by Claire Adams
“Of course,” I said, taken aback by the abrupt change in his behavior. “Work is out of the conversation for the rest of the night.” He hurt my feelings a little by his abrupt change in tone and mood, but maybe there was more to the story. Maybe there was something he wasn’t telling me.
Sure as fuck seemed like it.
“Okay, so talk about what you’ve been up to. You went to see your old boss?”
“I did.” I glanced down at my sandwich and picked at the lettuce sticking out of the sides. It was a little frightening to realize that he had the power to make me feel good or leave me feeling like shit. “It was fine. No work talk, right?”
He chuckled, but the sound fell flat. “Exactly. So what about the houses?”
“Nothing to report just yet, but it’s still early in the process.” I glanced up and forced myself to chill out. I was there to help and support him, just like he’d done for me when Harry turned my world upside down.
“I see.” He leaned back and glanced up at the sky. “The weather is holding up nicely here. I thought we might have rain, but it’s been beautiful.”
The weather? We were talking about the weather? Something I did or said shifted the mood drastically. Excellent. Date night ruined.
Fuck my life.
*
“That was fun.” Alfie ran his strong hands over my shoulders and down my exposed arms. “It was good just being with you.”
“Yeah. I’m sorry I ruined it by bringing up the meeting.” I shrugged and kept my tone neutral.
“What? No. You didn’t.” He cupped my face and leaned down to kiss me a few times. Just soft pecks on my lips. Nothing to write home about. “It’s me. I’m just weary after this long week, and the U.S. investors always make me feel like they’re just waiting for me to fall on my ass. My father was brilliant all the way around, and most of these guys are old friends of his from school or business. I don’t think they much enjoy having to work with a young buck like myself.”
“I understand.” I lifted up and kissed him once more before pulling back. “I know you’re staying with Logan, so I’ll not ask to come with you.” I glanced over my shoulder at the door as a longing rose within me. “And I’m with Peyton. It would be rude to—”
“Molly.”
I turned back to face him as his expression grew serious. “What?”
“Everything is fine, okay? I’m just a little stressed.” He pulled me into his arms and held me tightly. “I’ll get us a hotel Friday night, and we can spend the night together. That sound good?”
“Absolutely.” I pressed my hands to his thick chest and looked up into his eyes. My guy was still there. Maybe it was pressure. “Good luck on everything. I’ll be thinking about you.”
“I’m glad to hear that.” He leaned down and kissed me so passionately, it almost knocked me off my feet.
I pulled back breathlessly. “Friday, then.”
“Yeah, and get a nap that day if you can. I plan on keeping you up all night long.” He nipped at my lips and pulled back. “Enjoy the rest of your week and call if you need me.”
“Thanks,” I said and turned to walk into the house.
Peyton jerked back from the living room window. “I wasn’t watching. Promise.”
I snorted. “Liar.”
“All right. Forgive me. I need to vicariously live through someone.” She let out a girly sigh and walked to the kitchen. “I just finished baking an apple pie. You want a slice?”
“Do you have vanilla ice cream?” I followed her, not quite sure of how I felt about everything.
“Do bears shit in the woods?” she opened the freezer, pulled out a half-gallon, and tossed it my way.
“No clue. I’ve never seen a bear or its shit.” I caught it and grabbed a few spoons before sitting down at her dining room table.
“You’re so practical.” She laughed and sat down across from me with the pie and plates. “So? How was the dinner?”
“It was good.” I started to dish up the dessert as if it were my house. I had always been the bossier of the two of us. “I fucked it up by asking about the marketing stuff, but who knew he would be sensitive about it?”
She lifted an eyebrow. “What? How did that fuck up the date? Did he use your idea in his meeting?”
“Yeah. I think so.” I shrugged. “He got really weird about it when I asked.”
“That’s weird.” She pulled her plate close and picked up her spoon. “Did he give you credit for the idea with the investors?”
“I don’t know. I didn’t ask.” I dipped my spoon in the sugary glaze that leaked from the pie and licked at it. “It doesn’t really matter if he did, right?”
She huffed. “Are you kidding me? Of course it matters. If he has any ethics at all, he would have given you credit.”
“Maybe he did.” I took a bite of the pie and nodded. “This is amazing. I need the recipe.”
“It’s easy.” She tilted her head to the side as her eyes narrowed a little. “Maybe he didn’t give you credit, and you asking about it had him feeling like shit about it.”
“Peyton. Drop it. Please. I just want to enjoy my delicious dessert and go to bed.”
“All right. All right.” She lifted her free hand in a sign of surrender. “I’ll drop it, but guys don’t just act strange for no reason.”
“I know…that’s our lot in life.”
We shared a laugh and ate more pie than should have been legal. I laid in bed a little while later with the same thought running through my head.
Did I care if he gave me credit or not?
No. Yes. Maybe.
Fuck. I did care.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Alfie
I felt like shit over the way the night ended with Molly, but I couldn’t help it. I felt so horrible for not giving her credit, but I was stuck. It was a place I hated to be both in my personal life and in my business. Now, thanks to the situation, the two overlapped, leaving me feeling like an unethical asshole.
There’s no way in the world I should have shut down like I did at our dinner. She’d taken me somewhere special and brought a few of her favorite treats to share with me. I didn’t deserve it. None of it. And I sure as fuck didn’t deserve her. My nefarious thoughts kept me up late into the night, but just before four, I finally passed out.
Something cold nudged me in the cheek the following morning. Half asleep, I grabbed a hold of the cold object that was nudging me in the cheek. It tried to tug away from my grasp.
“Let go,” Logan said. “These golf clubs are expensive, man. I don’t want your dirty fingerprints all over them.”
I opened my eyes to glare up at him. “You should’ve thought about that before putting the club in my face.” I took in his neatly pressed clothes—a polo shirt and pressed khakis—with an arched eyebrow. “I take it we are going to go golfing while I have some time off?”
“You guessed correctly.” Logan grinned excitedly, and he poked me in the side with his golf club. “I have to take advantage of your day off somehow. When is the last time we spent some time on the green together?”
I couldn’t even remember the last time I had picked up a golf club. It’d been at least a couple of years since I had enjoyed a day to myself without having to worry about some sort of meeting to get to.
“I can’t even remember,” I said. “Give me a few minutes to get showered and dressed.”
Logan nodded as he retreated from the side of my bed. “Hurry though. I don’t plan on waiting all day long for you.”
“Just a couple of minutes,” I promised.
I waited until Logan closed the bedroom door before I shoved the blankets back from my body. I glanced down at my phone to check for messages, but there was nothing. My fingers lingered over my phone as I debated on calling Molly to just hear her voice. She had taken me to a very personal spot of hers in the city, so personal that not even Harry had been there, and I’d ruined it in some ways.
I need
ed to forgive myself for fucking up and get over it. She hadn’t asked for credit, and I couldn’t let this thing eat me alive. It would jack up the beautiful relationship we had. Fuck it. I was done worrying about it unless she brought it up again. Period. I’d spend the day enjoying some much needed R&R with Logan and then tomorrow night I’d make love to her until she couldn’t stand up straight.
Friday night. I couldn’t wait until Friday night. It’d been over a week now since I had felt Molly’s slender legs wrapped about my waist, or her body squirming beneath mine in pleasure.
Twisting the shower faucet on, I glanced down at my hardened erection straining against the fabric of my underwear. I sighed inwardly. It was going to take a few long minutes in the shower to be able to concentrate throughout the day with Logan on the golf course.
Pleasure radiated up my spine when I let my fingers brush against myself at the thought of Molly arching up against me. I released a few minutes later with a groan of relief with the spray of hot water hitting me squarely in the chest. At least I would be able to concentrate throughout tomorrow morning as well without feeling my body ache in anticipation for the night with Molly.
Logan was standing impatiently in the kitchen when I walked in a few minutes later. He handed a cup of coffee over to me wordlessly.
“You take forever,” he said, shaking his head. “I don’t want to know what you were doing in the shower.”
“None of your business,” I said, and grabbed a cup of coffee to fight off the headache throbbing in my temples. “What’s on the agenda today besides me kicking your ass?”
“As if.” He snorted. “Let’s play a round of golf, and then we can go to a nice dinner in Manhattan tonight if you like. Just a bottle of wine and some barely cooked red meat?”
“Sounds like a blissful day.” I took a few swallows of the coffee and put the cup in the sink. “Let’s stop by that bakery you’re always talking about taking me to.”
“Hruska’s? Oh, hell yes. You are in for a serious treat.” He grabbed his keys. “All right. I’m laying a bet down on the table now. I smack your ass by more than 10 strokes on the green.”
“That’s a bet.” I stuck out my hand and shook his. “Loser buys dinner.”
“Deal.”
*
I pulled out my company card and waved it around in front of Logan later that evening while we sat at a table in the middle of our favorite steak house. “Good thing I have a company card.”
He laughed. “Agreed, but don’t tell them that you lost at a round of golf as badly as you did. It would be embarrassing for us both!”
“How so?” I lifted my glass as the waiter silently poured me a glass of red wine.
“Because you suck so bad at it, and unfortunately I know you.” He lifted his glass and gave me a cocky grin. “You know what it is, right?”
“No. Please do share your genius on whatever you’re talking about.” I took a sip of my wine and leaned back, my body sore from swinging the golf club.
“You suck at it because you work too much, Alfie. Your whole life has become about that business. You gotta start living a little. You’re going to look up from your desk and be sixty. God rest your father’s soul, but he did just that.” He gave me a knowing look. “You know after all that shit happened with your mom that he turned to you, and once you were grown, he turned to the business. I love that old man, but you’re going to become him if you’re not careful.”
There was no threat in his word. He loved me like a brother.
I lifted my wine glass and smiled. “Worse things have happened.”
He tapped his against mine and shook his head. “Tell me what else you do in Devon. Are you thinking about seeing Molly from afar? I think it would be good start thinking about dating again. You’ve been sleeping around and acting like a playboy forever.”
“Wait a second.” I lifted a hand, and he paled a little, as if I’d confront him in anger or angst. “Are you charging me for a therapy session? Cause if you are, I want to make sure we dig into the real shit in my life.”
He snorted. “Tell me about Molly.”
That was easy enough. “I’m falling in love with her. I’d hit my knee and offer her a ring if I thought she would take it.”
“It’s too soon for that.” He gave me a scalding look. “She just broke up with Harry.”
“Exactly.” I took a long drink from my glass of wine and let out a breath. “And yet, when you know, you simply know.”
“You think she’s the one?”
I nodded. “I have no doubt about it.”
“Shit, man. That’s big.”
“Yes, it is, mate.” I set my glass down. “I’ve been thinking about offering her a spot on my marketing team seeing that she’s not gotten a job yet, or I assume she hasn’t.”
“I think that’s a fine idea. It was her idea that you used to wow your investors. Bring her on and give her credit?” He watched me as if studying a new species. It was almost comical. Almost.
Not this again though.
“I think bringing her back to England to work in the company is the first step in my diabolic plan to win the woman’s loyalty for a lifetime.”
“And then?” He smiled and crossed his free arm over his chest.
“And then I’ll try and woo her into my web.” I shrugged. “She’s stayed with me before. I’ll get her to stay with me again.”
“Maybe,” he stated with such finality that I had to question it.
“Maybe?” I asked.
“Yeah. I’d love to be closer to you too, but I’m not uprooting my life here in the U.S. to do it. I love New York and my job too much.” He pushed his plate away, the damn thing near empty. I’d had the waiter wrap up mine. There was no way I was eating another bite.
“Damn.” I smiled. “I was going to work on you next.”
“Sorry, pal. My days of love, lass, and mate are long over.” He reached for the bill when it came, but I snatched it. “Alfie. Let me get it. You’re my guest.”
“No, I’m the loser of one exhausting round of golf.” I slipped my company card into the bill sleeve and handed it to the server.
“Well, if you spent more time outside of the office,” he started again, but I cut him off.
“I will.” I nodded as he clamped his mouth shut. We sat in a comfortable silence for a few seconds.
“What? Really? It was that easy?” he snorted.
“Yep. I need to start feeding into other parts of my life if I want memories that are worth remembering when I get older. The first is Molly, and then after that, I’ll hire a few more people to help steer the company and alleviate me from working so much. That’ll free up time to golf, travel and even better yet—start a family.”
“Wow. That’s more like it.” He picked up his glass and threw the rest of the dark liquid inside of it back.
“All right. My session is up.” I gave him a knowing look. “Your turn. Where’s your woman, your retirement, and your plan for having a gaggle of kids?”
His eyes widened, and he stood. “Oh, hell no. We’re not going there tonight. Planning out your life was exhausting enough.”
“What?” I signed the check and stood as well. “I already had ninety percent of it done for you.”
“Yes, but the last ten percent…now, that was painful!”
We laughed as we walked out of the restaurant into the pleasant evening air. The day had been rejuvenating, but nothing compared to what tomorrow night held.
Pleasure. Release. Love.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Molly
The way mine and Alfie’s date ended the night before had my heart aching. I wasn’t sure what I was supposed to feel, or much less do about everything swirling around me. I was a hot mess and didn’t have anything lined up for my future.
Nothing other than spending that night with Alfie. Funny enough, that seemed like a huge win. I had to force myself to stop thinking about everything and finally go to sleep.
We would work it all out. We had to. I was already smitten with him, and I wasn’t losing another chance at love. Not with it sitting so close that I felt like I could reach out and grab it.
The next morning, I stared helplessly at my suitcase at the end of my bed with all my clothes torn out of it. I hadn’t brought more than a few outfits with me from London. A majority of my clothes were either in Harry’s flat in boxes still, or sitting at the London post office. I didn’t put it past Harry for them to send the boxes back because he knew it would take longer for them to reach the United States again.
I had nothing fancy to wear for tomorrow night with Alfie. The only reasonable thing I could think of was a simple black pencil skirt with a modest blouse and ballerina flats. I didn’t even have matching bras or panties.
Not that Alfie took notice of that before.
The center of my cheeks flared hotly at the thought. It’d been too long too since I had felt Alfie’s hands on me. My body was strung tightly with anticipation of having an entire night alone with him after a week of nothing but lingering touches and a kiss every once and a while.
I scooped up all the clothes with a resigned sigh before dumping them back into my suitcase. I’d have to ask Peyton if I could borrow a dress later. I was only an inch taller than her, so her dresses wouldn’t be uncomfortably short on me.
I busied myself with making breakfast and coffee while I waited for Peyton to wake up. She had vowed to take the day off for us to spend together, but also promised that sleeping in was high on her priority list.
The smell of bacon wafted through the kitchen. As I expected, Peyton appeared in a robe with bleary eyes as she took a seat at the breakfast bar with a groan. I grinned innocently as she shot me a dirty look.
“You know me too well,” she said. “That’s a dirty trick to get me out of bed—the smell of bacon and coffee.”