“Yeah, probably. I like it though. I don’t think the same thing would ring true if I worked for someone else.”
“No, and you know he’ll probably give you the empire when he retires, right?”
He raises his brows. “If he did that, I’d give it you. Jia, he wouldn’t do such a thing. Ethan’s been really good to me, but please don’t think he’d do something like that when he could give it to you.”
“I don’t. I just meant he’d do it because you’re the best suited. Even before you went off to the marines, you were interested. More than me.”
“It just interested me. I liked the prospect of looking for property and doing different things with it, whatever that was. There’s more to it than what people think. So much more.”
I love that he always talks about what he’s doing with so much passion and interest.
Paul has never done a job he hated in his life. I remember when he worked at a garage before he joined the marines. He liked it because he loved doing up old cars. He talked about that job like this too, even though it was just something to pass the time.
“I get it. I’m glad you enjoy it. It’s good.”
“It’s okay. Not as exciting as being a marine on the day-to-day, but I like it.”
“You miss being a marine?” I rest my hands on the table. He raises his shoulders into a shrug.
“Sometimes, it was time to leave though. I did what I wanted, and I didn’t really have plans to stay longer than the time I did. College and the marines were intense. I kind of feel like I’m at the stage in my life where I don’t want intense.”
I nod. “I know what you mean. It feels less stressful.” God knows I worried about him when he first joined. I always knew he was going though. His grandfather served in the Gulf War and Vietnam, and Paul always talked about him and his adventures. I never knew his grandfather. He died before our parents got together. The way Paul talked about him, though, made me feel like I knew him.
“Tell me more about your skin care stuff. I’m amazed. I didn’t know how much you were into it. I never had any idea, baby. It’s like you’re a different person when you start talking about it.”
I smile. “It was something my mom and grandma did together, and I watched. That was how it started. I remember being five and my grandma making her skin creams with rose petals. Or rose water she’d use to cool my skin down in the summer. It was so commonplace that I took it for granted as the norm. I never got into it until after… we, well, after we broke up. So you wouldn’t have known, and while we were together, I think I was more into you than my need for oxygen. I took to it, and I discovered I truly enjoy it.” I left out the parts of why I took to it so much. He doesn’t need to hear that part.
“That’s good. Well, congratulations are in order, baby. Looks like things are moving in a way you want. Your own business is on the way.”
Things are moving. I’m excited, but is it crazy that I’m excited about us too?
“Come here. You’re giving me that look of wild desire,” he says and crooks his finger, beckoning me to go to him.
I get up, and he surprises me by pulling me into his lap.
I slip my arms around his neck, and he smiles up at me.
“Is this okay? Your girl might see us, then she’ll have to wait again because I like sitting in your lap a little too much.” I stroke my hand down the side of his neck.
A cocky smile fills his face, and he shuffles, adjusting himself so I feel his cock pressing into me. He knows I can feel it and smiles wider as I blush.
“Stop being a tease. You’re my girl. You fucking know it too, and if we weren’t outside like this, I’d give you the reminder.”
“Later,” I chuckle. “I want the reminder later.”
He moves closer to my ear. “Then just remember the safe word.”
“Red,” I breathe right before our lips meet again.
* * *
There’s always a thrill about The Dark Odyssey that takes me from the minute I walk in.
Paul met me at the entrance this time. We’re both dressed in black.
Instead of going to our room first, we go down to the dance floor and make our way over it to the place I’ve been dying to go with him.
The sex dungeon.