And he was going to let her in. He would let her find a place in his heart, and he hoped she would make a place in hers for him. She’d be his Christmas gift to himself. He’d make his life, finally, about more than his career.
“Let me tell you how today is going to go,” he said, sliding her across his lap as he leaned back against the sofa.
Holly held both of his hands as her sweater slid sexily off her shoulder. “I like it when you get bossy,” she said, leaning forward to brush his lips.
Ryan liked the way her core, clad only in thin leggings, pressed up against his hardening cock. “First, I’m going to call in sick for the first time in my professional life,” he said. “Then, I’m going to feed you. Possibly pancakes, probably waffles.”
Holly grinned. “Waffles? Now you’re talking my language. Will we have syrup, whipped cream?”
Syrup and whipped cream gave him ideas. All kinds of ideas. “Yep. And we are going to save some and take it into the bedroom with us, where we are going to spend the rest of the morning burning off all that sugar by having sex in every position known to humankind.”
Holly’s eyes flared wide. He let go of her hand and dragged his fingertips along her thigh until he was brushing her clit gently. Perhaps waffles would have to wait.
“And then?” she whispered, her voice filled with need.
“There needs to be an and then after all the sex known to man?”
“We have work…to do…today.” She began to stammer as he pressed harder, circling the place she needed him most. He was glad he’d left his jeans unbuttoned, or they’d be cutting the circulation to his rock-solid cock right about now.
Work. She wanted to talk about work. And perversely, it made his cock twitch. Damn, if a hard-working woman willing to eat waffles and have lots of sex with him wasn’t his catnip.
“A woman after my own heart,” he said, flipping her onto her back on the sofa before pressing his body over hers. He kissed her, this time allowing his tongue to slide into her willing mouth at the same pace as which he ground against her.
Her body moved beneath his, her legs wrapped around his hips. And goddamn if he didn’t suddenly need her naked and writhing, skin against skin.
He kissed a trail of kisses from the top of her shoulder, up the side of her neck, to the soft place behind the back of her ear. There was no way he was leaving her to go into work today. Instead, he’d spend it right here with her, figuring out what a future for the two of them looked like. Like, where would they spend Christmas? An immediate thought flashed into his mind of right here. On the sofa. No one else. They’d cook a turkey. Perhaps they should get a damn tree. They’d start traditions of their own.
Yeah, she might not know it yet, but she was here for the long haul. He just had to persuade her.
Ryan smiled as he lifted off her and studied those eyes of hers, the ones that split the difference between green and gray that now told him everything he needed to know about the woman in his arms. He took a deep breath and steadied himself before he spoke. “I don’t know how the heck everything changed in such a short period of time, Hols. It doesn’t make sense given how short a time I’ve known you, but somehow I’ve fallen in love with you.”
Holly grinned. “It’s crazy, stupid, and goes against my every philosophy about falling in love, but I love you, too.”
His heart beat fast in his chest with excitement for their potential. Ryan kissed her, hoping it would show her just a fraction of what he felt hearing those words fall from her lips.
“Ryan,” she whispered.
“Mmm-hmm.”
“Waffles can wait.”
Epilogue
Ryan stepped into the wide hallway of the band’s home, curious as to why the five men all still lived together in what was ultimately a huge and luxuriously decorated frat house. Holly stepped ahead of him and hugged Dred, and then the woman standing next to him with a shock of purple hair. Pixie. She was holding a baby with dark curls who looked just like Dred.
Ryan took a moment to stamp the snow off his shoes.
“Hey, come meet Pixie and Petal,” Dred said, waving him over as he draped his arm around the woman’s shoulder.
Ryan wished he could be that affectionate with Holly, but they’d agreed that professional was best. And Lord knew, she deserved affection like that. In the last few days, after he’d convinced her that her parents shouldn’t need repaying to mend their relationship, she’d reached out to them. Their response had been lukewarm, but he had hope they could be brought around.
“Hey. Nice to meet you,” he said, offering his hand to Pixie.
“Oh, no. I’m from Miami,” Pixie said. “I hug. I don’t do that handshake stuff.” She threw her arm around him, and Petal drooled against his cheek. He didn’t know whether to be ever-so-slightly grossed out or laugh.
“Hey,” Dred said, swinging Petal out of Pixie’s arms. “Don’t be kissing strange men.”
Pixie laughed. “I kissed you once, when you were still a stranger.”
“Pix,” he said, shaking his head. “You and I were never strangers. Simply lovers who hadn’t met yet.”
“Same thing. Anyway, welcome Holly, Ryan.”
A tired-looking Jordan came down the stairs just as Nikan walked in through the front door. “Where the fuck were you?” Jordan asked, ignoring everyone else.
“Phone died,” Nik replied, pulling off his hat and winter coat and hanging them on a peg in the hall. “No charger. I’m sorry.” He walked straight by Ryan and Holly and pulled Jordan into a hug, whispering something in Jordan’s ear that made his shoulders relax as he nodded grimly.
“Be down in five,” Nik said, letting Jordan go.
Elliott wandered down the stairs, yawning widely. “Mother of God. Who decided ten in the morning was a good time to get together like old women to chat?”
Ryan stood next to Holly, her hand accidentally brushing his. He couldn’t help but loop their fingers briefly while everyone made their way into the next room. The move made her smile, but she kept her eyes straight ahead as they walked into a huge formal dining room.
Two huge trees stood either side of the roaring fireplace. A tartan cloth ran down the middle of the table, on which were mini-quiches, croissants and other breakfast pastries, large bowls of chopped fruit, and mini glasses filled with yogurt and granola. Carafes of orange juice and what Ryan assumed was coffee were interspersed between them.
Lennon wandered into the room and greeted them with a simple head nod. He took a seat without saying anything. Jordan took a spot next to him. They seemed oddly disconnected from what was happening and yet strangely in synch as they both reached forward at the same time to grab a pastry.
“Help yourself, guys,” Pixie said. “Petal and I are going to go for a walk. We’ll be back in a couple of hours.”
Dred kissed her softly and then placed a kiss on Petal’s head before he, too, took a seat. “God, I love that woman,” he said.
A piece of muffin went flying across the table and hit the side of Dred’s head. Dred immediately looked up and eyed Lennon, who shrugged. “One day, my friend, you’ll find a woman who’ll knock you on that miserable ass of yours.”
“Highly. Fucking. Unlikely,” Lennon replied.
Nik hurried into the room, his wet hair tied back in a braid. “Speaking of women who knock you on your ass, sorry for being late. It was a long night,” he said with a grin to Lennon, who lifted his glass of orange juice as if to say cheers.
Ryan smirked, thinking of the long night he’d spent with Holly at the hotel. Holly slapped his thigh playfully. Out of habit, he grabbed her hand to hold it still. He could feel the heat of her palm through his suit.
In the last three days, she’d left his apartment only once, when he’d driven her to Gremlin’s place to pick up some changes of clothes. He’d cracked a joke about packing up everything and just moving in with him, but she’d laughed at his semi-serious suggestion. At the time, he’d meant i
t as a joke, but as soon as the words were out of his mouth, he realized he was ready for so much more with the woman. So sometime between Christmas and New Year’s Eve, he was going to ask her again.
Regardless of her answer, there was no way he was letting her move back into an apartment with no heat, no matter how few days were left on the lease.
He’d looked into how much it would cost to take on the lease and purchase all of the equipment that had belonged to Joshua, so it looked as though Holly was getting a tattoo studio and a business partner for Christmas. He hoped she’d be so grateful that she’d agree to stay in bed with him all day.
“Ryan gets what I’m saying, right?” Dred said, and Ryan looked up suddenly, releasing her hand.
It was an automatic reaction, one that showed his fear of being caught out. Fuck that, though. Change was good. He threw his arm over the back of Holly’s chair. “Yeah, I get it,” he said.
Holly whipped around to look at him and he shrugged. “What?” he asked. “What’s the worst that could happen if they know?”
“But the permanent position and your contracts and—”
He leaned forward and kissed her. It was soft and sweet and short. “They don’t strike me as the kind of guys who care,” he said. “Plus, I know my time will come on the other stuff. I don’t want to risk this, to risk us while I chase it.”
Ryan knew the band was watching. Behind Holly, he could see Nik’s grin and the way Lennon stuck two fingers down his throat, pretending to vomit. But it was about time he put someone ahead of his career, ahead of himself, and he wanted Holly to know in no uncertain terms that it was her. He was serious about what they were building.
Holly grinned. “You just shocked the hell out of me, Mr. Arden,” she said.
“It won’t be the last time, Miss Eden,” he said.
“Ladies,” Lennon said, “any chance of getting on with this meeting before I really do throw up the muffin I just ate?”
Dred laughed and slapped him around the back of his head. “Wait until it happens to each of you. You’ll be surprised what the love of a good woman will make you do.”
Ryan looked around the room, at Elliott who declared he still had lots of wild oats to sow, at Lennon who gave Elliott a high-five, at Nik who looked…what?…nostalgic, as if he knew exactly what Dred was talking about, and at Jordan, who gripped his hands together so hard his knuckles were white.
Ryan opened the presentation that he and Holly had worked on together. “Fine,” he said, with laughter in his voice, something that never found its way into his presentations. “If you open your document to page one, we’ll start with the foundation of the plan.”
As the band settled themselves and opened their documents, he turned to his foundation, Holly. “I love you,” he mouthed.
And the smile she gave him was worth risking it all.
About the Author
The tattoo across my right hip says it all really. A Life Less Ordinary. Inked by the amazingly talented Luke Wessman at the Wooster Street Social Club (a.k.a. New York Ink). Why is it important? Well, it sums up my view on life. That we should all aspire to live a life that is less boring, less predictable. Be bold, and do something amazing. I’ve made some crazy choices. I’ve been a car maker, a consultant, and even a senior executive at a large retailer running strategy.
Born in England, spent time in the U.S. and Japan, before ending up in Canada where I met my own, personal hero – all six and a half feet of him. Both of us are scorpios! Yeah, I know! Should have checked the astrological signs earlier, but somehow it works for us. We have two amazing kids, who I either could never part with or could easily be convinced to sell on e-bay.
I’ve wanted to be a writer for a really long time. Check through my office cupboards or my computer and you’ll find half written stories and character descriptions everywhere. Now I'm getting the chance to follow that dream.
Scarlett
Also by Scarlett Cole
Other Titles in The Second Circle Tattoos Series
THE STRONGEST STEEL
THE FRACTURED HEART
THE PUREST HOOK
THE DARKEST LINK
The Greatest Risk (Second Circle Tattoos Series Book 5) Page 10