Spending time with him had shaped her idea of what a real man should be, she realized. He was really and truly a gentleman; he had refined tastes and a true appreciation for her, looking out for her comfort as if it were second nature.
She’d never met a real gentleman before.
Daphne felt a tingle up her spine. Caroline was a fool to let him slip away!
But instead of lifting her fingers to kiss them, as she hoped Rodric would do, he gently but firmly set her hands back on the table. Picking up his Scotch, his tone changed. “Besides that, there are only two and a half weeks left until I want to be moved in. First of September, remember? What do we have on the short list, as far as must haves?”
He’d broken the warm glow that surrounded them, but that was all right; she was a professional, after all. Even though we’ve become friends, too.
Daphne straightened up.
She didn’t need to consult a list, she had it all memorized. “Your sofas for the living area will arrive this week, and some end tables. Since you want something very unique and don’t want to be rushed, we’re deferring a decision on the coffee tables. There will be paintings and rugs and wall accessories and maybe a few sculptures for the living room to select in good time, but what’s really important is something comfortable and appealing to sit on, and we’ve taken care of that.”
“As far as your study, your desk and filing cabinets and other things will be delivered from storage tomorrow. The everyday dining table is already in the kitchen, so you have a place to enjoy your meals, and some of your kitchen items have come from storage as well.”
Looking at him, she lowered her eyes, suddenly embarrassed by the little fantasies she’d found herself entertaining that afternoon, in his apartment. Her voice was faint with nerves when she admitted, “I unpacked your things and started organizing the kitchen earlier.”
“Did you?” He nodded warmly, and those creases around his eyes deepened. He touched her hand again. “Thank you for that. A well-organized kitchen is very important to me, and I’m sure you know how to get it just right.”
She felt another warm glow of pleasure at his praise.
“Of course you do,” he continued. “The kitchen is the heart of the home, so it needs to be just so. I have no idea about any of that, but I’m certain you do. And soon I’ll be able to sit in the living room to enjoy the view on the new sofas, have my coffee and breakfast in the kitchen at the new table. You have no idea how happy that makes me, Miz Daphne.”
“Shall I organize the study tomorrow, so you can get to work right away?”
He nodded. “I’d really appreciate that. Estevez offered to set up my computer. He’ll coordinate everything with the utilities. Once my home office is up and running, I can take a few days and work from the apartment while I move in, to be more available to help with what you need.”
The thought of both of them together in the apartment made another wave of heat course through her middle, and Daphne became positively flustered.“So I guess…” She paused as the next item on the list tickled her throat, and then she swallowed. “Well, Rodric, I guess you’ll need a place to sleep.”
******
Extremely pleased, Rodric polished off the last of his Scotch. His groin jumped when Daphne mentioned the bedroom, and it took some effort to resist throwing a ‘significant look’ her way.
As the waiter re-filled his water glass, he pretended to think, steeling himself to avoid temptation. Pressing his lips together firmly, he said, “Hmm”, but he could actually feel himself lunge across the table, bury his hands in the smooth blonde gorgeousness of her hair, and claim the sin of Daphne’s plush lips. Doing that in the middle of the week in downtown Austin at Jeffrey’s guaranteed his mother would have news of his escapade in Dallas in less than twenty-four hours. Not to mention the humiliation of it all if he wasn’t successful in winning Miz Daphne’s hand.
Content to be satisfied with the shy, confused, yet somewhat hopeful look in Miz Daphne’s eyes, he said, “Welp, it’s silly to pretend my apartment will be as comfortable as it could be with a wife, Miz Daphne. I want to be married, of course. Perhaps I should hold off, let my fiancee choose our bedroom furniture? I can only imagine she’d like that honor herself.”
He creased his brow further, like he did in closed-door negotiations when he wanted special concessions made. This was a very specific concession, so he had to play his hand carefully. “Should we put the master bedroom furnishings off?” he continued. “Perhaps we can furnish a guest room in a style that would suit me, and leave the master for later?”
Daphne’s brow twitched. She swallowed, and he rejoiced inwardly at how disappointed she looked. “We could do that,” she admitted. “Certainly the guest rooms have lovely closets and baths. Nothing like the closets or bath in the . .” She paused, straightening so that he was again conscious of the luscious curves of her blue bosom. Her sumptuous long legs shifted under the table, and he could only hope this conversation was as arousing to her as he was finding it. Sipping her champagne, she swallowed, finishing, “. . master bedroom, of course.”
“No, of course not.” Ten years in the courtroom had perfected Rodric’s poker face. “Miz Daphne, it is true that none of the amenities in those rooms compare to the closets and bath in the master bedroom. Those big, sectioned rails are just perfect for hanging clothes, and the sliding drawers and shelves are ideal for my wardrobe. There is plenty of room in that closet for my future wife’s things, too, don’t you think?”
Daphne nodded, reaching quickly for her champagne glass. As she gulped, he shifted his leg slightly, so his suit trousers brushed her bare leg.
The contact sent a fresh rush of sex to his groin, and he steadied his voice carefully.“Of course, the bath has the jet tub and double shower heads and glass walls, too. I do like all those mirrors in the closets and baths . . I like mirrors, a man can really enjoy a nice, wide, floor to ceiling mirror. I could imagine some…”
Daphne leaned forward, flush-faced, to hear his next words, shifting so he felt the pressure of her calf on his lower leg. Mission accomplished, he cleared his throat and pulled back, keeping it proper.
So she did too, biting her upper lip in consternation. Clearing his throat again, he said, “I’ll keep just my suits in the guest room closet. That’ll be fine, my suits and shirts and ties are sure to fit in one of the smaller closets. And I’m a single man, a bath doesn’t matter, I just need a shower before work in the morning and after the gym at night.”
She nodded and blushed. Smiling demurely, eyes downcast, she said, “Yes, I suppose so.”
A waiter arrived with their appetizers. They unfolded their napkins to spread on their laps, letting conversation cease for a few minutes. Until he felt Daphne’s eyes on him, curious again.
“Rodric, with three guest rooms… Can I ask. . Are you planning many visitors?”
He polished off an oyster on the half shell, buttering a roll before answering. “To be perfectly honest, Miz Daphne, I am not. I work in Austin, so I don’t often spend my leisure time here. My mother likes to entertain. She has a pool, tennis courts, stables and a small staff to do so, so I can hardly rain on her parade. I can’t imagine trying to keep guests busy at my place, other than a weekend here or there to listen to some music. I like to get away, which is why I visit Ty at Red Rock so often. I’ll take my company to LA or New York or Paris, even the Grand Canyon, for heck’s sake.”
Daphne’s brow furrowed. “But your place has such large dining and living rooms. When I sat with your mother, she mentioned you’d need a table that sat at least a dozen. She said you’d prefer more, and we agreed that dining room could easily hold eighteen or twenty for a nice sit down dinner.”
Her tone was so polite, so far from that of the brash blonde filly he’d come upon at the rodeo, he was touched, poignantly so. As attractive as Daphne had always been to him, she’d become positively precious this past week, showing him just how sweet and kind and t
houghtful and utterly adorable she really was.
Has she changed this much for me?
The thought excited him, charged him with a need to protect her, encourage her, support her. Truly amazed as he was at her transformation, he wanted to reveal just how much she meant to him.
Then, he thought of Ty’s words.
If he spoke too soon, he’d crush the promise of the plan he’d worked so hard for. This was the most important business deal of his life, he reminded himself. He absolutely had to hold the line, proceed slowly.
“That’s so, Miz Daphne. I’ll need plenty of seating in those rooms and in the kitchen, too. I’m often called on to host cocktail and dinner parties for twenty to forty, for the firm’s business or for local charities. I like organizing impromptu get-togethers for my local friends, too.”
He bit into the buttered roll, and chewed. Swallowing, he said, “Caroline and I had a large home, and I hoped to host our friends there. She seemed happy to plan a party for her friends but mine… Mine didn’t usually make the list. It was a problem. In our marriage.”
“I see,” Daphne said delicately, holding her heavy silver fork to her mouth, teasing her lips around a bit of carpaccio. Watching Miz Daphne’s lush pink lips close around a piece of fresh beef just about blew Rodric’s resolve.
He was inflamed by everything about her. This new, polite consideration she showed him, her fabulous dresses, so appropriate for the occasion, her elegant, understated hairstyle…He found himself lusting for her more than ever before.
He was past wanting to lunge across the table and take that mouth. He wanted her naked, pressed against him.
If he thought he could have her that moment, he’d call the limousine back, tear their clothes off inside and take her under him on the seat, before they’d even made it the best suite the Four Seasons Austin had to offer. Alternating fantasies of sheltering her and grinding himself into her had plagued him the past week and a half, but now he was positively consumed.
It was a passionate fury he’d never felt before. Or was it a furious passion? He was a logical man, but when it came to Miz Daphne, he’d lost all sense of proportion. In order to distract himself, he started counting backwards from one hundred.
“So you needed a big apartment for entertaining, and that big master and the three guest rooms just came along with it?” she asked.
Rodric cleared his throat, uncertain how to proceed. She raised her eyebrows, waiting for him. He felt his face flush, and his erection wilted slightly. But he had to stay true to his mission, so he might as well lay his cards on the table and see how she took it.
There was no sense holding off. If she wasn’t on board with his master plan, better to know now, while he could mop up the damage and move on without losing too much face. Sitting up taller, he made sure his face was very grave.
“Miz Daphne, they aren’t guest rooms, exactly… ” He made a conscious effort to seem very involved with buttering what remained of his roll. “One is for overnight staff, a night nurse, should my wife request it, or for a sister, if she chooses. One room is for my mother, who I couldn’t possibly keep away. And the smaller one…”
His voice fell. He felt his throat tighten. Although he’d overseen the tensest of negotiations professionally, it was a strain to continue, because this was the subject over which his last marriage had collapsed.
“The one adjacent to the master?” she asked, looking confused.
“Yes,” he said, making sure his voice sounded very grave, and not the least bit hopeful.
A little breathless, but still very confused, she said, “You had a door cut, so you could pass into it from the master closet. The carpenter just finished the doorway, I noticed this afternoon. Were you thinking of a private study or sitting area, perhaps?”
Rodric cleared his throat again. Lowering his voice further, he made sure to speak decisively. “That room is a nursery, Miz Daphne. For the baby. Should such a blessed event occur.”
Grabbing for her champagne flute, Daphne gulped a long draft then set her glass down. Blinking, her voice rose three octaves. “The baby?”
“Caroline decided she didn’t want children after we married. That is why we divorced. I want children, Miz Daphne. At least two, hopefully three or four.”
Daphne’s face flushed. She proceeded to suck down the remainder of her Cristal, but when she set the empty glass down, she said nothing. She’d listened carefully to everything he’d said, offering nothing but cautionary acceptance, he realized.
He was pleased. Very, very pleased.
Daphne was more irresistible than ever, now that she’d let her guard down with him. With flushed cheeks and modulated tones, her touches soft and tender, Miz Daphne had become his dream come true.
And if he wasn’t mistaken, she was coming over to his way of thinking about them as a couple. She’d finally begun to recognize the man he was. Highly receptive, she’d offered no resistance whatsoever to his plans for them. Certain that a wife and children would fulfill him, he’d known all along he could love Daphne, accept her shortcomings and make a marriage work.
It was one thing to select a wife, entirely another to realize he’d found a superior match. Almost certain that Daphne was his perfect wife, Rodric was well on his way to falling supremely, irreversibly, magnificently in love. Not only would she satisfy him sexually and emotionally sufficient to weather the bumps in the road, but if she fell in love with him, if she truly loved him, she could make every day of his life the most gloriously sumptuous imaginable.
Of course, Daphne didn’t exactly know she was the woman he had in mind to take for a wife. And if he were to continue to follow Ty’s advice, it might not be a bad idea to keep her guessing. He’d played his hand well, very well, and it felt like the master plan was working. All in all, this quick drink before the showrooms had most satisfying.
In fact, he considered it a quantum leap forward.
6
It was strange to Daphne after their conversation at Jeffrey’s over oysters on the half shell and carpaccio, “Just to tide us over,” Rodric had said, after she’d stopped at her third glass of champagne, leaving a good portion of the delicious Cristal in the pretty green split, that they found themselves in a showroom packed with master bedroom furniture, surrounded by king-sized beds.
What ever are we doing here?
Despite her polite reminders that it was the guest room that needed furnishing, Rodric persisted in leading her on a wander amongst wardrobes and chests and dressers of every style, and they kept discovering the broadest, sexiest beds Daphne had ever seen, big bedsteads with headboards and footboards that she found incredibly appealing.
In fact, these beds, all set up in fake bedrooms that looked just like the magazines pictures, were more arousing than any she’d ever seen. It was a bit of an aphrodisiac, she had to admit, even with Rodric, well, especially with Rodric, since he was still in his suit.
The beds were just like the champagne had been, back at the restaurant. Walking together amongst the beds, their hands seemed to brush often, touches that sent tingles down her spine, followed by a warm rush to her middle.
She couldn’t, in fact, keep from picturing herself in some of the beds with Rodric, not in the act, exactly, but certainly waking up together; she in a lovely nightie and matching robe, he in a dressing gown over silk boxers.
His bare chest must be very broad. Maybe it’s even hairy! She so liked safe, broad chests, with enough hair to suggest the masculinity of the man underneath, but not so much she’d have the urge to wax his back… The flush of heat in her face was because suddenly, she could imagine herself fingering the tangle of Rodric’s chest hair, and almost had to pinch her knees together to keep from flopping back onto one and pulling him on top of her.
“That set over there, with the European-looking tester bed. What do you think? Elegant but comfy-looking? Rather ornate, but sexy and interesting perhaps?”
The words just popped from
her mouth! Her thoughts had been a faint ones, not fully comprehended even… Why? Hadn’t she been thinking of dressing gowns and … Oh, brother!
“Why, yes, it is,” Rodric answered, sounding very agreeable. More than agreeable, in fact, responsive. Kind and gentle, but very masculine, a helper and provider, yes, definitely a good provider, just the way the broad tall man with the hairy chest who woke up next to her in that bed would have to be, she thought.
He walked towards it, deliberating, not rushing in any way. “I like the bed,” he said slowly. “And I like the heavy nightstands and dressers that match. It’s pecan, isn’t it Miz Daphne?”
“The low antique table of your mother’s I picked out is pecan, too!” Daphne exclaimed, unable to hide her excitement.
His thick-muscled hand, fingernails so clean and well-kept, wrapped the heavy, etched rope-patterned baluster of the four-columned tester bed. He pressed on its luxurious bedding, testing the mattress below, and her knees went weak, as if she might fall onto it in a puddle.
“You thought that low pecan table might work in the alcove in the master bedroom, flanked by two upholstered chairs, didn’t you?” he asked slowly, not meeting her eye.
Daphne’s cheeks flushed with excitement that he had actually remembered her suggestion, that he cared so much about her ideas for the master bedroom of all places! The exact room he’d determined he’d let his wife furnish!
“I have a mock up of it laid out on my master bedroom board!”
Daphne was glad Rodric liked her ideas more than those of the pesky, boring wife, whoever she’d be. Surely, she and Rodric would stay friends once he found her?
“My mother’s table will look very nice with all of this,” he said approvingly, glancing over the lovely, massive, ornate-but-not-precious pieces in front of them.
Rodric was suddenly very studied, giving away nothing.
She wished he’d look at her, meet her eye in that way he had, to let her know what he was thinking. Not just about the bed, but about everything; who he might share it with, if maybe he had a woman in mind? Some lawyer at his office, perhaps, or a silly, flirty assistant, a girl who already knew the different between pro se and Prosecco and prosciutto, words that he had used but that Daphne was just learning.
Designs On Daphne: (McGreers #4) Page 4
