The Trouble With Love: New York Times Bestselling Author

by Contreras, Claire

  “Not together,” I say. “I’m way too young for these geezers.”

  They all laugh.

  “Too old?” Bennett asks beside me.

  “You are.” I bite my lip to keep from laughing at the expression on his face, even though I know I’m blushing fiercely. “I was Nate’s fiancée’s little sister in our sorority,” I explain.

  “Damn. You are young,” Elias says, his features pulled into a surprised frown. “I thought I was the young’un here.”

  “I figured you weren’t as old as these guys.”

  “Nope.” His smile widens. “Still under thirty.”

  “Okay, we get it, we’re old, now if you two can limit the flirting about your ages until after we talk shop, that would be awesome,” Nate says.

  Elias and I share a laugh. Was I flirting? I replay what just happened and think, no, I wasn’t. I glance over at Bennett, who doesn’t seem the least amused by what’s transpiring and rethink my conclusion. Maybe he thinks I was too. Maybe I don’t really care.

  “Lay it on me,” Bennett says, looking at them.

  “It’s not really a secret that we’ve recently decided to expand our investments from just tech to other things: breweries, restaurants, nightclubs, etcetera,” Ryan starts. “We’re looking for someone to merge the tech portion of the company with and we thought, who better than SEVEN?”

  “Where do you come in?” Bennett asks, looking at Elias.

  “I have a few things I want developed that I was hoping to sell to these guys, but they decided it may be in my best interest to sit in on this, see how it goes, and potentially sell it to your company instead.”

  “Interesting.” Bennett sits back in his chair, keeping the arm closest to me on the table as he drums his fingers absentmindedly. “When you say you want to merge the tech portion, how much of it are we talking? Do you want me to buy out your client catalog or stay on board for decisions that need to be made?”

  “It’s our catalog,” Nate says. “Essentially, we’d be your client. We want our team focusing on other things and would rather have a company like SEVEN work on development and coming up with new ideas on ways to push what we currently have.”

  Bennett is quiet for a long moment. I feel like I’m sitting on eggshells, holding my breath. When he speaks, it’s to Elias again. “What are you trying to sell?”

  “I have an idea for a dating app.”

  It takes everything in me to restrain my gasp, especially when Bennett looks over at me and I see the amusement lighting up his eyes. He looks at Elias again.

  “What makes you think I’d back your idea?” Bennett asks. “I have a million people with ideas for dating apps.”

  “It’s not a dating app as much as it is a friendship app,” Elias says. “It involves travel and food. And I’d pay for it to get done. I have ideas and money, but no experience or anyone who can develop them for me.”

  Bennett nods slowly in understanding, then looks at Nate. “What are you offering?”

  Instead of spending the rest of the time eating a healthy lunch, I stuff my face with bread and butter because this meeting has my nerves on edge, as if I’m the owner of SEVEN and not just a lowly employee.

  “See, Morgan, if you’d have come and worked for us instead of picking SEVEN, you could’ve done this and more,” Nate says, smiling.

  I know he’s only half joking. He’d offered me a job and a salary that was more than I’m currently making, but SEVEN has been my dream company for too long to turn the opportunity down.

  “She could’ve stayed working for the company where she interned,” Bennett says.

  “I would have.” Ryan laughs. “I mean, hell, if they want to hire me now I’d sell all my shares to Nate and run over there.”

  “Shut up,” Nate says, laughing.

  “It’s impressive that so many people want you on their team,” Elias says. “Do you have experience with development?”

  “Back off, Elias. This one is mine,” Bennett says. His tone is neither playful nor harsh, but his words make my heart skip nonetheless. “You may have a chance to work with her though.”

  “I look forward to that,” Elias says, smiling at me. “Have you gotten a chance to develop any apps while you’ve been there?”

  “I’d like to note that I’ve only been there two weeks,” I start. “But yes. Actually, dating apps are kind of my thing, and SEVEN has been graceful enough to let me test out a workplace dating app idea I’ve been brewing for a while.”

  “Wow.” Elias exchanges an emphatic look with Ryan and Nate.

  “Isn’t that messy?” Ryan asks.

  “That must be the go-to male response.” I roll my eyes, not even bothering to hide my annoyance.

  Bennett chuckles. “Because it is messy.”

  “We’ve already discussed this.” I meet his gaze.

  His smile drops slowly as he looks at me, his expression going from pointed to something else . . . something that makes me forget how to breathe for a second. For someone who doesn’t believe in love in the least, he sure knows how to make a woman believe she has a shot with him. I force myself to look back at the men across from us.

  “Anyway, it’s going well so far.”

  “Do tell,” Bennett says. “I haven’t received feedback or data from this marvelous app. So I’m hearing this for the first time.”

  “Bennett has his reservations about dating apps,” I explain, “which is fair. I get it, but this one is going to show him that real love isn’t as hard to find as he may think. I haven’t conducted the first interviews yet. The questionnaire goes out on Saturday morning, which will be a week after the app debuted. So far, no one has dropped it or filed a complaint though, and that’s good. As far as I know, the users have remained anonymous –”

  “Wait, they don’t even know the names of the people they’re matching with?” Nate asks, frowning.

  “They’re assigned names. Birds, actually. Canary, Blue Jay, Owl, Cardinal.”

  “Birds.” Bennett shrugs. “I mean, if it works, it works, right?”

  “But if you were to expose this app to the real world . . .” Ryan starts.

  “They’d pick a nickname that suits them. The birds are just for our trial in the office. I figured if they were allowed to pick a nickname, there was a higher chance of people piecing two and two together. For all you know, you’re matching with the person who works beside you.”

  The three men across from me blink. And blink. I shoot Elias a look. “Didn’t you claim to be into dating apps?”

  “As a business. Sure.”

  My mouth drops. “I will refrain from commenting on that out of respect to the man sitting to my left, but please note that if he wasn’t here and I wasn’t at risk of getting fired, I would say some really mean things right now.”

  They all laugh, including Bennett. “Hey, I’m not your boss. My dad is. I can’t really fire you.”

  “How does that work, by the way?” Nate asks. “You started the company and brought him on, but he has a higher position than you?”

  “It depends on how you qualify positions. I created the company, but my father was a big boss in the industry for a long time. I’d be an idiot to think I was smarter or more business savvy than he. So, I begged him to come on board, offered him the CEO position, which he tried to decline, but I was just a kid. Smart, sure, but a kid nonetheless. The rest is history.” Bennett shrugs a shoulder.

  I blink up at him. I wasn’t expecting that answer. As a matter of fact, it’s a question that’s always been on my mind. Every time I read an interview with him or his father, I wonder if that question just doesn’t get asked or if they’d rather not answer it publicly. Whatever the case, I didn’t think this would be the answer. It’s a surprising one. Not many men I’ve met would be willing to take the backseat to anyone, especially not a father. It seems to me that most men are always in competition or trying to surpass their father somehow. Not Bennett though. He continues talking t
o the guys, and I find it harder and harder to concentrate on the words coming out of his mouth. I just keep staring at his full lips and sharp jaw with the five o’clock shadow that makes him look hotter than he did two days ago, if that’s even possible.

  Thankfully, the food gets here and I stop staring and start eating. We fall into a comfortable conversation about where the companies are going and how tech is an unstoppable phenomenon that just keeps getting bigger.

  “You sure you want to give it up?” Bennett asks Nate. “It sure sounds like you don’t.”

  Nate’s eyes jump between Bennett and me. “I don’t, but I know Presley wants me to be more present in her endeavors and wishes we’d do more business together.” He shrugs. “And Ryan is about to have another kid, so I think he’d rather have the money in his pocket and not work as much for it.” Nate looks at Ryan with a laugh.

  “Damn right. Kids are expensive,” Ryan says with a chuckle. Once it dies down, he gets serious again. “We trust your vision, Bennett. We’ve been watching you for years and have seen what you can do for people. We’ve gone over every other company from New York to the Silicon Valley and yours is the one we keep coming back to.”

  “That means a lot,” Bennett says. “I trust we can make this work, and that we can get your ideas off the ground for you, Elias.”

  We all stand up to say our goodbyes. Bennett, Elias, and Ryan keep talking, while Nate and I are off to the side having our own conversation about the latest brewpub he and Presley are opening up.

  “It just seems like a lot to give up,” I say quietly, out of earshot from Bennett. “The tech stuff, I mean.”

  “I’ve had the good fortune of coming up with a couple of great inventions and selling them for a lot more than I ever dreamed of.” He shrugs. “I figure it’s time to focus on other things. Not having Winston around has been hard on me, but much harder on Presley, especially with the business side of things. We’ll still have our staff working on inventions, so it’s not like I’m fully giving it up. I’m just willing to let go of the control a little.”

  “That’s a pretty big step.”

  “Eh. She’s worth it.” He grins.

  “She is worth it.” I feel myself grinning back.

  My best friend hadn’t had the best luck with love before Nathaniel, but the moment they became a couple, things changed for her. She’s brighter than she was before . . . calmer, happier. Love did that for her. It’s one of the reasons I refuse to stop believing in something I haven’t had good luck in myself. I’ve seen firsthand the way it changes people’s lives. Nathaniel and I hug and say goodbye. They have a flight leaving tonight, while Bennett and I will stay until the conference is over on Sunday. The reminder of what I promised him for the next few days makes my stomach flutter.

  Bennett and I walk through the lobby in comfortable silence. I can imagine he’s probably thinking about the business proposition, while I have my mind in the gutter, picturing him naked under his expensive suit. He pulls out his phone and starts talking, I assume to his father, with the way he’s being quiet. I look around, letting the sounds of the casino in the middle of the hotel distract me so that I don’t eavesdrop. When Bennett slows down, I walk off to the side, looking inside the glass display of the expensive jewelry store inside the hotel. Because of my mom’s profession, I practically grew up in these hotels, usually waiting around for her or one of her girls to finish a job. I watched other people come here and spend an insane amount of money on things: drugs, women, jewelry, gambling, shows, restaurants. Not once did I wish to be one of them. Even now, I wouldn’t. If there’s one thing I’ve learned about people who have too much at their disposal, it’s that they don’t appreciate things half as much as those with none.

  “See something you like?” Bennett’s voice pulls me from my thoughts.

  I turn to him with a smile. “God, no.”

  “You’re a mystery to me, Cupid.” He watches me. “You want everyone else to find love but don’t believe in it for yourself, you go to meetings with powerful men and somehow make the whole thing feel like a bunch of guys catching up on life, and you stand by the most expensive item in that store and tell me you don’t want it, and what’s more, is I genuinely believe you don’t.”

  “Well, it sounds like you have me all figured out.” I start to move, but he presses me against the glass, his mouth near mine. “I hope you have enough money to replace what’s behind me if we break it.”

  His gaze flicks away from mine briefly, and I know he’s thinking about it. His lips tug up on one side as he brings his attention back to me. “Guess we’ll just have to find out.”

  He brings his face down to mine, his eyes twinkling the closer he gets, as if he’s testing or waiting for me to push him away. I reach for his tie and pull him closer, faster. He groans as his lips come down on mine, his hand sliding up to cup the left side of my face as his hard body pushes me against the cold glass behind me. A part of me worries that we’ll get kicked out, but the fear is quickly replaced by a rush of heat as his hands move down my body, stopping at my waist, his mouth still hot on mine, tongues moving, teeth nipping.

  “Is it too early to go back to the room?” I pant against him as he breaks the kiss.

  He chuckles, pulling back to meet my eyes. I find a sense of comfort knowing I put that wild look in them. He grabs my hand and pulls me away from the glass, leading me through the lobby without another word.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Anticipation rolls through me as I’m getting ready for dinner. It feels different tonight, maybe because we’ve come to an agreement of sorts and a part of me knows that tonight he’s not going to push me away as he did last night. As long as I keep my shit together and don’t start crying again. Which, I won’t. That was my one good cry of the year. I’m giving myself a last once-over when I hear the knock on the door between our rooms seconds before Bennett appears in the threshold of the bathroom. He’s wearing ripped jeans and a suit jacket. It’s something I’ve never seen before and wouldn’t have ever thought he’d wear, but it looks damn good on him. His dark hair is neatly brushed to one side, and his eyes are currently on my ass. He moves his gaze slowly up until it meets mine in the mirror.

  “Thanks for knocking and waiting for me to invite you in.”

  The corner of his mouth pulls up. “You left your door open. I figured it was an invitation.”

  “I could’ve been sitting on the toilet.” I raise an eyebrow as I start putting my makeup away.

  “You say that as if there’s any chance that I don’t think you take a shit.”

  My eyes widen. “Bennett!”

  “What?” He chuckles, gripping his stomach. “Why is this so horrifying for women? Men talk about the size of their shit, the color of their shit, how often they shit. It’s human nature.”

  “It’s fucking disgusting.” I make a face and brush past him as I step out of the bathroom and walk over to the closet to step into my heels. “You just lost like three points on the hotness scale.”

  “Three points?” He laughs louder. I can’t help but smile, not that he can see it with my back turned to him. “I’ll have to work on my bathroom skills.”

  “Can you stop talking about it?” I groan, turning to face him.

  “You look beautiful.” He stops smiling suddenly and lets his gaze drift over me once more, not bothering to hide the hunger in his eyes. When his gaze meets mine again, he says, “You are beautiful.”

  I feel myself blush. I’ve received compliments from a lot of men, but few have made me feel the way his do. Maybe it’s because when he says what he thinks, he doesn’t allow room for misinterpretation or question. When he says I’m beautiful, I truly feel beautiful. He clears his throat after a beat.

  “How upset would you be if I told you I changed our rooms?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I got us a suite.” He points up, as if to show me where the suite is.

  “Oh.” I blink. “Lik
e for both of us?”

  He cocks his head. “No, for me, my constant hard-on, and my toilet.”

  “You’re ridiculous.” I can’t help but laugh, but it doesn’t last. “I . . .” I lick my lips, glancing away briefly before looking at him again. “What if you don’t want to stay the night? What if it goes horribly wrong? What if we’re no longer sexually compatible?”

  “Trust me, we’re still sexually compatible,” he says. “What worries you more, the idea of us not being sexually compatible or the idea that I may not want to spend the night?”

  “Both.” My eyes are wide, a contrast to the amusement I see in his. “What if I don’t want to spend the night?”

  “Do you?”

  “I don’t know.” I chew on my bottom lip, looking at the bed we shared last night—no sex involved.

  “Exactly,” he says, as if reading my mind. “We were fine last night.”

  “We didn’t hook up last night.”

  “Last time we hooked up, we spent the night together, Morgan.” He raises an eyebrow. “The difference is, we fucked through the night and I left at the crack of dawn and didn’t do any pillow talk.” He must sense my hesitation, because he squeezes my hand and brings his hand up to my chin, squaring it so that I look at him. “I want the pillow talk this time.”

  “Oh.” My heart stutters. I want to ask WHY, WHY, WHY? What is the point of pillow talk if you don’t even believe in relationships, but I nod because, damn it, I want this. I want him. “Okay. Let’s do this. I mean, it’s only two nights, right?”

  “Only two nights.” He closes the distance between us and cups the right side of my face with his hand. “Let me replace all the bad memories you have of this place with good ones,” he says, with a warmth in his eyes that makes my knees shaky. “And if you feel overwhelmed, we can sleep in separate rooms.”

  “Okay.”

  He leans in and presses his mouth to mine. The kiss is soft, yet demanding, and when he walks forward, the back of my knees crash the bed and I fall back, gripping his shoulders tightly, as if it’ll lessen the impact instead of making it worse. Bennett chuckles against my lips as he pulls away. I laugh, pushing him off so he won’t continue to crush me.