“Preston…” Hadley giggles. “Can I take this blindfold off now?”
“One more minute. I just need to get you…there! Okay, you can take it off.”
Hadley tears the covering from her eyes, a huge smile on her beautiful face. “Preston! It’s perfect!” The shades over the windows have been retracted, allowing sunlight to filter in. Around us, vases are filled with wildflowers of every color.
But the smell of my breakfast casserole cooking in the oven takes the cake, or takes the bacon? Takes the cherries on top? Fuck, I can’t remember how it goes.
“Here, please sit down.” I pull out a seat for her, and she happily sits, tucking her baby blue sundress under her legs. “I’ll grab breakfast.”
“Sounds great!” she exclaims excitedly, rubbing her hands together.
Being careful not to fuck this up, I don my oven mitts and remove the casserole from the oven before placing it between us on the table. It looks perfect—cheesy, melty goodness on top, the cheese slightly bubbled, with the smell of bacon and potatoes hanging heavy in the air.
Holding up my finger, I rush to the fridge and grab the bottles of champagne and orange juice.
“Oh, mimosas!” Hadley squeals, clapping her hands.
“Yep! Just have to get the fucking cork off.” Trying not to look like I have no clue what I’m doing, I grip the neck of the bottle and begin to push on the cork.
“Pres? Do you need help with that?” Hadley asks. Clearly, I’m not as dapper as I thought I was.
“No, no. You just sit there and wait. I mean…you can get up if you want. I got this. Just one more second…” I shriek when the cork finally pops off, but instead of a cool James Bond move, the bloody thing bounces off the wall and smacks me right between my eyes. “Ow!” I shout, dropping the bottle of champagne. Of course, it hits the ground at just the right angle to explode into thousands of pieces.
“Fuck!” I yell, rubbing my head before wringing out the sticky alcohol from my shirt. “I’m such an idiot. I can’t even do one simple thing right.”
“Stop it,” Hadley says, pushing her chair back. “You’re perfect this way. It’s why I love you so much.”
“But—dammit. I-I just wanted to make this perfect for you.”
Hadley cups my face in her hands. “It is perfect, Pres. And look.” She points to the table. “We still have the casserole and orange juice.”
I stare into her bright blue eyes, see the love emanating from them, and wonder how the hell I got so lucky. “What did I do to deserve a woman like you?”
“Well for starters, you cook one mean lasagna,” she says with a wink.
“Hadley.”
“Yeah?”
“Kay I miss you?”
She scrunches up her face in confusion.
“I mean, can I miss you? Fuck.” I pull at my hair, wishing the words would form on my tongue.
Seeing my frustration, Hadley says, “Yes, you may kiss me.”
Smiling, I tug her towards me and plant the softest kiss on her lips. I don’t know how to be sexy, or dapper, or dominant. I just know how to be me.
Hadley responds, wrapping her arms around my neck, and opens her mouth to my tongue. I kiss her delicately, like the most cherished thing I have in the whole world.
But Hadley wants more. One hand slips up into my hair and tugs on the dark strands. I push against her, needing her closer, and in one smooth move, I lay her down on the table, right into the fucking casserole.
She pulls away from me with a smile on her face and begins laughing her ass off. I join in because if I’m not laughing, I’d be crying right now.
Just then the front door squeaks open, and in rushes Auston. “What the fuck happened to you guys?” he growls, looking at the disaster around us.
“Oh, just the usual. You never know what’s going to happen on a date with Preston,” Hadley admits with a giggle.
“Did you find anything?” I ask Auston, handing Hadley a kitchen towel.
Auston pulls his white hair up into a bun then nods his head. “It wasn’t easy. The Archangels weren’t so easily fooled this time, but I got a name. Abram.”
“Abram,” Hadley repeats, “Why does that sound so familiar?”
I recognize it too. “Because he’s buried near you, Had, in Caemeterium Primis. I remember seeing his obelisk while Administer was guiding us to Lucifer’s grave.”
Hadley shudders at Administer’s name, and I don’t blame her.
“He’s a Fate, and his sin is Greed. We need to find the others. Meet back in my dorm in one hour.” Auston rushes forward to give Hadley a kiss, then exits, white wings flapping powerfully behind him.
Show off.
Somehow waving my scythe around doesn’t have the same flare. “Come on, Had. Let’s get you cleaned up and then head back to Auston’s dorm.”
With a final, longing look at our uneaten casserole, Hadley and I make the trek back to the dorms. We stop at hers first, and I watch with a hard boner as she pulls the dress off her tanned body, revealing that she is wearing white, lacey panties under her dress and no bra.
Damn, her breasts are perfect. Supple and rounded, with perky pink nipples. Just looking at the way they sway on her chest as she rifles through her clothes makes my mouth water and my balls tighten.
Fuck.
Why did Auston have to choose that exact moment to interrupt our date?
“Like what you see, Pres?” I shake my head, realizing I was staring at her boobies, and look up. A smirk plays on her face, and her eyes twinkle with mischief. Hadley drops the new dress clutched in her hand onto her bed and saunters over to me, pressing her hands on my chest. “Can I get a raincheck?” she asks, her head cocked to the side.
I lower my head to hers, her breath fanning my face as I slide my fingertips up and down her sides. “You can have a cashier’s check, a traveler’s check, a gut check…anything. You are my whole world, Hadley. I’d give you my fucking heart if you asked for it. No questions asked.”
“Pres,” she whispers my name like a treasured secret before crushing her lips to mine.
“I remember when my titties used to look like that.”
Hadley’s eyes fly open, and she tucks her body tightly against mine, looking over my shoulder. “Aggie! What the fuck!” I walk with Had back over to her bed where she angrily snatches her new dress back up.
“It was a long time ago,” Aggie muses while Hadley pulls the new dress over her head. “Back then, people used to call my vagina the never-ending cum hole. Did you know, I invented nipple clamps and pickle-flavored lube?” Aggie begins to fondle her boobs through her shirt, which has a rooster on the front standing over the words ‘big cock.’
“Aggie!” Hadley gripes, but Aggie ignores her.
“I hold the Guiness Book of World Records record for the longest time wearing nipple clamps. My poor nipples weren’t right for weeks after. I had to suckle them myself. Turns out, the pickled lube is great on nipples as well as big cocks.”
“Aggie, I’m sorry but we don’t have time for this.” Hadley grabs my hand and storms from the room.
“I’ll save you a bottle!” Aggie shouts before the door closes.