“Hey. What did I say?” Morgan danced back out of the way.
“Mix.” Bella sneered. “I don’t need no mix. That is sacrilege in our family. You make pancakes from scratch or you don’t have them. Mix.” Bella sniffed then shook her head. “I’m going to forgive you once for your saying that.”
“Okay, Bella.” Morgan went closer cautiously and stood behind her. He nuzzled the side of her face. Bella moved her head to give him better access. He kissed her neck then murmured, “You made us breakfast.”
“Yes. There are two types of pancakes—strawberry and blueberry—to choose from. Bacon is over there and so are the eggs.”
“Strawberry.” Morgan hugged her from behind. “You know the way to my heart.”
“You’re easy. Strawberry or coconut or a combination of the two and you will be putty in my hands.” She held up her hand, rubbing the fingers together. “Now go set the table and get our drinks.”
“Tea and juice for you.” Morgan stepped back. “Juice and coffee for me. Coming right up.”
He went to the fridge and pulled out the juice and poured one for each of them then took it to the table. After, he returned to the counter and made her tea then his coffee.
“Feeding my man so he can have his strength to please me.” Bella made a deep moan in her throat then rocked her hips and looked over her shoulder at him and winked before focusing and flipping another pancake. “He’s gonna need it because I am—”
“A crazy woman who makes him wild,” Morgan sang then got into it and belted out. “She’s going to need her strength because I am insatiable for her. Ohhhhh yeah.” Morgan shook his ass then turned to her.
Bella was staring at him, shock on her face. “Oh, my God. With that voice I was sure you could carry a note, but you can’t sing at all.” Bella came to him and hugged him. “But I give you an ‘A’ for effort.” Bella looked at him and smiled. “Now belt out with me. Make me yours, Big Daddy.”
“Make you mine, Big Mama.” Morgan chuckled.
Bella laughed then went back to the stove still singing. He echoed her lines and they sang and danced around each other. Soon the food was ready and Bella handed him a plate then picked up hers. Holding it in one hand, he slid his hand along her back, moving her with him, dancing them across the floor to the table. He released her and took their plates then set his and hers down. He reclaimed Bella and spun her away from him then back into his arms. Her delighted laughter filled the area. Morgan brought her against his chest and swayed with her in his arms. Bella’s face was alight with joy and Morgan’s heart filled.
“I love you, Bella.”
Chapter Eight
Bella smiled wider then smirked. “I know.”
“I know.” Morgan chuckled. “Is that all you have to say?”
“Yep.” She kissed the tip of his nose. “Well, maybe that I love you too.” She winked then hugged him. “I started wondering if you loved me before yesterday, but I knew you did when you sent all those people to keep me company since you knew I was worried.”
“I just didn’t want you to be alone worrying.” Morgan shrugged.
“Exactly, you cared enough to do something about my concerns. Do you know when I started to love you?”
“When you gave me candy that first day in the candy shop.” Morgan nodded. “Yep that was when. In my book, giving me candy is a declaration of intent to love.”
“I love your book. Maybe my subconscious knew what it wanted then, but it took my conscious mind a bit longer to catch up. It started when we went on the hot air balloon ride but actually, it was when we were playing pool with your friends from work that I finally got an inkling that I felt more for you.” Bella rubbed her hands along his back. “But I didn’t let it come to fruition until these last few weeks, with what was going on. I thought of what I would do if I lost you and it was unthinkable. Then yesterday when it was a real possibility I had lost you, I was cursing myself for not saying anything.” Bella closed her eyes briefly. “I was going to give you breakfast then we’d cuddle on the couch and I would tell you how I felt. After that there’d be lots and lots of sex to commemorate our saying we love each other. But you beat me to it by saying it first.”
“Love the way you think, Bella. Let’s skip the breakfast and cuddle then get right to the commemorating.” Morgan walked her backward, kissing her as they went.
“Hmmmm… That’s a fabulous idea.” Bella moaned.
Morgan lifted her. “Wrap your legs around me.”
She did and he held her ass, pulling her against him as he went to the open kitchen door. Bella licked along his ear then bit on it gently, making him groan.
“Love you, Morgan,” Bella whispered in his ear. “And when we get to bed, I’m going to drive you crazy before I let you come.”
Morgan hardened even more. “I’m gonna hold you to that promise.”
“Yes.” Bella whimpered, nuzzling under his ear.
Morgan hurried out of the door into the hall. He went towards the steps and up the first but the doorbell sounded, stopping him.
“Ignore it,” Bella urged.
The bell sounded again in quick succession.
“Someone seems to want to see you really bad.” Morgan groaned and set her down. “Hurry up and get rid of them.”
“Damn it,” Bella said loudly then stomped towards the door. “This had better be important.” She faced him, walking backward as she looked at him. “Why am I the one answering the door anyway?”
“Your house.” Morgan leaned against the banister of the staircase.
“Yeah.” Bella stopped before the door with her back to it. “Then since it is my house, thus my doorbell, I choose not to answer it.”
“I can see you, Bella!” Stuart yelled from outside.
She turned and looked at the window by the door. Stuart was watching her with a grin. Morgan snorted and sat on the step to wait.
“So glad you can see me. See this,” Bella said sarcastically then made a ‘go away’ gesture with her hand. “Get gone.”
“Open the fucking door, Bella,” Driscoll raised his voice then he appeared behind Stuart in the window. “We need you. Morgan can wait until later to get you naked.”
“Maybe I can’t wait till later to get him naked,” Bella said back in an equally loud tone then sighed. “Christ, why am I yelling when I should just open the door?”
“If you do then they will be inside and we won’t get to go upstairs,” Morgan pointed out.
“You’re not going upstairs,” Driscoll called. “Don’t make me pick the lock, Bella.”
“He wouldn’t.” Morgan leant back on the stairs, propping his elbows behind him.
“Yeah, yeah he would,” Bella growled then opened the door. “What do you two want?”
“Good, she’s dressed.” Driscoll pushed past her and inside. “Hey, Morgan. And he is also dressed.” He gave a wave then focused on Bella. “We have a photo shoot for the benefit we are doing.”
“What? No one told me that yesterday.” Bella put her hands on her hips.
“I got a call at three a.m. we were to report for this shoot.” Driscoll rubbed his hand roughly over his face. “So don’t whine to me about not being told yesterday. I wasn’t either until fucking three o’clock in the morning.”
“Uh-oh, who was crazy enough to call you at that time?” Bella ran her hand over Driscoll’s shoulder.
“The mayor.” Stuart bit his lip and from his gaze, Morgan knew he was trying not to laugh.
“Oh, boy.” Bella laughed and Stuart joined her.
Driscoll shrugged Bella off and came over to Morgan. He leaned on the railing by him then sighed. “Do you see what I have to put up with?”
Morgan didn’t even know what was going on.
“People who know Dris know unless he wants to be up at that time, not to call him. He’ll make you pay if you do. The mayor knows that and probably could have waited but knowing Nathan, he got excited and forgot.” Bella str
olled over. “That should exempt him from your”—she poked Driscoll in the side—“retribution.”
“Nope. The fucker laughed when I yelled at him for calling me at that time. Had the gall to say he forgot I needed my beauty rest since I had such delicate sensibilities.” Driscoll turned to Morgan. “Do I look like I’m fucking delicate to you?”
“Umm no.” Morgan glanced at Bella. “Why is he so cranky?”
“Because I was woken at three a.m.” Driscoll smacked him on the head. “Have you not been listening?”
“Hit me again and I will put you back to sleep.” Morgan lifted his fist.
“Bella, I love your man.” Driscoll laughed. “He has such a good sense of humour.”
“I’m not kidding.”
“I know.” Driscoll shrugged. “You won’t connect unless I want you to.”
“Why?”
“Because Dris has ninja skills.” Stuart rolled his eyes. “Or so he thinks. We’ve been training for years in all sorts of fighting styles. All of us, including Bella. Our security, when we performed, figured the best protection for each of us was ourselves. So we learned to defend ourselves.” Stuart jerked his thumb at Driscoll. “Except Mister Overachiever here decided to take it one step further and make all of us learn all sorts of fighting styles so we could adapt to any attack. Hell, he even had drills for possible attacks that could happen. Boy, I’m so glad we don’t have those anymore.”
“Crap. You’re right, we have been getting soft.” Driscoll slapped his hands together. “We’ll have a drill soon. Morgan can be one of the attackers. Remind me to tell the Lockes and our friends so we can get this going.”
“Now look what you did.” Bella slapped Stuart across the shoulder. “You know better than to put ideas in Dris’ head.”
“I know.” Stuart frowned.
“It’s too early in the morning for me to follow what you all are saying.” Morgan rose. “Especially with no coffee.” He went to the kitchen.
The others followed, bickering.
“Ohh… Breakfast.” Driscoll hummed. “Make me some eggs, Bella. Then we can get going. We need to be there by eight o’clock.”
“It’s only six o’clock,” Bella said, then, “Why the hell are you here so early? Better yet, you could have called.”
“We did try calling. The house, your cell and, hell, even Morgan’s,” Stuart said. “But we got a busy signal for the house and no answer on the cells. If you had answered, I could have been still in bed. Driscoll decided we needed to come here to rouse you and Morgan out of bed so we could make the photo shoot.”
“Stop whining,” Driscoll said. “At least I didn’t call you at three a.m.”
“I would have shot you,” Stuart growled.
Morgan absently listened as they went back and forth. He fixed his coffee then one for the others and tea for Bella. He turned and, holding the cups, went to the table by the window. He set the cups down before each of them. He sat beside Bella and took a sip of his coffee. He almost moaned as the blessed caffeine hit his system.
“Cells are on vibrate and the house… I have no idea why it had a busy signal.” Bella rose and went to check the phone in the kitchen then when they were fine she exited.
“You all really have bad timing.” Morgan lowered his cup. “Is there any way I can get you to leave? I promise to bring Bella to the shoot on time.”
“Not going anywhere. I’m up and moving.” Driscoll smiled. “Not leaving without Bella. So no nookie for you. At least till later. Sorry.”
“That doesn’t sound like you are sorry at all.” Morgan picked up a toothpick and flicked it at him.
Driscoll caught it and put it in his mouth. “I am sorry, but I still won’t leave. So are you feeding us breakfast or what?”
“Feed yourself,” Morgan said pulling his plate from their earlier breakfast they had left to him. “Hey.”
Stuart scooped up his plate and walked away with it. Driscoll did the same with Bella’s. Morgan thought for a moment to go after them but decided it wasn’t worth it. Bella returned and held up a cordless phone.
“This was on in the living room.” She placed it on the base to charge it. “That’s why the phone was busy.”
She came over and sat beside Morgan. Bella picked up her tea and sipped then lowered it. “Sorry about not being able to make you beg.” Her low words and sultry tone made his erection revive.
“Later.” He turned his head and kissed her.
Bella opened wide and leaned closer against him. She placed her hand on his upper thigh and rubbed. Morgan widened his legs and groaned.
“Get a room,” Stuart said.
Morgan slowly pulled away from Bella then looked at him. Stuart placed first one plate then the other before Bella.
“Oh, I thought you were going to eat our food.”
“We might at times act uncouth, but we do have some manners. We were only heating it up. Nothing is worse than cold breakfast.” Stuart snorted. “Humph, I should be offended you thought that.”
“But he’s not,” Bella said.
“Nope.” Stuart went back to the stove where Driscoll was already cooking something.
“Uncouth?” Morgan grinned. “Really.”
“Stuart likes to change things up with words.” Bella picked up her fork. “He has a thing for words and languages. He and Driscoll both do. They speak a few languages. So do I. It was good to learn the languages of places we toured at. It also gave us something to do when we were stuck on a tour bus.”
“I’d like to hear about it sometime.” Morgan placed his hand over hers. “Do you want me to come with you to the photo shoot?”
“Sure. If you want to. It might get boring.” Bella smiled wryly. “Then again with the guys, they tend to get into trouble to keep things interesting. Do you want to come?”
“I’ll get to spend time with you.”
“Awwww… That’s so sweet it is sickening.” Driscoll plopped down across from them.
“Someday, Dris, you’re going to be gone in love or lust and I’m going to love teasing you about how sickening it is.” Stuart snickered. “God, could you imagine Dris in lust or love over any woman? We’d have to warn the whole of Singleton he was on the loose.”
“Love is just a chemical imbalance that you can control if you have the right mindset.” Driscoll lifted his utensil and pointed it at Morgan and Bella. “No way would I be like them. At all.”
“That is going on a T-shirt,” Bella said.
“Make it gold. My favourite colour.” Driscoll took a bite of his food. “It might become my favourite saying and I’ll wear the T-shirt every day.”
“What are you putting on a shirt?”
“Love is just a chemical imbalance that you can control if you have the right mindset,” Stuart replied. “I’m thinking we need to have a few of them in various colours made up. Just so they don’t get worn from use.”
“I’ll put in some money for that.” Morgan used his fork to point at Driscoll in return. “And when you do fall in love and get this chemical imbalance, I expect you to wear a T-shirt that I’ll also have made that states ‘No one can control love even when they think their mindset is more powerful. I’m in love and I embrace the chemical imbalance’. I’ll hold onto that one until you do fall.”
“Then you’ll have it for a long time.” Driscoll smirked. “No woman will make me fall. Hell, they can’t handle me.”
“Put up with your crazy,” Bella and Stuart said simultaneously.
“Eccentric. I am eccentric, and, no, they can’t put up with that either.” Driscoll wiggled his eyebrows. “If I find a woman who can, I’d marry her before she comes to her senses.”
“Poor, poor woman,” Morgan said.
They all laughed. They bantered back and forth as they ate and the conversation continued as they went to the photo shoot in Driscoll’s SUV. They arrived at the indoor amphitheatre at Couric Park and the camaraderie lasted while they went in. Soon they were
separated as the others were swept away to be changed for the shoot. Morgan took a seat in the front row behind where the cameras were set up on the stage. People were milling about working to get things set up.
“How mad is Driscoll at me?” Nathan sat beside him.
Morgan was startled since he hadn’t heard him arrive. He noticed the bodyguards who were sitting spread out in the theatre.
“I’d watch your back.” Morgan shook his head. “He had this gleam in his eye that would make me find a way to apologise and hope he didn’t do what he planned.”
“For the love of God.” Nathan sighed. “I got excited and forgot his rule of not calling him between the hours of midnight and eight a.m. Only when he was performing did he take calls during that time.”
“You’re the one who I have to thank for him showing up at Bella’s door at six a.m.”
“Why was he there so early?”
“Something about not getting in touch with us and figuring he needed to come to us.” Morgan focused on the stage as he heard Bella’s voice.
When she came into view, he sat forward, swallowing hard. The gold gown with the sweetheart neckline fitted her body, showcasing her curves and making her skin glow. The sides of her hair were pinned back away from her face and her wild, kinky curls flowed around her, coming to fall just below her hips. Bella lifted her hand and the bell sleeves of her gown shifted back, displaying the diamond bracelet she wore around her wrist. Driscoll and Stuart, both in suits, came out to join her. On her right, Driscoll was in black while on her left, Stuart was in white. They looked good together. The trio started to dance the salsa. Driscoll twirled Bella into Stuart’s arms and her delighted chuckle filled the air.
“Let me get this started or they will be dancing fools and we’ll be here all day.” Nathan rose and went to the stage.
When he approached, Driscoll stopped and glared at him. Nathan said something that Morgan wasn’t close enough to hear. The four of them gathered and had a brief discussion. Nathan came back off the stage and sat beside Morgan.
“This is going to be interesting.” Nathan leant back in the chair.
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