Danica could swear she’d set the damn alarm on her phone. Ever since she’d been reunited with the baby, her sleepless nights had ceased, and she now slept like a baby herself every night. Just like the day she’d fallen asleep with him at Orlando’s, the problem was she slept too well and too hard now. But she wouldn’t complain about the dreams she’d been having. Most of them consisted of the baby, but Orlando had made a few sizzling appearances in some of the ones that’d had her waking up breathless.
That morning she’d pulled out of one of the breathless dreams when she jumped out of bed and realized what time it was. She’d barely had time to rush through getting dressed before running out the door. She’d packed a change of clothes so she could shower at Orlando’s since she hadn’t had time to do even that.
She pulled into his driveway, rushing out and around her car, glancing at her watch again. He’d asked if she could be there at six and it was just after that now. Punching the unlock code to his door that he’d since shared with her, she got the door open and pushed through it but froze when she laid eyes on her glorious shirtless boss. She stood there, feet frozen in place, as she took in the exquisite sight before her. He sipped his coffee without a care in the world and smirked, looking a little surprised. “I thought that was you I heard drive up. You’re early.”
“It’s past six,” she said, still unable to completely look away from his magnificently chiseled abs and chest. “My alarm didn’t go off.”
Orlando shook his head with a smile. “I said six thirty. Little Man isn’t even awake yet.” He smiled even bigger. “Ever since you’ve started watching him, he’s slept in later and later each morning. That routine stuff really works. Just checked on him. Still sound asleep.”
“I could have sworn you said six,” she said, relieved when he reached for a shirt on the sofa and set his cup down. She didn’t know how much longer she could stand there without him noticing her shameless gawking. Holding up the bag with her clothes, she cleared her throat and tried to focus on that instead. “Brought a change of clothes since I didn’t even get a chance to shower. I ran out so fast.”
“Sorry about the mix up. I really did say six thirty.” He pulled the shirt on over his head. “But since you’re early and I don’t have to be out of here yet, feel free to take a shower before I leave if you want.”
She took him up on the offer and started toward the bathroom as he explained today wouldn’t be a full day for him. “I’m just going in for the video we’re shooting, but I should be back before noon, in case you have any plans for the rest of your Saturday.”
“I don’t.” She smiled, looking at him as he handed her fresh towels from his linen closet. “So, feel free to take your time. My only plans were to watch Oreo and maybe work on an assignment for my online class when he naps.”
“I’ll still be back early. I’ll buy you lunch, but feel free to help yourself to anything in the fridge or the pantry if you didn’t have time for breakfast.”
Danica nodded, smiling as she walked into his master bathroom. He’d insisted she shower in there since it was bigger and was fully stocked with toiletries as opposed to his guest bathrooms that were rarely used.
Closing the door behind her, she glanced around his bathroom. Sinking her teeth into her bottom lip, she tried not to put too much thought into the fact that she’d soon be standing in the very shower where that perfectly sculpted body stood daily, butt naked. She closed her eyes, inhaling deeply as she remembered the amazing sight she’d walked into already. Never in her life had she been so tempted to reach out and touch somebody. She turned the water on, glancing back at the door and feeling nosey. The only times she’d been in there were when she’d bathed the baby, but he’d been there with her each time, so she hadn’t been able to snoop. As quietly as she could, she opened his medicine cabinet. All the normal things you’d find in it were there, except one thing that called out to her—his cologne. “Fierce,” she whispered as she read the name on the bottle. “Perfectly fitting.”
Taking a whiff, her eyes nearly rolled to the back of her head. Now she knew what that incredible fragrance was she hadn’t even realized she’d smelled on him since day one. Putting it back, she got in the shower and took a quick one, enjoying the other smells she hadn’t realized were all Orlando like his shampoo and body wash. She got dressed quickly after getting out but couldn’t help giving into temptation and opening the medicine cabinet again. She reached into it and grabbed the cologne again, inhaling the tip. Feeling greedy, but not wanting to spray the bottle and leave the bathroom smelling like the cologne, she unscrewed the top and sniffed the bottle. It was a new bottle because it was filled nearly to the top. Inhaling deeply again, she took another heavenly whiff of it.
“Dani.” The knock at the door made her flinch, and some of the cologne dripped onto her top.
“Yes?” she asked, trying to get the top back on the bottle with her now wet hands.
“Shower work okay for you? I forgot to mention sometimes you have to jiggle the knob to get it to work right. Got someone coming out soon to get that fixed.”
“Y-yes.” She fumbled with the bottle, nearly dropping it in the process, but managed to get it back in the cabinet. “Everything worked fine. I’m done now. I’ll be right out.”
“Take your time. I just remembered the knob thing.”
She winced as she grabbed her things together because she now reeked of the intoxicating cologne, and she was sure the entire bathroom did too. Opening the window, she waved her hands in the air, willing the fragrance out. With no other choice, she finally opened the bathroom door and walked out into his bedroom. She’d been so busy trying to get the cologne back as quietly as possible, she hadn’t even bothered putting her hair in a towel. The baby was no longer in his crib, so she figured Orlando must be changing him in the nursery or getting the baby’s breakfast ready in the kitchen. Taking advantage of the extra time she had, she put her stuff down on his bed and rushed back into the bathroom to grab a towel. She whirled it in the air, frantically trying to move the smell around. Walking out backwards because the smell had inevitably seeped into the bedroom now, she continued to whirl it around all over and above her head as hard as she could. The baby cooing just behind her made her freeze. She squeezed her eyes closed for a moment, inhaling deeply, before turning around to face Orlando, who stood there holding the baby and wearing an amused smirk. “I knocked even though the door was open. But then I saw you were fully dressed, so I just came in.” He smiled even bigger. “What are you doing?”
“I uh, was just airing the bathroom out.” Her hand was at her hip now as if somehow that would make her look less like the crazy person he’d just walked in on. “You don’t want to get mold.” She cleared her throat, lifting her chin. “Very dangerous for the baby.”
Orlando nodded, still looking a little bemused. His brows furrowed suddenly as he took a few steps toward her. Slowing as he neared her, he lifted his head up, taking a whiff of the air around them until he leaned into her. “Is that my cologne I’m smelling on you?”
Feeling her face heat, Danica had no choice but to nod sheepishly. “Yeah, um, I hope you don’t mind, but I forgot to bring the body spray I use after I shower, so I borrowed a little of your cologne.”
“A little?” he took an even deeper whiff as he handed her the baby.
“I didn’t realize how strong it was.” She chuckled nervously as she kissed the baby’s forehead. “Might’ve gone a little overboard. Sorry.”
“Don’t be. That’s fine.” He searched her eyes, and Danica had to wonder if he was maybe having second thoughts about leaving the baby in the hands of her crazy ass. “Smells good on you, but I like your usual fragrance better.”
For a moment, she was caught in his intense eyes, and she swallowed hard as his eyes dropped to her lips. “Love Spell.”
“Hmm?”
“It’s the only fragrance I wear,” she explained as his eyes met hers again. “It’s a
body mist from Victoria’s Secret.”
Shaking his head, he cleared his throat as he glanced away and walked over to the dresser in his room. “Well, it’s a good one.” He grabbed his phone and wallet. “Listen. I gotta get out of here, but like I said I’ll be back early. There’s breakfast sausage, eggs, and orange juice in the fridge. Help yourself to anything in there and in the pantry. He had some juice, but it was too early for a full-on breakfast.”
“Don’t worry. I’m all over it.” She walked out of the bedroom behind him, shaking her hand through her wet locks, as he told her a little more about the video they were shooting. They reached the front door, and he turned to kiss the baby in her arms. His lips always came so close to her face each time he kissed the baby when she was holding him. It’d begun to make her body tingle, and she nearly held her breath. He walked away and down the stairs in a hurry. She stood at the doorway, waving at him and coaxing the baby to wave with her. The moment he was gone she walked back in, closed the door behind her, and leaned against it, shaking her head. “Why, Oreo?” She kissed his nose then pulled her blouse to her nose, inhaling more of that knee-weakening scent. “Why do these things always happen to me?”
Trudging her way into the kitchen, she set him down on the highchair as she began preparing his bottle. After feeding him, she got him ready for their walk to the park. It was still too early for her to eat. She’d work up an appetite and have breakfast when she got back. Their time at the park went on a little longer than she’d anticipated since it was such a beautiful day. They’d sat by the lake for a good long while as she read to him and they listened to Cri Cri on her phone. Then she took the longer trail in the park she didn’t usually take. But the baby was in a good mood, and she figured why not? By the time they made it back, she was ready to eat. After changing Oreo, she set him down on his highchair again with a baby biscuit to keep him busy.
Searching in the fridge, she found the sausage Orlando had mentioned but frowned at the eggs. She couldn’t fry an egg to save her life and scrambling them always turned into one big sticky mess in the pan. As impressed as Orlando was with her baby skills, she prayed he’d never ask her to cook anything. She was seriously lacking in that department. It’s why Delia happily took on all the cooking at home while Danica got clean-up duty. Even Dominic passed on her cooking and that guy loved eating. “Nope. No eggs today, Oreo.” She kissed him on the head as she walked past him toward the pantry. “Let’s see what we have in here that would cause the least amount of damage. Ooh, hotcakes.” She’d hadn’t tried making hotcakes in a long time, but her stomach growled now, and hotcakes and sausage sounded like a good combo. “Hotcakes and sausage, it is,” she said, turning to Oreo, who was happily going at his biscuit. “This should literally be a piece of cake, right Oreo? We got this.”
Chapter 15
Orlando
Without the distraction of work and the guys trash-talking all morning, Orlando’s thoughts were back to the one thing he could hardly stop thinking about lately—Dani. It hadn’t even been a full week now, and he was already feeling anxious about getting back home to be around her. He kept asking himself what the hell it was about her that he felt so drawn to. Those eyes held the key. Even as she stood there that morning, anxiously trying to hide her embarrassment, sopping wet hair and all, Orlando couldn’t get enough of those animated eyes. He chuckled now, remembering how she’d attempted to cover up the fact that she’d gotten into his cologne. “Mold my ass,” he whispered, shaking his head with a smile as he turned onto his street.
Only it’d excited him too much to know she’d been that curious about trying his cologne. But it’d been too close. Too damn close. If he wasn’t more careful about how much he wanted to taste that mouth now, she was going to catch on and he might ruin everything. Pulling into his driveway, already excited about seeing and spending more time with her again, he started to check his texts because he’d heard the notification when he’d been driving. He did a double take when he glanced up and saw the smoke coming from the open window, and his heart nearly stopped. He jumped out of the car in an instant panic.
Running up the stairs of his porch like a madman, he was reminded this wasn’t the first time that week he’d done so. He rushed in the house, surprised to see Danica doing the same thing he’d caught her doing that morning. Only this time she was in the smoke-filled kitchen with a dish towel. “What’s on fire?” he asked, anxiously looking around.
Danica froze again the way she had that morning. “Nothing is.” She turned to face him with a wince that almost had him smiling. “I was just cooking, and it got a little smoky, so I opened the windows to let some of it out.” Orlando glanced at the blackened sausage and oddly shaped pancakes that were also burnt along the edges on the stove. “I made hotcakes and sausage.” She winced again as she motioned to them. “Probably had the fire on too high.” She shrugged, biting the corner of her lip. “I’ve never been able to make just a small batch of them, so there’s enough for both of us. Are you hungry?”
Clearly, cooking was not her forte, but Orlando didn’t have the heart to pass on her offer. “Yeah, actually, I could go for some pancakes.”
“And sausage,” Danica said, walking toward the stove.
“And sausage,” Orlando repeated as he eyed the charred sausage he’d now be forced to eat as well. “There’s a vent for the smoke.” He turned it on just under the over-the-stove microwave.
“Oh, is that what that is?”
Smiling now, Orlando turned to her. “I take it you don’t spend a lot of time in the kitchen.”
She turned to him, crinkling her nose, and God damn it if even that didn’t have him wanting to take her in his arms and devour that mouth. “My sister does most of the cooking at home. Well . . .” She pulled a plate out of the cupboard. “She does all the cooking. But there are some things I can cook.”
Curious, Orlando smirked as he watched her plate the pancakes and scorched sausages. He wanted to ask what things because it sure as hell wasn’t this, but he nodded instead. “Oh?”
“Yeah.” She turned to him wide-eyed and smiled. “I bake stuff with my brother sometimes.” The smile waned a little as she seemed to ponder something, and her teeth sank into her bottom lip again. “Course even he’s better at it than me, and I usually just assist, but I’ve made cookies on my own before, and they’re not always burnt on the bottom either.”
Orlando chuckled as she walked the plates over to the dining room. “Well, you can’t be good at everything, and we’ve already established you’re awesome with the baby. Speaking of . . .” He glanced in the direction of his bedroom. “Is he down for a nap?”
“Yeah, we were at the park a little longer than usual, and I guess it wore him out.” She walked back into the kitchen and came back holding a carton of orange juice and two glasses. “It’s what threw my cooking off a little. I had to go put him down when he started getting fussy and forgot to lower the flame.” Trying his best not to laugh as he glanced down at his plate, Orlando braced himself. “Oh, almost forgot.” She rushed back into the kitchen as Orlando poured the juice. She came back with the syrup. “Can’t have hotcakes without syrup.”
“Nope, you can’t.” He gulped as he poured the syrup over his pathetic-looking pancakes. She watched him anxiously as he brought the piece he speared with his fork to his mouth. He chewed slowly, trying not to make a face. “It’s a . . .” He pointed at the pancake on his plate. “It’s a little raw in the middle still.”
“Is it?” she said, looking noticeably disappointed. “You don’t have to eat it, Orlando.”
“No, no.” He shook his head, determined to finish the damn plate now. “Some parts are cooked all the way.” He smiled as he speared a black sausage and brought it to his mouth, smiling even bigger as he chewed it. “Nice and crispy.” The grateful and very sweet smile alone was worth the sand-like texture floating around in his mouth. They got off the subject of her food, as she told him about her morning w
ith the baby.
“I need to get him sunhats,” she said as she picked away at her pancakes, looking for cooked parts. “It’s such a beautiful day today and I like him getting sun, but his skin is so fair and delicate for direct sun. We ended up under a tree today because, even though I slathered him with baby sunblock, he still started to blotch.”
Watching her as she picked away at her pancakes, Orlando was back to wondering if this was the key to the inexplicable lure he felt to her. He’d thought it was her eyes before, but even this sexually innocuous comment had him nearly hard. That she’d be that genuinely uncompromising and concerned about his boy’s safety after less than of week of getting acquainted with them was just another one of the things he found so endearing about her. It felt as genuine as when she spoke so affectionately of her siblings. “Tell you what,” he said, finishing the last of the few cooked through pieces of pancake on his plate. “When he wakes up, since you said you had nothing else going on today, you wanna hit the swap meet? I’m sure they have a ton of baby clothes and sunhats there. You’re probably better than me at picking out that sort of stuff.”
Her bright eyes widened, making Orlando smile instantly. “We could do that, and they have some good food there too.” Her smile waned a bit as she glanced down at her plate. Unlike Orlando, who’d braved the charred sausage, she hadn’t even touched the two on her plate and most of her pancakes were still there as well. “I mean, by then, we’ll be hungry again, right?”
“Yep,” Orlando nodded. “And I did promise you lunch.”
She reached for his plate, smiling even bigger. “You’re done, yes?”
Orlando nodded, feeling too damn excited about the prospect of spending yet another day with her. He inhaled deeply, reminding himself she was engaged and any time he spent with her was all for the sake of the baby. Nothing more. But hot damn if his head wasn’t already working on what to do or say next to be indulged with another one of those bright and excited wide-eyed smiles.
Orlando: Boyle Heights #4 Page 15