by Parker, Ali
Tiffany and I reached my car and I turned to hug her. “Please call if anybody needs anything? Promise me you will. I know you’ll try to handle it yourself first, but don’t. Just call. I need to know I can trust you to keep me updated on everything going on here.”
“I’ll be in touch if absolutely anything starts to go wrong,” she promised, crossing her heart. “I would stick a needle in my eye, but I don’t have one handy. Besides, that sounds way too painful.”
“Maiming yourself won’t be necessary,” I said, as I released her, stepping back and opening my car door. “But I’m holding you to that promise, otherwise you might be the one ending up with tepid coffee for the rest of your life.”
Tiffany gave an exaggerated shudder and then motioned to my car. “Scout’s honor, I’ll call you at the first sign of trouble. Now go. Get on the road. And say hi to Mr. Moneybags for me.”
I lifted an eyebrow. “Mr. Moneybags? Well, at least it’s not Richie Rich.”
She shrugged. “Actually, Blakey Rich was my second choice.”
Laughing, I shook my head and got into my car. “I like that, but there’s a lot more to him than money.”
“Fine.” She threw her hands up. “Mr. Hot Stuff then.”
I groaned. “Hot Stuff? That’s terrible. I’m leaving now.”
“That’s the point.” Tiffany grinned, turning toward the hotel. “Have fun, Aston. I’ll see you soon.”
“Love you,” I called out before I closed my door.
She blew me a kiss, then hurried inside to get back to work.
My first flight was nerve wracking, but uneventful, though the crowds at the airports were insane. I couldn’t believe there were so many people traveling every day. Feeling like a total newbie, I used the ‘fake-it-til-you make-it’ strategy and hid my nerves successfully.
By the time I stepped off the plane in Florida, I was completely in the swing of things. Thankfully, I was a fast learner and had managed to get there without making a total fool of myself.
Save for one incident when we hit a bit of turbulence and I gripped my seat so hard I was afraid I was going to shatter the armrest, I thought I handled the flight like a pro. Proud of having made it without any major mishaps, I made it out of the airport and breathed the air in a different state for the first time in my life.
A rush of excitement and exhilaration swept through me. It was a day of firsts. First vacation while employed by the McAllen Group, first flight, first time in a different state, and most importantly, first attempt to surprise a man I was pretty sure I was starting to fall for.
I joined the line at the cab stand, using the time it took me to get to the front to take a look around. There was an astonishing number of people rushing in all directions. I noticed in California that everyone at the airport seemed to be in a hurry and knew exactly where they were going, or appeared to, anyway.
It was the same here. Horns were blaring, porters were hurrying around trying to get people’s bags, families were saying goodbye or hello and business travelers were barking into cellphones. It was a hive of activity and I loved it.
If I wasn’t so eager to get to Blake, I would have hung around for a while. Getting coffee and people watching here at the airport was bound to be fascinating.
I was eager to find Blake though, so I dutifully got into my cab when I got to the front of the line and rattled off the address for our corporate headquarters. When we got to the building, I saw a familiar figure about to go inside.
My heart kicked into overdrive. It was Blake.
Luck wasn’t usually on my side, but it sure was smiling down on me today. I smiled, paid the cab driver and got out to intercept him. In another stroke of luck, he turned just before he was about to go through the door.
As he turned, he looked right at me. At first, I wasn’t sure if he saw me through the people swarming around on the sidewalk. But he did.
He recognized me instantly, pausing before a huge grin spread across his face. Fears of my unannounced arrival in Florida not being a pleasant surprise evaporated immediately. He was just as happy to see me as I was to see him. Yeah!
Chapter 40
Blake
Aston? My lips curled all the way up. I couldn’t believe it. She was the second woman I’d seen unexpectedly in as many days, but this one I actually wanted to see. I was moving toward her before I even realized what I was doing.
I spread my arms wide when I got to her. She stepped into them and buried her head in my chest. I hugged her close and breathed in deeply. “What are you doing here?”
She lifted her head, her green eyes bright and happy. “You’ve done so much for me, I wanted to return the favor and be there for you for once.”
I pressed a kiss to her forehead, nuzzling her temple. “You didn’t have to do that, but thank you.”
“I know I didn’t have to, but I wanted to.” Giving me a dazzling smile, she stood up on her toes and brushed a kiss to my lips. “I can do that now, it feels good.”
“Not as good as this will,” I lowered my head and sealed my mouth over hers. Her lips were warm and soft, and she tasted like coffee and a sweetness I was learning was all her. She gasped softly, smiling against my lips.
“You were right, that was better.” She slipped her hand into mine, holding the handle of her bag in the other. I took it from her, starting toward the underground parking lot where my rental car was. When Aston noticed us walking away from the entrance, she frowned. “I didn’t mean to stop you from whatever you were about to go in to do.”
“I was about to go talk to my brother, but that can wait. He’s not going anywhere.” I could throw down with my brother any time. What I could only do once was to take the girl who flew all this way to surprise me out to a late lunch. “Besides, my day just took a turn for the better. I’m not ruining it again.”
She pushed her eyebrows closer together. “Again? What happened?”
“I’ll tell you all about it, but not standing out here on the sidewalk. How about lunch?” Squeezing my hand, she nodded.
“Is there anything good around here?”
“There’s a pretty neat hotel nearby,” I grinned. “As it turns out, I’m a regular there. Want to check out your competition?”
“My competition?” she asked, then it clicked into place. “You mean we could go have lunch at the McAllen here so I can see what another manager is achieving?”
“If you want.” I thought she might like to see another one of our properties. Aston was a great manager and her branch was doing amazing work. She had obviously taken time off work to come out to see me, but I still wanted to show her how well she compared to one of our more successful branches. Her branch was better now, much better.
Aston looked surprised, but she nodded. “Bring it on. I’ll give them some pointers.”
I chuckled when she winked, leading her to my car. The Florida branch of the hotel was only a couple of blocks away from headquarters, and Danny, my dad and I had a standing reservation in a private room at the rooftop restaurant.
Aston marveled at everything we walked past. She greeted the staff with a friendly smile and seemed to be making mental notes of everything. “This is incredible.”
“Yours is better.” The Tampa branch was consistent, but they hadn’t improved their game in years. Aston had started raising the bar at her branch as soon as she was made the manager, way before she ever met me.
The girl was nothing if not modest, though. She shook her head from side to side. “But theirs is so big.”
“I’ll be sure to tell the manager. That’s what every guy wants to hear.” I risked a wink and hoped I didn’t look like a pervert or a jackass doing it. “But haven’t you heard, bigger doesn’t always mean better.”
She swatted my shoulder playfully. “I happen to have first-hand knowledge that bigger is pretty damn good.”
I leaned down to speak into her ear. “You can tell me more about that later, and rest assured I’m goi
ng to hold you to it.”
“We’ll see,” she said, just as we walked into the restaurant. The maître d’ recognized me and escorted us to the McAllen Room. It was smaller than most would have expected, but it had the best view in the house. City, beach, or ocean—you could see it all.
A waiter came to take our beverage order and left, leaving us alone behind the opaque glass walls that separated us from the other diners. I was grateful for the privacy, another reason I wanted to bring Aston here.
I was going to have to tell her about my mom and what had happened at the hospital. My father’s health still wasn’t public knowledge and I wanted to keep it that way.
As if she could read my mind, Aston leaned forward in her chair. “So, it looks like it’s been a long twenty-something hours since I saw you last. What is it that’s weighing you down?”
“What makes you think something’s weighing me down?” I’d always been pretty good at hiding my emotions, but the way Aston was looking at me made me feel like she could see all the way into me.
She locked her gaze to mine. “Your eyes are darker. They have been since I got here. Something has to be bugging you.”
The waiter brought our drinks. I ordered a seafood platter that I thought Aston might like, then waited for him to leave the room before I fessed up. “When I got to the hospital, my mother was there.”
Aston’s eyes widened, her chin dropping to her chest. “Your mom?”
I nodded. “Remember the woman I told you about, the one I said I saw arriving at the hospital when I left?”
“That was your mom?” She sounded nearly as surprised as I had been.
“Yeah, crazy huh?” I was still processing her sudden reappearance in my life. Talking to Aston about it felt like a good place to start.
“So she was still there after you got back from your trip?” She asked the question gently while taking a sip of her wine. Her eyes never left mine.
“The doctor told me she hadn’t left my dad’s side since she arrived. Apparently, she’s even showering at the hospital.”
Aston’s brows rose. “That doesn’t sound like someone who would just walk out on their family.”
“My thoughts exactly, but she claims she’s always loved him. She says they were talking on the phone just before he had the stroke.”
“Did you know they were keeping in touch?”
I shook my head. “As far as I knew, he hadn’t seen or heard from her since she left us, but it sounds like they have been in touch after all. I don’t know for how long.”
One thing I really didn’t understand, was why my dad would keep such a thing from us. Danny and I had stopped asking over the years, but we both had a lot of questions for and about her. It used to make our father sad, so eventually we gave up.
But he knew there were many answers we both needed. If he’d tracked her down or she’d come to him, it didn’t make sense that he wouldn’t have told us.
Aston titled her head, smiling hesitantly. “What did she say when you asked her?”
“I didn’t ask, but you already knew that, didn’t you?” I could tell from the way she was looking at me that she knew.
“I had a hunch,” she shrugged. “Why didn’t you ask? She’s the only one who can give you the answer for now.”
“I didn’t want to talk to her. She was sitting there spewing all this shit about how she never meant to hurt us and never stopped loving him. After all the years she’s been gone, I couldn’t believe she expected me to buy all that.”
“It may be good to talk to her after you’ve had some time to think about what you want to say.” Aston told me, her eyes narrowed as she thought.
“I’m not so sure talking to her is a good idea.” While my father was comatose, my mother could tell me whatever she wanted, and I wouldn’t be able to argue or verify what she was saying. Taking her word for it after all this time just seemed stupid. Especially since I still didn’t know what her angle was.
It seemed Aston had the same thought. “She has to have come back for a reason, right? If you don’t talk to her, you might not find out what that reason is.”
“It’s got to be the money.” If she and dad never got a divorce, it meant she stood to become a very, very wealthy woman if he didn’t make it. “She may have come to make sure she didn’t get screwed out of any of it if he died.”
“I’m not sure.” Aston mused, taking small sips of wine as she thought. “There has to be a way for her to claim against his estate without spending hours next to his bed.”
I shrugged. “You never know. She has a warped sense of how things work. I mean, she left us behind because she thought it would be easier for us that way. And all because she thought dad worked too hard and didn’t love her anymore.”
“It probably would be easier just to talk to him about it then,” she said.
I nodded. “She wants to have a conversation with me and my brother, but it feels way too late for that.”
“I still think it might be a good idea to talk to her. If not for her, then for you. Would you think about it, at least?”
Would I think about it? “Can I get back to you on that?”
Her lips twitched up into a smile. “Sure. Okay, I can take a hint. Let’s change the topic.”
Our food came a couple of minutes later and it was as good as it always was. Aston raved about it in between talking about her flight and telling me about how she made the decision to come surprise me.
I felt myself relaxing for the first time since I walked into that room and saw my mother. My muscles unlocked as I nursed my wine and fell into an easy rhythm with Aston.
When we were done with our food, Aston leaned forward and looked out at me beneath her long lashes. “So, do I get to see your home after I came all this way to see you?”
“I don’t have a home. I haven’t had one for years because I travel so much. I have a couple of properties, but I rent them out. When I’m in town, I stay here.”
She cocked her head. “At the hotel?”
“Yup,” I nodded. “If you want, you can see my room. After all, you did come all this way to see me. I feel like I owe you something to make it up to you.”
Chapter 41
Aston
He thought he owed me and wanted to make it up to me? I liked the sound of that. We only just made it into Blake’s room before his lips were slanted over mine, soft and firm and hungry. The feel of his tongue licking at the seam of my lips made everything else disappear from my mind in an instant.
My lips parted, a soft moan escaping before his tongue darted into my mouth, expertly licking and sucking and exploring.
He tasted just as good as I remembered. Like only Blake could.
When he kicked the door shut behind us, we were like animals. He was on me in a second, my back pushing into the hard mattress. A soft moan escaped from my lips. Blake’s hips had a mind of their own, rolling against me in a way that made my mind splinter into a million pieces.
One of his hands dug into my thigh while the other was clamped to my ribs. He had me caged underneath his big body. I had longed to feel like this again since the last time we were together.
As if I was possessed by him. Enveloped by him.
I ran my hands up and down the muscles in his back, clawing at the edge of his shirt. Suddenly, I didn’t understand why there were so many layers of fabric between us. I wanted his skin on mine. Badly.
Blake must have wanted the same thing, because he reached up and grabbed his shirt at the nape of his neck, pulling it off and allowing our lips to part only for the time it took to remove his shirt.
Before the shirt hit the ground, his lips found mine again and his erection brushed against my clit at the same time as he slid his tongue into my mouth. The man was too good at this. He always managed to give me what I needed before I even knew what it was.
“Holy crap,” I groaned, arching my back. “Blake.”
His hands dropped to the hem of my dr
ess. Gripping it, he tapped on my hipbone.
“Lift,” he ordered huskily.
I complied. My dress disappeared and I felt a rush of cool air against my skin.
Moving back, he reached for the button on his pants and kicked them off. The sight of Blake in nothing but a pair of black briefs, towering over me with his eyes clouded with lust and devouring me with a heated gaze was nothing short of delicious.
For a businessman who travelled constantly and worked so hard, he was only hard muscle and ripped edges. I wanted to push him onto his back and explore every inch of skin. Every time we were together, I discovered new parts of him. New strips of skin I wanted to lick and suck.
It was exhilarating to know I could, if I wanted. But I didn’t have time now. I wanted him too much. There would be a second round. There always was with Blake. I would get my fill then. He stirred a need in me that must be fulfilled—right now.
Leaning forward, he ran his hands over my body, starting at my shoulders and working his way down. His nimble fingers unhooked my bra, flinging it away to join the growing pile of clothes on the floor.
When they returned to my body, he cupped my breasts, squeezing my nipples until he sent shivers down my spine. He caressed me until I moaned, pressing my chest into his palms before he moved them away. They traveled down my sides and around my back to squeeze my ass.
He groaned as he moved further down and reached for my thighs. “Open your legs for me.”
I did. I would do anything he asked of me, so long as he didn’t stop. Kissing my stomach with his hot, wet mouth, he drew circles around my belly button with his tongue before moving further down my body.
He left a trail of fire in his wake as his lips and tongue caressed me. His fingers stroked my thighs, moving closer and closer to my aching center.
Blake crawled up over me, positioning himself between my thighs. My muscles trembled with anticipation. This was always so good with him, I briefly wondered if it was always so good for everyone else. I couldn’t imagine it was.