Chapter 21

21

TALLULAH

W ith only a week left before the Hallow’s Eve Festival at the plantation, preparations were in full swing. I’d spent most of the last week getting the rest of Niall’s properties ready for Halloween, but I was happy to be spending most of my time at the plantation now that everything else was taken care of.

Mostly, I was also just happy. Thanks to a certain not-so-prickly-after-all businessman, I was smiling more than I ever had.

Niall Morrison was making me feel like a one-woman powerhouse. He honestly made me feel more self-assured and more confident than ever before. Like I was capable of absolutely anything I put my mind to.

At the same time, he also made me feel safer and more protected than I ever had, but not in a way that made me feel stifled or trapped. It was more he gave me the confidence to fly, safe in the knowledge that he’d be waiting when I got back.

I’d honestly never known it could be so good to be in a relationship. To me, relationships had always been about control—and not in the fun or sexy way. All I’d ever seen growing up was my dad’s control over my mother, her control over me, and eventually, Carter’s control over us all.

Niall was all about control too, but he didn’t wield it like a weapon. He didn’t use his considerable power for bad. If anything, he’d already taught me that, like with anything in life, balance was key.

I found it insanely sexy to know that a guy who looked like a male model and held the amount of power he did could have such a good heart. He’d been nothing but patient and kind with me, reassuring me every step of the way and yet never doing it by patronizing me or making me feel condescended to.

It was starting to feel like we were two halves of the same whole, and I couldn’t get enough. It was hard to believe it’d only been a week since I’d felt so very insecure about being with him.

What a difference a day can make, indeed.

By the time I’d left his place on Sunday evening, I’d felt like a new person and there had been no doubt in my mind that I’d done the right thing telling him the truth.

A knock at my door pulled me out of my thoughts and I smiled, leaving the kitchen to meet Sayra for our walkthrough of the main house. She grinned when she saw me. “Someone looks like she’s had a good day.”

I chuckled. “It’s been a good week. Everything is finally coming together for Halloween and I’m getting so excited, I’m not sure I’ll be able to sleep until it’s here.”

“Oh, right. That’s why you won’t be sleeping,” she teased, linking her arm through mine. We strode over to the Carmichael house together. “How was the party at Niall’s last weekend?”

“It was good,” I said, downplaying it a little. “Everyone was really impressed with the mini haunted house, so I better hope this place lives up to their expectations now that I’ve set the bar high.”

“To be fair, Niall’s neighbors won’t be the ones sleeping at the plantation, so I don’t think we should have any trouble,” she said. “At worst, they walk through the haunted house here and tell each other that the one at Niall’s house was better, but at that point, they’ve already paid to walk through this one and the other tourists didn’t see that one, so we can’t lose.”

I laughed. “That’s one way of looking at it. How was your week?”

“Not as good as yours, apparently.” She grinned when she glanced at me. “You can tell me all about it later, though. I brought a bottle of wine for us to crack open, but for now, I guess you better tell me what I need to know for work.”

“Right,” I said, instantly switching gears. “The first floor of the old Carmichael place is going to be the haunted house. Upstairs, I’ve decorated the guest bedrooms, so those are almost ready for the exclusive guests to stay the night.”

“Alright,” she said. “The tours are sure going to be interesting this weekend. I wonder if we should talk to Niall about possibly shutting them down for the week.”

“Nah, it should be okay,” I said. “The festival only starts on Friday. On Saturday, we’ll have the haunted house and a large luncheon, and then Saturday night, we’ve got the huge party with food trucks, a beer and wine garden, and a concert with local bands. Normal tours will be out of the question next weekend because of all that. I don’t think we should shut them down this week as well.”

Sayra nodded slowly. “Whatever you say, boss lady.”

I laughed. “Hardly.”

She arched an eyebrow at me. “An email came through saying to defer to you about everything festival related. That makes you the boss of the festival.”

My heart skipped a beat or five as her words sank in. “I guess it does. How awesome is that?”

“Congratulations,” she said softly, squeezing my arm. “You’ve worked your butt off on this and Niall has noticed. That’s a good thing, Tallulah.”

I smiled, taking a moment to turn and look out at the grounds when we reached the porch of the main house. Next weekend, thousands of people would be descending on the property and I was so damn excited to show off what I’d done.

I had achieved a lot, both here and at Niall’s other properties, and no one could ever take that away from me. It was a feather in my cap, and I was further validated when I even got a few yelps from Sayra as I walked her through.

“This is amazing,” she squealed as I showed her around. “It doesn’t even feel like the same house, and I’ve been working here two days a week for years .”

I did a little victory dance, tucking my elbows into my waist and putting my thumbs up as I sashayed from side to side. “Yay! I’m so glad you feel that way. I’ve been so worried about what people who had been to all the other festivals would think.”

“You don’t have anything to worry about.” She laughed as she waited for me to stop dancing. Then she grabbed my arm. “Come on, let’s go get that wine. It’s too damn creepy in here.”

Chalking it up as a win, I walked back to the guest house with her, popping in to grab us each a glass while she opened the wine. We settled on my porch, watching dark clouds roll in as the trees around the plantation started swaying slightly in the breeze.

“So.” She sipped her wine and tucked her legs underneath her on the big old rocking chair, her body angled so she was facing me. “Tell me about the party. Was it a date?”

“I still don’t think it was meant to be one,” I said honestly. “It did kind of end up feeling like a date, though.”

Excitement flashed in her eyes. “Seriously? You had a date with the boss at a fancy party?”

“I guess I did,” I said. “It was really nice.”

“Nice?” She scoffed. “You’re going to have to do better than that, girlfriend. What did he think of the dress?”

“He loved it.” I smiled and pumped my eyebrows at her. “I, uh, I ended up telling him the truth too and you were right. He wasn’t mad at me when he found out I’d kept it from him.”

“Good.” She reached out and squeezed my forearm. “I know you haven’t had much reason to trust people, but there are good ones out there and Niall is one of them. How did he take it?”

“As well as I suppose I could’ve hoped,” I admitted. “He got so tense, I thought he was going to start vibrating, but he wasn’t obnoxious about it.”

“Of course not,” she said, arching an eyebrow at me as she leaned closer. “Did he go all primal and possessive on you after?”

I scoffed. “I don’t even know what that means.”

“It means that I want to know if he took you to bed and screwed your brains out,” she explained with laughter in her eyes. “I love it when they do that.”

My cheeks flushed. “Is that really a thing with men?”

“In my experience?” She widened her eyes at me as she nodded. “Yes, it is a thing with them. Whenever they learn their woman has been wronged and they don’t know how to make it right, it seems they resort to orgasms. Which is why I love it. They take all that righteous frustration and turn it into sex goddery .”

“ Sex goddery ?” I snorted, trying to hold back more laughter, but then I found myself nodding. “I actually think I know what you mean now.”

“So he did do it,” she said triumphantly. “I knew he was that type. The alphas always are. I don’t even think they realize they’re doing it, but it’s like their instincts just drive them to claim you so they can feel better about not being able to protect you before.”

I snorted again. “I’m not sure that’s what it was, but okay.”

Sayra’s green eyes rolled. “That’s exactly what it was. Was it good, at least?”

“I don’t think we should talk about those details,” I said, hesitating when I remembered that he was her boss too. “We work for him. I’m just not sure it’s appropriate.”

She mimed zipping her lips. “I won’t say anything to anyone, I promise. You can trust me, Tallulah, but if you’re not comfortable talking about him, we also don’t have to.”

Eventually, I decided on a compromise. The truth was that I wanted to open up to someone about my feelings for him, but I also didn’t want to stomp all over his privacy by sharing personal details. “Can we talk about it without discussing the intimate stuff?”

She nodded. “Whatever you want. I was just curious, is all. Plus, I needed to get you talking about him and that seems to have worked.”

I laughed. “You’re definitely not wrong about that.”

She peered at me over the rim of her glass. “Okay, so talk to me. Last weekend, you said you wanted it to be a date and that’s what it turned into. Do you have, like, real feelings for him now?”

After pausing a beat, I nodded and groaned, my teeth sinking into my lips. “I do. My feelings for him are so real that they scare me.”

“They’re the good kind, then,” she commented lightly, smiling and supportive.

We kept talking about my developing relationship with him. Eventually, she told me more about her own life as well as her boyfriend, and when it started raining softly, we took our wine inside. Soon after, though, we heard thunder in the distance and Sayra immediately stood up.

“Shit, that’s a storm rolling in. I better get home before it hits.”

“Are you sure?” I asked, getting up to walk her out. “You’re welcome to stay.”

She glanced at the window and shook her head. “Thanks, but I have plans with Andrew later. My uniform and stuff are also at home, and I’m going to need it in the morning, so it’s just easier to sleep there.”

I nodded, saying goodbye as she took her leave. As I strode back inside, I thought back to the last big storm I’d ridden out in this house and smiled when that turned into thoughts about Niall. I wonder what he’s up to tonight.

When I tried calling him though, it went straight to voicemail. I sighed, deciding I’d run a bath and read a book to distract myself from how much I missed him. But I did miss him. All I could do was hope that he’d call me back later on and that maybe, if I was lucky, he might even agree to come by again tonight.