Free Requested Surrender by Riley Murphy

don’t see where you indicate your love for the shirt. Your patented smiley face with the words , I’m completely delighted, beneath it appears to be missing.”
    “Ahhh,” She drew out the sound for effect. “You saw the paddle then?”
    “I did.” He walked over to her and she expected him to say something more about her defacing his prop when he surprised her by asking, “Do you know what legend says about the daddy longlegs spider? Folklore has it that if you see one in the evening you’ll have good luck. Amid all the chaos?” He pointed to her shirt again, “Dali saw hope.”
    He was so close she could feel the heat that poured off him, or maybe it was her own heat. In any case, she wanted to fan herself. She couldn’t look away from his probing gaze either. How had it happened? For a month and half she’d kept her emotional distance and now after their first real physical encounter she was one big responsive-to-him mess.
    “Did you mention something in your first note about breakfast? I’m starved.”
    She wasn’t and she probably wouldn’t eat a cereal flake given that she wanted to dive all over him at the moment, but she’d try to act natural. At least until she got a handle on this overwhelming lust.
    “Yes I had—” A buzzer went off and he frowned. “That’s Andrew. I’ll only be a second. I had him set the table up over there, by the bay window.”
    Lacy headed in the direction of the window, but not before she watched him walk back to his desk. This David was almost the David she was used to. Almost.
    “Lacy?”
    She turned before she sat down in one of the upholstered parson’s chairs. “Yes?”
    “Did you make your bed before you came down here?”
    “Yeah.” She went to sit down and then hesitated. “Wait, was that why Andrew buzzed you? Wasn’t it good enough?”
    “It was fine. Sit.” When he took the chair opposite her on the other side of the table she waited for him to say more. She definitely heard a ‘but’ in there somewhere. “But the beds are changed on a daily basis so there’s no need for you to go through the trouble.”
    She dropped her napkin on her lap and frowned. “Daily? Who are you, Oprah Winfrey? I hear she does the same thing.”
    He picked up his napkin. “And who are you? One of your friends again? I much preferred Lacy Pembrook, owner of a kick-ass Dali t-shirt.”
    She blinked as she had nothing to say to that. She wasn’t going to let him charm her.
    After he waited a beat he settled back in his chair and added, “And no, I’m not Oprah, but I admire her though. She’s an epic.”
    “Good to know. Strawberry?” She pushed the bowl of plump red berries his way.
    “No thanks. I prefer those served a different way.”
    Yeah, she didn’t have to burn any brain cells trying to figure out how that way probably worked. “You certainly have a lot of preferences .”
    “Guilty.” He hiked a brow and, worse than that, he shrugged. After all the grief he’d given her over the gesture last night, here he was doing it as he continued, “What can I say? I’m a man with particular tastes.”
    She narrowed her eyes. “Me, too.” Sinking back, her spine had barely rested against the fabric when she sprang forward to add, “Only I’m a woman.”
    His deep grin made her want to slide under the table. “Good to know. Muffin?”
    Oh for fuck’s sake. Why not? “Sure.”
    She chewed without tasting. Her every thought was that maybe she was in over her head here. He’d pegged her for a wanderer, but she was fast coming to see she was a deserter. Was there a difference?
    “So tell me, what’s the reason you take this getaway trip every year at this time?”
    She almost choked on her bite of muffin. Where did this come from? “Who told you there was a reason?”
    He didn’t even flinch, he just stared. “You did.”
    “Oh.”
    “Tell me.”
    She thought about it for a few seconds and decided either he was really smart or she was really