by Tonya Brooks
“She's special,” Mark admitted as he closed the trunk. “I've never met anyone like my Desiree.”
The possessive term caused a raised eyebrow and a smile. So, she was his now. Interesting. Very interesting indeed, Luke mused as they swapped car keys. “Don't stay out past midnight, son,” he joked. “Oh, and I expect the tank to be full when you bring her back.”
“Kiss my ass,” Mark grinned and went back into the mall to find his woman.
Desi had gone on to a store that specialized in kitchen products and she was like a kid in a candy store as she carefully selected dishes, cutlery and cookware. She paid particular attention to the pots and pans he realized in amusement as she balanced their weight in her hands and inspected the cooking surface critically.
“I like to cook with copper since it heats up fast and maintains an even temperature,” she explained absently as she decided against the one she held and selected another.
Mark slid his arms around her waist from behind and whispered against her neck, “Sounds like you're describing us in bed.”
“Uh-uh. We go from hot to scalding.”
“I'm heating up fast,” he warned as he pressed his pelvis firmly against her back side.
“Mark, please don't tempt me. I've got to pick out something to cook with,” she said seriously and pulled away from his loose embrace. Desi gave him a saucy look over her shoulder and promised, “But when we get home, I want to see how long it takes you to reach the boiling point.”
It wouldn't take long, he thought with a grin as he stared at the way the well worn jeans fit her perfectly rounded bottom. That had been over an hour ago and he was still waiting patiently, Mark realized as he stuffed the packages in the back of the Hummer. But it hadn't been too bad, he admitted to himself. Even something as mundane as shopping was fun when he was with her. It was obvious that Desi loved to shop and the woman didn't waste any time looking at everything in the store. She knew exactly what she wanted and that was the only thing that she bothered with.
This time he found her waiting for him outside the pet shop, tapping her nails on the glass while a playful puppy yapped at her from inside. Ah, hell. Please God, don't let her buy a puppy. He drew the line at a dog. “Pet's aren't allowed in the building,” Mark pointed out before she could get too attached.
“I don't want one,” she denied and laughed when the puppy began wiggling his little body in excitement. “But he's so cute and cuddly.”
“I thought you preferred handsome and sexy.”
“Anytime,” Desi readily agreed as she looped her arm through his. “I think I have everything I need.”
“Did you mean me, or were you talking about the apartment?” he teased.
“Both,” she smiled up at him as they began walking toward the exit.
Mark spotted a well known lingerie store and smiled wickedly. “I can think of a few more things you've got to have,” he said as he led her inside.
“Such as?” she asked with a matching smile.
“This is nice,” he said as he picked up a pair of crotchless underwear.
“That is sleazy,” she laughed.
“How about that?” he suggested and pointed to a black leather teddy.
“Does it come with a whip?” Desi asked with a straight face.
Mark couldn't tell if she were joking or not, so he decided against the leather. Whips were too damn kinky for him. His curious gaze roved around the store and he saw an emerald green negligee and matching robe. “I like this one,” he announced and his expression dared her to find something wrong with it.
It was a beautiful set. Very seductive and romantic. “It's lovely,” Desi admitted. “But not very practical.”
“Why not?” he asked with a frown and knew she'd look stunning in it.
“If I put it on, you'd just take it back off, so why bother?”
She had a damn good point, Mark realized.
“I suppose I could sleep in it,” she said when he looked disappointed.
“Like hell,” Mark refused and put the hanger back on the rack. He liked the feel of her naked body against his.
“Those are pretty,” she said and pointed to a matching bra and panty set.
“And sexy,” he added with a leer.
“Which color do you like best?” she asked indulgently.
“Why choose? Get one in every color,” he suggested. Something possessive inside of Mark liked the idea that something he had bought would be covering her beautiful body when she was dressed. And when she wasn't, he'd be covering her beautiful body.
“Mark, they come in a dozen different colors,” she pointed out and had no need for that much lingerie even if they were sexy as hell.
Mark frowned at her. “Baby, I've never bought a woman lingerie before, so either you pick out something or you're gonna be stuck with what I choose.”
Her eyes widened in surprise that he wanted to buy her lingerie. “I like these,” she admitted with a nod to the matching set.
“Good. So do I,” he said in relief as a salesperson joined them.
“Hi, Mark,” she smiled at him and glanced at Desi a bit uncertainly.
“Sandra,” he greeted in surprise and felt guilty as hell at having the two women together since she was the redhead that he'd been in bed with when Desi had called him the other night. How the hell had he possibly thought she could take Desi's place, he wondered absently. Other than the red hair, the two women were nothing alike, and only one of them held any appeal for him at all.
“It's Brenda,” she corrected dryly and understood why she hadn't heard from him again. It would be difficult to call a woman if you didn't even remember her name.
Ah, hell. “Brenda. Right. I knew that,” Mark said uncomfortably and when Desi gave him a curious look, hastily added, “We need these in every color.”
“What size?” Brenda asked as she looked Desi over carefully, visions of a huge commission flashing in her head. Desi told her and she selected the proper sizes in every color they had. “Anything else?” she asked hopefully. Lord only knew Mark had plenty of money and if she couldn't have him, at least she'd get a decent commission out of the deal.
“No,” Desi denied.
“Yes,” Mark decided. “We'll take one of those green gown and robes as well.”
“I thought we decided it wasn't practical,” Desi pointed out when Brenda went to get it.
“Unwrapping a present can be half the fun,” Mark informed her with a leer.
How could a woman argue with that? At that point Desi gave up and let him buy whatever he wanted to. When she finally dragged him out of the store, his arms laden down with packages again, she said, “You do realize you just bought me a complete lingerie wardrobe and I don't even have a drawer to keep them in.”
Drawer? Hell, the amount of stuff he'd just bought would fill up a dresser. “We'll go to the furniture store tomorrow,” Mark sighed and led her to the Hummer.
“What happened to the car?” Desi asked as he opened the back and placed the bags inside.
“It was either borrow the Hummer from Luke or rent a van,” Mark grouched as he shoved a bag back inside when it started sliding off the mound of packages. “I'm beginning to think I should have gotten the van instead.” The back of the SUV was nearly full.
“You're adorable when you pout,” she said with a grin and placed a kiss on his lips. “But don't worry, Mark. I'll make it worth all the time and effort.”
“You will?” he asked, that wicked grin back in place.
“By cooking you the best dinner you've ever had,” Desi assured him. “After we go to the grocery store.”
Grocery store. Damn. “Then let's go,” he urged as he opened the passenger door and lifted her up into the seat.
The trip to the grocery store was a true test of his patience, Mark realized. Desi needed all of the basics as well as a variety of unusual ingredients that were proving difficult to find. After he'd made three trips to the front to ask t
he cashier where an item was kept, Mark commandeered a bag boy and made him lead them to everything she just had to have.
The manager came to track down the boy since the cashier needed his help and Mark insisted the other man help them find the rest of the items. Since he knew Mark had never even been inside the grocery store before, Jimmy laughingly agreed and the three of them made a circuitous route up and down the aisles as Desi kept thinking of different dishes that she wanted to prepare for him and the ingredients that she would need for them.
When they finally arrived back at the apartment, he carried the groceries inside first and she began to put the perishables away while Mark unloaded everything else. “Why did we buy three boxes of confectioners’ sugar?” she asked at a loss how that had happened.
“Because you said you needed it three different times,” he pointed out as he placed a load on the floor and went back for another one. After hunting it down three damn times, he'd never forget confectioners’ sugar was kept on aisle six.
“One box would have sufficed,” Desi sighed and began placing everything that would fit into the small cabinets. Some of the larger items would have to go elsewhere. “For an efficiency apartment, it’s not very efficient,” she muttered.
“I heard that,” Mark said as he came in with another load.
“The cabinets are too small,” she complained.
“You're the one who bought half the grocery store,” he reminded her.
“You should have stopped me,” Desi frowned at him as she stared at the mountain of packages in the middle of the room. “Where on earth am I going to put all of this?”
“Damned if I know,” Mark admitted as he went back outside and brought in the box containing the entertainment center.
“At least I can get the TV's off the counter,” she sighed because both of them were taking up the entire counter.
“You could have hung them on the wall,” he said as he went back outside.
“But then I wouldn't have needed the entertainment center,” she called after him.
“My point exactly,” Mark called back as he removed the bistro set and closed the rear door. Thank God that was everything. He went inside, closed the door, leaned the box against the wall and stretched out on the sofa for a well deserved rest.
“What are you doing?” she asked in amusement.
“Resting.”
“Aren't you going to put the table together?”
“Now?”
“We can't very well eat dinner sitting on the sofa,” Desi said reasonably. “A meal that I can't even prepare with these televisions sitting on the only workable counter space, I might add.”
Mark glared at her balefully. “Are you always this bossy?” he grumbled.
“Only when I'm in the kitchen,” she said cheerfully.
He made a mental note to stay the hell away while she was cooking and sat up. “Fine. I'll move the damn TV's.”
He sat the televisions on the floor in front of the Arcadia doors to get them out of the way and went to put the table and chairs together. There wasn't enough room on the floor to do it, so he had to go outside on the patio, which meant he had to move the damn TV's again. Dammit. Women were high maintenance, Mark realized as he moved the televisions in front of the closet and bathroom doors.
He took the box outside and opened it to discover he needed an allen wrench to assemble them. Muttering vicious curses under his breath, he walked through the apartment and out the front door to open the rear of the Hummer and dig through his brother’s tool box for an allen wrench. He found one and prayed it was the right size as he retraced his path back to the patio. Thankfully it wasn't hard to assemble and only took a few minutes to put together. Once the table and two chairs were complete, he carried them inside and placed them in the kitchen area next to the front door where Desi had thoughtfully cleared a spot.
“It’s perfect,” she enthused with a brilliant smile. The wrought iron and glass table was light and airy and didn't make the already small room feel crowded. The matching chairs had beige and burgundy striped cushions that blended very nicely with the beige walls and carpet.
The sight of that smile made all of the aggravation worthwhile and Mark felt a warm, fuzzy feeling in his chest because he'd made her happy. “They do look nice,” he admitted. “Let's see how the entertainment center works out.”
Mark carried it outside and discovered the assembly would be more difficult than the table had been, but thankfully it came with instructions. The instructions didn't make a damn bit of sense, he discovered in frustration, but the pictures helped. He went back to the Hummer for a phillips head screwdriver and sat down on the concrete to connect piece A to piece D with part 13. Nodding in satisfaction when the damn confusing thing was finally together, Mark realized he was gonna have a problem getting it inside. Great. Just freakin' great.
“How's it going?” Desi said as she walked outside and handed him a beer. She had put the groceries, dishes and cookware away, placed the rugs on the kitchen floor and the linens in a drawer. The burgundy rugs added a spicy splash of color to the bland kitchen and she was pleased with the results.
The thoughtful gesture improved his mood. “Thanks, Baby,” he said absently and took the bottle. “I can't figure out how to get the damn thing inside without taking it apart.”
“You grab that end, and I'll take this one and...”
“Like hell,” he refused. “You're not picking this thing up. It's too heavy.”
“It is not,” she denied and managed to lift one end a few inches off the ground. Alright, it was a hell of a lot heavier than it looked, but Mark had been so sweet to put it together that she was determined to help. “See?”
Mark took a swallow of beer and shook his head. “The beds in the way and the damn things too big to go over it. I can't move the bed because there’s nowhere else to put it.”
“Oh,” she said in surprise and looked inside the apartment. “Why don't we just carry it around and bring it in the front door?”
Muttering imprecations under his breath because he hadn't thought of that himself, Mark handed her the beer and said, “Go open the door.”
“You can't carry this thing alone,” Desi protested.
“How the hell do you think I got it out here?” he grumbled and picked the piece of furniture up to carry it around the side of the building. Desi had the door open when he got there and she was busy clearing a path so he could put it next to the windows. “Are you sure this is where you want it?” Mark asked as he sat it on the floor. “You can't see it from the sofa.”
“You can when I move the sofa,” she assured him and handed the beer back to him. “I want it facing this way to give the two areas some sense of division.”
Which meant he had to move the sofa, Mark realized and drained the bottle. “Where do you want it?” he asked patiently and placed the empty bottle on the bar.
“Just turn it to face the window. I'll worry about placement later.”
He picked up the packages from the lingerie and linen stores and placed them on the bed, scooted the rest of them in front of the bar and slid the sofa around. Mark went to get the bigger of the two televisions and placed it in the entertainment center. “Where do you want the other TV?”
“Stick it in the closet.”
The floor of the walk in closet was full of boxes and the amount of clothes hanging above them was already bowing the rods. It was no wonder she had complained about the amount of lingerie he’d bought, Mark realized. She already had so many clothes there was way in hell she could wear them all. “I'm gonna put these boxes in my place to give you some more room in the closet.”
“That would be great,” she called back. “Make sure you leave the ones that have my shoes in them.”
He discovered that half the boxes in the closet were labeled shoes. How could a woman possibly need that many shoes, he wondered in exasperation as he sorted through them. Mark sighed and began carrying the rest of the
boxes next door to the nearly empty closet in his apartment and stacked them neatly against the wall. He had brought over a few pieces of clothes yesterday, so he wouldn't have to keep going home, and his closet looked barren compared to hers.
Going back to Desi's, he saw the bags on the bed and deciding he might as well get it over with, took them into the bathroom and placed the rug on the floor, hung the shower curtain, put the towels in the linen closet and the toothbrush holder on the vanity. He picked up their toothbrushes, stuck them inside and smiled when they rotated toward each other of their own accord. Even their toothbrushes seemed to be attracted to each other, he thought in amusement.
Stepping back into the main room, Mark put the lingerie bags in the closet, pulled the rumpled linens off of the bed and put the new ones on. He opened the bed in a bag package and asked, “Desi, what the hell is this thing for?”
She leaned over the counter and looked. “It's a bed skirt.”
Why the hell would a bed need a skirt? “What do you do with it?”
“It goes between the mattresses.”
“For what?” he grumbled and couldn't think of a reason why such a ridiculous thing was needed.
“To make it pretty,” she laughed.
Mark lifted the mattress and leaned it against the Arcadia doors while he draped the skirt over the box spring. Something didn't look right. Realizing that the ruffled skirt thing should be covering the foot of the bed and not at the head, he turned it around and slid the mattress back on top. The skirt slid across the box spring with the weight of the mattress and half of it wound up on the floor while the other half was naked. Dammit! Why did these ridiculous things have to be so difficult, Mark wondered as he tugged on the bedskirt. A slight tearing sound assured him that wasn't a good idea.