect for a weekend away.

Lucy had been quiet for most of the drive, which normally Toby would appreciate, but there was something off about her. Her silence was that of a busy mind, not a relaxed one.

He reached for her hand and gently squeezed. “What are you thinking about?”

Lucy took a deep breath and turned to face him. “I need to talk to you about something.”

Her tone made his lips flatten into a stern line. “Is it work related?”

“Yes, Sir.”

Toby shook his head. “No shop talk on the weekends, baby. Work stays at work.”

“This is important,” she said, standing her ground.

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