Paisley tipped her head. “I can’t believe you’re not trying to get me out of my clothes.”
Lucas laughed and started working on that top button. “I never said anything to the contrary. In fact, I say we have a naked picnic.”
“At some point I really need to resist you,” she grumbled.
Lucas moved down to the next button. “But not now.”
“No.” She took a deep breath, her breasts straining against the next button. “Not now.”
He finished the trail of buttons and parted the material. When Lucas took a step back, he thought about forgoing dinner and the bride and just getting to his wife.
She stood before him in a nude lace bra and panty set and those heels, and she wasn’t even trying to be sexy, she simply was. The woman was absolutely breathtaking after a bad day and a crying jag.
Would he ever get to the point he didn’t want her?
“If you keep looking at me like that, we won’t get dinner.” She sauntered around him and headed toward the hallway. “And I do believe it’s your night to cook.”
Yeah. She was definitely going to be the death of him.
But what a way to go.
Ten
Paisley just finished a consultation with a bride renewing her vows when her cell rang. She glanced at the screen, surprised to see Lucas’s name. He typically only texted or he would just pop in.
She swiped the screen and answered.
“Sterling is out on bail,” Lucas declared.
The bomb he dropped had her knees weakening, her heart beating fast, her head spinning.
Paisley eased down into her desk chair and pulled in a deep breath. “When did he get out?”
“Apparently last night on several millions in bail,” Lucas stated. “I wanted to tell you as soon as I found out.”
She glanced to the antique clock on her desk, more for decoration than functionality. She calculated how much time she had left until her boutique closed, and how soon she could make it to Sterling’s estate when she left.
“Don’t even think about it,” Lucas warned.
“You don’t know what I’m thinking,” she countered, gripping her phone tighter.
“Tart, I know you and you’re trying to figure out how to go talk to him without me knowing.”
She didn’t care if Lucas knew or not. Right now all she thought about was time and how soon she could talk to the man who may very well be her father.
“Well, why wouldn’t I want to go there?” she exclaimed. “He obviously knew my mother. Maybe she told him the truth all those years ago. He’s the only one who could have all the answers.”
Lucas exhaled loudly and Paisley could practically see him rubbing his head trying to maintain his patience. She’d hired him to find the truth, though she wasn’t exactly paying.
Regardless, there was no reason she couldn’t continue working her angles. Maybe Sterling didn’t know anything, but she had to ask. Seeing him face-to-face would be the only way to tell if he was lying about his knowledge of her mother. This was too important to do over the phone and she didn’t want to wait.
“Let me handle this,” he finally told her. “I’m not trying to keep you out, but I do have a method and a plan. I promise, when the time comes to confront him, I will drive you there myself.”
Paisley wanted to argue, she wanted to hang up, close her shop and head straight to Sterling Perry’s house. But the other part of her knew Lucas was right. He did this for a living, plus she’d gone to him for his help, so going against it would only be counterproductive. She fully believed he had her best interests at heart. If he wanted to keep things from her, he never would’ve told her about Sterling’s release.
Paisley just wished the process would speed up so she could know once and for all.
“I won’t go,” she conceded. “But I don’t like this.”
“Duly noted,” he replied with a low chuckle. “I’m going to be late tonight, but I’m having your favorite Thai food delivered at seven. I figured that would give you enough time to get home, unwind, have a glass of wine or whatever.”
Well, damn. Hard to be upset with the man when he was sticking to his plan of being in charge of dinner each night. Why did he have to do these little things that made her fall more and more for him?