“It’s the wine,” she whispered hoarsely before taking another sip, hating the way she blushed so easily, wishing she could control that embarrassingly obvious lack of control. All they were doing was eating, and her sex-starved mind was conjuring images of him eating her, doing wicked things to her with those hands. Bunny bit the inside of her cheek to distract herself as her pussy responded with a wave of heat.
He set his glass down. “No, Bunny. It’s nerves and fear of the unknown, fear of losing control.”
“I’m perfectly in control,” she quipped, reaching out for her wineglass.
As if demonstrating her lack of control, she bumped it and the wine sloshed onto the white tablecloth. Joseph caught the glass and righted it, but not before the wine splashed on his hand.
His eyes flickered with emotion she couldn’t name, and his lips flattened together as he studied her, perhaps biting the inside of his lip, and at first she thought he was losing patience with her, but then the corner of his lips quirked upward.
“Sorry,” she whispered, pulling her clumsy hands into her lap under the table, unsure of what to do next as he continued to hold the glass. “What?”
As if he was having an internal debate, he glanced at his soaked hand and then gave a tiny shake of his head. He released the glass and then took his time drying his hand on his napkin. “Nothing.”
“No. You were about to say something. What was it?”
He shook his head. “I want you to eat before your food gets cold. I seem to set you on edge tonight.”
“Think so?” she asked then took another bite. She glanced up at him to find him smiling at her, and she grinned back, grateful, as the tension diminished a little.
They settled into the meal, interspersed with conversation about his mother’s cooking, the running of the mansion, and the technology that was noticeably hidden in the main parts of the mansion, and in his own personal suite upstairs.
“I don’t like the distractions from what is important, what is real,” he murmured. “And when I host a gathering, I want my guests to have the same luxury. I appreciate technology as much as the next man, and I’m happy that through it I was able to meet you, but I think it’s too easy to be distracted from the present by it.”
Ignoring the way his mention of her made the butterflies in her stomach take flight again, Bunny nodded. “Tristan gets tired of me asking him to put down his electronics, but I want him engaging in the real world, too. I get it.”
“He’s lucky to have you.”
Bunny shrugged. “He and Grinnie are my family.”
“You don’t have any other relatives?” Astute man that he was, he noted her hesitation and added, “None who you’re close to?”
“No, they’re pretty much it. The rest…” She shrugged and drained her wine glass.
“Master?”
The voice came from the entry, behind Bunny. She recognized the voice as the young woman’s from earlier. She watched Joseph as he looked past her shoulder, his expression once again unreadable. That chick was starting to get on Bunny’s nerves with all her passive-aggressive “Master” talk. Any idiot could see all she was doing was marking her territory for Bunny’s benefit. He wasn’t hers, and couldn’t be hers, so it was a wasted effort.
Her inner devil rolled her eyes.
“Yes, Jade?”
The young woman came to the table and looked at her hands as she said, “I apologize for interrupting…Sir. I thought you would want to know I replied to all those e-mails as you requested.”
Joseph smiled at her. “You thought I would, huh?”
A slight smile crossed her face and then she nodded. “Yes, Sir.”
“Thank you, Jade. That’ll be all. Enjoy your evening.”
“Yes, Sir. I’m sorry, again, for the interruption.” Watching her closely, Bunny noticed when Jade glanced at their plates and the glasses of wine and saw the momentary flicker of a frown on her face before she backed away and walked out of the kitchen.
Bunny’s mind whirled as she pondered the fact she’d been having supper with a man who inspired women to kowtow to him, for Jade was obviously serving him willingly. More willingly than he seemed to want her to. What character trait in him stirred that kind of devotion?
A distant flash of lightning shone through the windowpane. Bunny set the empty wine glass down with a sigh as the tile beneath her feet vibrated with the tremble of thunder. “The storm sounds as though it’s gathering strength. I think it’s time I left.”
He rose as she did. “Thank you for dining with me. It was refreshing.”