by Emma Nichole
“Maybe I just like hearing you say it because you’ll at least say those words to me, even if you won’t tell me what is bothering you.”
She is reading me like a book. She’s always been able to do that. Even when I don’t know what I need on a professional level, she assesses the situation and makes everything better for me.
“I want you. All of you.”
I stand quickly, lifting her up to wrap around my body, and I carry her out of my office and back to my bedroom, leaving my mind and the sheet behind sprawled out on the floor.
Chapter 14
Piper
Ida,
Wow. Just wow. That’s all I can say about how last night went, or even how it’s going as we speak.
I’m lying in his bed right now and I’m speechless, sated, happy, and confused.
Casual sex is something I’ve done before and I actually pride myself on being good at, but nothing about last night felt casual. Not at all.
If anything, I’m more fucked now than I was before, because I don’t know if I’ll ever get enough of this. The connection is intense and addicting.
But he’s my boss, Ida. What the fuck have I done?
P
He comes out of the bathroom as soon as I press send on the email, now dressed in a pair of gray sweatpants. The infamous gray sweatpants that make women go weak in the knees and become hormone-driven maniacs.
“Okay, that’s just not fair,” I tell him, placing my cell phone on the nightstand.
“What isn’t?” He stands at the foot of the bed and crosses his arms over his chest. He’s a beautiful man in a completely traditional sense with his sculpted jaw, angular nose, and dark, intense eyes. At the same time, he’s beautiful in a unique sense with his slightly crooked smile and broad, strong shoulders that remind me of a Dothraki warrior from Game of Thrones.
I sit up and lean back against his soft, padded headboard. “You coming out in those sweats. That’s the male version of lingerie.”
“Sweatpants are lingerie to you?”
“Not just me, sir. All females. Trust me. I’ve done the research.”
His bedroom has a completely different feeling in the bright 9:00 a.m. sunlight. The windows are floor-to-ceiling with thick, blackout curtains that should be drawn, but they aren’t, leaving us exposed to the sun and anyone high enough in other buildings to see in. His walls are a rich gray with navy accents in the furniture. It’s sleek, modern, and very minimal… a polar opposite to my bedroom with my mismatched furniture and white walls.
“I would rather not hear about the research you’ve done when you’re naked in my bed.”
He crawls up onto the bed and makes his way over me. He smells freshly showered and like minty toothpaste.
“I can’t stay here forever you know. I should probably get over to work with my mom,” I moan and his hand traces along my leg.
“Wouldn’t you rather be here than chained to a kitchen all day?” He bends at the waist to nibble on my thigh. “However, I don’t mind the idea of you in chains, consensually, of course.”
My body tingles at the idea of being held in place, chained up for his pleasure.
“In your dreams,” I tease and throw my arms around him, pulling his lips back to mine.
I want to stay in this moment, right here, in his bed. Everything just feels calm and centered when it should be anything but those two things.
But the shrill ringing of my phone ensures that won’t be the case today.
“You should get that,” he says, but he doesn’t stop laying kisses all over my body.
“No. Let it ring. They’ll call back if it’s important,” I moan, arching my back off his mattress.
The ringing comes to an abrupt halt only to pick back up a few seconds later.
“That’s a call back.” He reaches over and pulls my phone from the nightstand and places it in my hand.
I look down at the screen and see “Mom” flashing brightly over the top of a picture of the two of us.
“Shit. It’s my mother. She never calls this early.” He crawls off of my body as I slide my thumb over the screen to answer. “Mom? What’s wrong?”
“Piper. You need to get here now, okay? Can you get here soon?”
She’s crying. I hear it in her voice immediately.
“Mom, what happened? Why are you crying?” I immediately climb from his bed and begin searching for my clothes, and he does the same, tossing me any of mine that he comes across.
“They are taking the restaurant. It’s happening. I thought I could work something out, but…” She doesn’t even finish. She just begins to cry even harder.
My mother never shows this kind of raw emotion in front of us. That alone pushes my feet to move faster.
My heart sinks to my feet and I sit on the edge of his bed with a plop. I knew this day would come. Anyone who can do basic math knew this day would come, but the fantastical side of me somehow believed we could save it.
“Just take a breath and try to stop crying. I’m on the Upper West Side. I’ll try to catch a cab. I’ll be there as soon as I can, okay? Don’t call Oliver and Ben yet.”
“I already have. They are on their way.” She sniffles and takes a heaving breath.
“Jesus.” They always go all caveman and make things worse sometimes. I love them, of course, but they can be a lot, which is the last thing she needs until I can get there and see what is really going on.
“They are part of this too, Piper.”
I cradle the phone between my ear and my shoulder and get dressed as quickly as I can. Nathanial doesn’t know what is going on, but he watches me carefully as he too dresses.
“I know, I just don’t need their chaotic energy right now. I’ll be there soon. Stay put and don’t freak out, okay?”
We say our goodbyes and I toss the phone onto the bed so I can pull on my shoes.
“Is everything all right?” he asks as he buckles his belt.
“I’m going to have to run. I’m sorry for the short notice, but something has come up. This has been incredible, Nathanial. Thank you for…”
He crosses the room in a hurry and cups my face in his hand, halting my actions completely. “Don’t talk as if this was a one-off scenario. You don’t have to explain yourself to me. You have a life and your family needs you. We can do this again. In fact, I’m insisting.”
I let my shoulders relax at his touch and I nod in agreement. “I’m sorry. I’d love to do this again.”
“I don’t know what’s going on, and you don’t have to tell me, but you are going to let me drive you wherever you need to go. It’ll be faster in my car, no matter where that is.”
I immediately shake my head. “No, you don’t have to do that. It’s a family issue, and I don’t want to take your weekend over with it.
He stops my words with a kiss to my lips. That single kiss tells me everything I need to know in that moment. He wants to be with me because he can see I’m upset. He doesn’t want to leave me yet.
“I’ll take you then head to the office. It’s nice to work when it’s empty anyway.”
“Do you ever stop?” I ask again, just as I did earlier.
“It’s who I am.” He shrugs, sliding his thumbs across my jawline.
“You’ll have to meet my crazy family. That’s a little fast isn’t it?” I ask against his lips.
“I think I can handle it.”
But can I? Nothing about this arrangement is normal.
Fuck it.
“All right. Let’s go.”
***
I filled Nathanial in on the restaurant issues as best I could on the drive to Brooklyn. I told him about the restaurant itself, and how my father took out multiple mortgages to feed a gambling addiction, and how he left us with a mountain of debt when he died that my mother knew nothing about, and now… we may be losing the last piece of him we have left.
His hand lay on my thigh the entire time. He never interrupted me, and he didn�
��t ask too many questions. He just drove and listened to me, which is shocking because I can’t remember a time a man, who had a shot in hell of sleeping with me, listening to me in any way. They usually smile, nod, pretend to listen, and then try to shove their hand down my pants.
He has this ease about him outside of the office. He’s lighter, less on edge and snappy. It’s a breath of fresh air, and the more I grow accustomed to this side of him, the more fucked I’m going to be in the end, because… I don’t know which Nathanial is the real one.
The closer we get to Brooklyn, the more on edge I become. I’ve only introduced one man to my family, and that didn’t quite go the way I wanted, and it certainly wasn’t in the midst of a family crisis.
He must sense the tension because he gives my thigh a squeeze then puts both hands on the wheel, giving me a bit of space, should I need it. I appreciate that, actually. Even if I didn’t want the space, not assuming I need him is a nice gesture. Refreshing even.
“Just take a breath. There’s no need to be nervous. Everything can be fixed.”
“I just want to apologize for my family ahead of time. My brothers will absolutely grill you and probably try to scare you off, and my mother is literally timing my biological clock to the second. She will definitely ask you when and if you plan on giving her grandchildren. I’ll have to break it to her at some point that this isn’t like… a thing.” I motion between us.
“Isn’t it, though? A thing, that is.” He looks at me briefly then back at the road.
Is it? Before I stepped through his door last night, I would have said absolutely not, no way in hell. This can’t be a thing. It’s just a physical attraction. An itch that needs to be scratched.
But now, right here in this car while he drives me to meet my family, and I can still feel him inside of me after giving me the best sex of my life, I can’t definitively say it’s not a thing.
I just don’t know what kind of thing it could even be.
“I can’t even process that right now, Nathanial. Let me get through this stuff with my family first, then you and I can sit down and discuss whatever… thing… this is,” I tell him while I worry my hands in my lap.
He doesn’t press the issue any further because the navigation system that is housed on the screen in the center of his dashboard announces that we have arrived.
He rolls to a stop at a meter about a block away, but before we get out of the car, he turns in his seat, facing me.
“Piper, look at me.” I angle my body toward him and he cups my face in his hand. “I wouldn’t mind this being a thing.” He strokes his thumb over my lips then drops his hand away and climbs from the car.
Nathanial
The outside of Kingston’s Italian Eatery looks like any other restaurant in this area. Clean brick, a large, brightly lit sign hanging above the doorway, and a gated patio area with black iron tables and chairs.
I know the area well. Hell, every real estate developer in the greater North Eastern area knows this block well, and knows the potential it holds.
It’s a fucking gold star, a never to be matched stretch of Brooklyn for business of every kind.
It would take a truly fucked situation for this to be going south.
Piper slides a key from her purse and twists it into the lock, pushing the door open, sending a bell chiming above our heads.
“Mom?” she says loudly.
The interior is just as quaint at the exterior with its classic, homey feel. Booths and tables are perfectly positioned to serve a large number of guests but not so large that everyone is packed in like sardines. The aroma of the food being prepped for the day wafts into my nose.
“Something smells absolutely amazing,” I lean in to whisper in her ear.
“Pasta sauce. We make it fresh daily. It’s a specialty.” She wraps her arms around her middle and walks farther into the restaurant, toward the kitchen. “Ma?”
“Finally, you’re here.” A male voice sounds from the back before a tall, dark-haired man comes out through a door just to the right. “She’s a mess back there in the office, Pipes.”
“I know. I got here as quickly as I could. I’ll go grab her and we can all sit out here and hash this out.”
“Who’re you?” he says with a thick, Brooklyn accent that Piper somehow doesn’t possess. I’ve even wondered if she was really from this area, but obviously, she is.
She motions for me to come closer. “Nathanial, this is my brother, Ben. Ben, this is Nathanial Lennox. He’s my…” She pauses, unsure what to even say, and looks to me for some kind of an answer.
I extend my hand to his. “Let’s just go with close friend and boss. Seems to be an easier explanation.” I laugh, with my hand still outstretched, but Ben just regards me with harsh eyes, arms crossed over his chest.
“Ben, don’t be an asshole.”
“Why are you with my sister this early in the morning if you’re her boss? You fucking her? AH! Fuck, Pipes.” Piper lands a swift elbow to his stomach.
“I said, don’t be an asshole.”
“You certainly know how to make acquaintances, don’t you?” I say jokingly.
“Who uses big words like that first thing in the morning?”
This time, the voice comes from the main door behind us and belongs to… another Ben.
“I probably forgot to mention that… I have twin older brothers,” Piper says.
Jesus fucking Christ.
“Sorry I’m late. I had… company,” he says with a grin.
“I can’t even go there right now, because I know who your company was, buddy, and this conversation will be happening.” She pokes at his chest then looks at me. “Nathanial, this is my brother, Oliver. Oliver, this is Nathanial.”
She excuses herself, saying she will be right back then scurries off to the kitchen, leaving me alone with her two brooding, built-in bodyguards.
“Hey, Oli.”
“Yeah, Benj?”
They both have smiles on their face, staring entirely at me and never moving their gaze even as they talk to one another.
“Lennox here is our baby sister’s boss.”
“Is that a fact?”
“What do you think he is doing with our little Piper, if he came with her here this early in the morning? Mom did say Pipes was coming from the Upper West Side. She doesn’t live there. Hell, she doesn’t even work there.”
I look between them, not saying a thing, and just scrubbing a hand over my jaw.
“Look, fellas, I appreciate that you are looking out for your sister, I really do, but she’s a grown woman. If she wants to disclose our relationship to you, she will in due time. She was upset and needed to get here fast. I brought her. For now, that’s all.”
Before either of them can respond, the door to the kitchen bursts open and out comes a small, older version of Piper. It’s like a peek into the future.
“You’ll have to excuse my blotchy face. Piper didn’t tell me she was bringing someone with her.” She is wiping her face with a napkin when she stops with her other hand outstretched to me.
“It’s not blotchy at all.” I shake her hand. “You must be Piper’s mother. I’m Nathanial.”
“Nathanial, dear, you can call me Rosa.”
“Mom,” Piper calls from behind us. “Come sit. Let’s hash this out, please. I need to know exactly what is going on. All the paperwork, the notice. Everything.”
The despondent look on her mother’s face sinks into my gut. It was as if just for a moment, she forgot about the reason we were here.
“Yes, of course.” She wipes at her face again. “Oliver, Benjamin, go get coffee for everyone. It’s ready in the back. This is going to be a long conversation.”
***
I feel like I’m interfering in a private, family matter.
I tried to go back to the car so Piper could have this conversation with her family alone, but she insisted I stay with them, motioning for me to sit in the booth next to her.
/> Mrs. Kingston and Oliver are across from us and Benjamin pulled up a chair, backward, to sit on the side of the booth.
There are multiple pieces of paper scattered across the table.
Utility bills, payroll, mortgage agreements, and a foreclosure notice.
“How many mortgage payments have we missed, Ma?” Oliver asks, pulling the foreclosure notice closer so he can read it.
“I couldn’t go without paying our staff. You know that. I can’t stomach it, so for the past few months, I’ve been making sure they come first. I thought I had everything under control…”
“Momma,” Piper chimes in. “How have you been hiding this from us and why? I knew it was bad considering you were talking about selling, but I thought we could find a way out of that.”
“I’m sorry. You all have enough stress on your own. I couldn’t let this seep in.” Tears begin to prickle at her eyes. “Christ, if I could bring your father back, I’d kill him all over again. Even on our best months here, months that we are packed nightly, I can’t even make ends meet.”
I stay quiet. It’s not my place to say anything, but that doesn’t mean my wheels aren’t turning. Given what I know of the area and the market as it sits, once the bank is in full ownership of this property, it will be sold at the snap of a finger.
“Maybe it’s time we entertain the buy offers that are funneling in.” Benjamin says begrudgingly.
“What?” Piper exclaims. “Absolutely not. What’s that going to do for Mom? Watching someone we don’t know come in here and take away everything she has? And you know that’s exactly what those vultures will do. They are offering pennies to what this property is worth, and that would still leave her with a mountain of debt.”
I can tell by the emotion behind her words that she knows selling is a good idea, but she doesn’t want to see her mother go through losing something so precious to her, even if the bank is bearing down upon them.
“I’m going to have to sell the apartment to catch up on the mortgages and pay off the loans. I don’t even know if that will be enough.”