“You poor thing.” Jecca was smiling. “Feed me, Seymour!”
He got the allusion. “So now I’m a plant that eats people.” He sat up straight, and Jecca heard the unmistakable sound of a bottle being pulled out of ice.
“You’ve made a feast, haven’t you?”
“A little of this and that. Since you won’t let me take you out to dinner, this will have to do.”
“A picnic in the dark with champagne. I like this much better than a restaurant.”
“Kim said you would.”
“When did you talk to her?”
“I took her out to breakfast this morning.”
She could hear that he was fumbling with the bottle of champagne. It would be difficult to open with only one hand. She reached out to take it from him but he moved it away. “Let me help you,” she said, but he moved the bottle out of her reach.
It was on the third move that she realized he was doing it so she’d touch him more. She leaned forward, ran her hands up his chest, put her face very close to his—then snatched the bottle from him.
“That wasn’t fair,” he said.
“I’m thirsty.” She twisted the wire off the top and the cork popped out. Tristan put two champagne flutes into her hand, and Jecca managed to fill them without spilling too much.
Tristan ran his hand along her entire arm before he came to the glass. “What s kdiv heighall we drink to?”
“Kisses in the dark,” she said.
“Perfect.”
After she took a sip, she said, “Where’s the food?”
“I’m planning to feed you.” He leaned toward her.
But Jecca put her hand to his chest and pushed him back. “You’re practically an invalid, so I think I should do the feeding. But maybe you don’t want me to feed you.”
“Now that you mention it, I have been in pain all day
, so I could stand someone else doing the work. Food’s to your left. Oops! My mistake. That’s my leg. The food must be to your right. Unless you’d rather . . .”
Smiling, Jecca found the containers and began to pop off their tops. “What culinary delights did you get for us?”
“Chicken and salad and cheeses, cherries. And I have a fondness for pickles.”
“It all sounds wonderful.” She was feeling her way around what he’d spread out and found plates and utensils. “What did you and Kim talk about?”
“You. She told me to back off of you, that you belong to her brother.”
Jecca paused in putting food on the plate. “You told her about us?”
“You don’t care that she’s telling people you’re the property of her brother? You just don’t want people to know about you and me?”
Jecca couldn’t tell if he was teasing or serious. “I know Kim’s always wanted me to hook up with her brother, but I did have the idea that you and I were to be kept a secret.”
“I don’t see why we should be,” he said. “Do you? You have a husband or fiancé somewhere?”
She managed to spread cheese onto a cracker, then reached out her hand to find his face.
He kissed her thumb and she put the cheese and cracker in his mouth.