Ollie came into the office with Lincoln just after we’d gotten settled. “Have you guys ordered yet? This little man had his heart set on grilled cheese, but I think I’ve convinced him to give Spanakopita a try.”
“Ollie says it has Feta in it and that Feta is Greek cheese.”
“Ollie also said it has spinach in it,” Ollie added, throwing me a look. “Will he eat something with spinach in it?”
“He will,” I said, bringing my hand to Joseph’s thigh and patting it. “Boss man over here has him eating all kinds of fruits and vegetables. Apparently, it’s the only way to grow big and strong.”
“Ah, got it.” Ollie winked, his ever-present smile widening as his gaze dropped to my hand on Joseph’s leg. “By the way, I got a notification from the furniture company earlier. They’re delivering the stuff you ordered for your office later this week.”
Despite all the upheaval this week, I was excited to finally get my office set up in my style. There was just one more thing that I’d never gotten the chance to talk to Joseph about. “Is it okay with you if I order a few more things? I want to set up an area for Lincoln in my office for when we have to work late.”
“That’s a great idea.” Even though Ollie was right there, Joseph leaned down to plant a kiss on my shoulder. “Do it. Whatever you want to get, get it.”
“Really?” Lincoln ran over to us and jumped onto the couch, worming his way between us and giving me a hug before doing the same with Joseph. “My own stuff in the office?”
“Yes.” I grabbed on to him and held him on my lap, peppering his neck with kisses until he was laughing and wiggling to try and get free. “Absolutely. Your very own part of my office, specially made for you.”
Lincoln was so excited he spent our entire lunch hour babbling about everything he wanted in my office. Some of it, like a small rollercoaster, he wasn’t going to get. I made mental notes of the more realistic things, though.
After lunch, Ollie walked Lincoln back to daycare and I stayed with Joseph for a few more minutes. “I wanted to talk to you about dinner tonight. I haven’t seen Alisha in a while and so much has happened. I really want to spend some time with her. Is it okay with you if I invite her to dinner at the condo?”
“Sure, invite her. It’s your home now too, Lilac.” He twisted around on the couch to check if there was anyone watching us. When there wasn’t, he leaned in and kissed me. It was soft, tender almost. He rested his forehead again mine for a beat before pulling away. “It will be nice to get to know your friend.”
“I’ll give her a call when I get back to my office.” I smiled, unable to resist bringing my lips to his again before I finally forced myself to pry away and stand up. “I should go do that now. I’ll see you later.”
“See you later,” he echoed as I left his office and went back to mine.
My smile wouldn’t quite leave my face as I walked away from him. Despite how crazy and intense things had been these last few weeks, they were definitely looking up. Lincoln was better, Joseph was amazing, work was going well, Kurt hadn’t showed up again and I was about to catch up with my friend. Life is good.
Once I was at my desk, the first thing I did was to call Alisha. “Hey, stranger. How are you?”
“I’m good, but I’m not the one who’s moved in with a hot billionaire. The question is, how are you?”
Tipping my head to the side, I considered her question. “Honestly? I’m struggling to accept that everything happening at the moment is real. It feels like my life is suddenly going in an entirely different direction than it was before.”
“In a good way?”
I grinned, turning in my chair to look out of the large windows at the gorgeous view that was usually behind me as we talked. “In a great way.”
“How’s Lincoln?”
“He’s recovering.” I sighed. I’d texted Alisha about the attack and kept her up to date since I knew she’d been worried about him too. “The doctor says his condition hasn’t worsened even if this attack was the worst he’s ever had. We’re keeping a close eye on him, though.”
“How is he adjusting to the new living situation?”
“He loves Joseph and his TV, so I’d say he’s doing pretty well.” I heard an email alert chime from my laptop. Turning to it, I quickly scanned through the message and I realized I was going to cut our conversation short. “I have to get back to work, but I called because I was wondering if you’d like to come to dinner tonight?”
“I’d love to.”
“Great.” I’d missed my friend, and given that Joseph and I were dating for real now, I really wanted them to meet. “I’ll text you the address. See you later.”
“See you.”
Placing my phone down on the desk after I hung up with her, I tamped down the nervous excitement about my best friend meeting my boyfriend and clicked into the attachment to the email. I was still going through the renewing contract when I heard a shout from Joseph’s office.
“Fuck yes.”
My head whipped around just in time to see him fist bump the air. Curious about what had caused him to abandon his usual stoicism at the office, I jumped up and went to him.
The grin he was wearing when I walked in spread from ear to ear. “Change of plans for tonight. We’re celebrating.”
“What are we celebrating?” I rounded to his side of the desk and sat down at the edge of it, facing him. My hands itched to reach out and touch him, so I gripped the sides of his desk instead and peered down at him.
“We just got the contract for the local hospital system. I put in the bid a few weeks back. There was a big scandal with their old financial company, so I took a shot in the dark.”
“Clearly, it paid off.”
I wouldn’t have thought it would be possible for his grin to grow even wider, but it did. “It paid off big time.”
Chapter 29
Joseph
Grabbing Lilac, I got to my feet and lifted her against me, spinning her around and kissing her hard. I couldn’t give a fuck about anyone seeing us. This account was huge and if the first thing I wanted to do to celebrate was to kiss my girl, then I was going to fucking do it.
My leg twinged as we spun, but I ignored it. Lilac tensed at first when my lips came crashing down on hers, but relaxed again almost immediately. Her hands flew to the back of my neck as she kissed me back, moaning softly into my mouth.
Just then, the door banged open and Ollie came rushing in. “What’s going on? I thought I just heard you yelling.”
“We got the Sacred Heart account!” I exclaimed, grinning like a fool as I set Lilac down but didn’t let go of her. She turned in the circle of my arms to look at Ollie, her hands coming to mine as she stood with her back pressed to my front.
Ollie let out a loud shout and lifted his arms in the air to clap his hands together. “Yes. Fucking yes! I knew we were going to get it.”
“You did, huh?” I lifted my eyebrows, but raised my hand for a high five as he raced up to us. “I distinctly remember you telling me to remember how long of a shot it was and that every company in the city was going to be chasing it.”
He shrugged his broad shoulders and grinned as he slapped my palm with his. “What can I say? I didn’t want you to get your hopes up, but I had a good feeling about it.”
“Well, you’re going to keep feeling good about it because we’re going out tonight. It’s a celebration.”
Lilac cleared her throat. “Is this a family celebration or do I need to ask Alisha to watch Lincoln?”
I shook my head. “Everyone’s invited. Tell Alisha to dress up, because we’re going to do this the right way.”
She stepped away from me, and though I didn’t want to, I let her go. “I’ll go call her now.”
“Where do you want to go?” Ollie asked as Lilac left my office. My gaze lingered on her until she turned the corner and walked back into hers. God, that ass…
Ollie snapped his fingers in front of my face, a
musement shining from his dark eyes. “Earth to Joseph. Stop ogling your future CFO and tell me more about this celebration.”
Fighting the urge to flip him off, I turned and sat back down. Adrenaline from the win still surged through my veins, but I had to take it easy on my leg if we were going to be out all night.
“First, I’ll ogle her whenever I want to. Second, find a restaurant that we can book out. I don’t really care what it serves, as long as they’ll let us have the whole place.”
“I’m guessing she’s on board with you ogling her, then?” Ollie winked, then nodded at me. “Understood about the restaurant, by the way. I’ll get right on that.”
“She ogles me right back, I’ll have you know,” I called out to him as he turned to leave my office. “And thank you!”
His laughter rang out behind him as he shut the door and left me to it. Turning back to my laptop, I called a meeting with my two managers. They were in my office five minutes later, both looking nervous over having been called in.
They relaxed considerably when I told them the purpose of the meeting and to invite their whole staff to the celebration. When they left, they were grinning excitedly and already putting in calls to their respective teams.
I couldn’t stop grinning either, lifting my index fingers and tapping out a drumroll against my desk. I was flying high. This was a huge coup for me, and I couldn’t wait to get started on it.
Ollie came back into my office a few minutes later, patting himself on the shoulder. “I’ve booked us a Japanese steakhouse. The owner was beyond thrilled to close for the night to allow us to use the whole place.”
“Great news. Go spread the news on this floor. I’ve already told Rob and Dave to spread it on theirs.”
Ollie nodded and headed out, and I followed after him. Lilac looked up when I strode into her office, surprise crossing her features. “What no—”
She was cut off when I marched right over to her, yanked her up and kissed her again. Just as hard as before.
A groan rumbled in my chest. Being able to kiss like this to celebrate the news was the best damn feeling in the world, and I really didn’t care who knew. Let them see. I wasn’t planning on letting her go anytime soon, so they’d find out about us eventually anyway.
“I wasn’t done kissing you earlier when Ollie interrupted us,” I said when we finally came up for air.
Lilac’s lips were swollen and red, her cheeks flushed. She looked so fucking sexy. “Well, okay then. Are you done now?”
“No, I’ll never be done.” I dropped a kiss on the tip of her nose, then snaked a hand up her back to tug at her ponytail. When she was looking up at me, I planted another searing kiss on her lips. “But I have to go call the Sacred Heart liaison so we can get the paperwork ready to start the account. Want to come with me so I can keep kissing you in between emails and calls and shit?”
She rolled her eyes but when she realized I was being serious about my offer, a blinding smile spread on her lips and she nodded. “I can get behind that plan. Let’s go.”
We barely got any work done for the rest of the day. I did call the liaison and we did get the paperwork out, but that was about it. My office had glass walls, but thankfully there was a setting to turn them opaque. I’d never used it before, but while having people see me kissing Lilac wasn’t a problem for me, having them watch us make out and fool around on my couch was probably taking things too far.
We didn’t have a particularly productive afternoon, but we did have a very satisfying one. Pulling my hand out from under her skirt for the third time, I lowered my head to hers and gave her one more kiss before it was time to go. “We have to go get ready for the big celebration.”
Her eyes were still slightly unfocused from her last orgasm, one arm hanging off the couch while the other was hooked around my shoulders. “I’m not sure I can move yet.”
“Don’t worry, I’ll hold you up.” I lifted myself off the couch, made sure to do up my pants and tuck my shirt back in, then went to wash up before coming back to her. “Ready?”
She groaned, throwing her arm over her eyes as she shook her head. “You broke me. I can’t move.”
“If you keep lying there, I’m going to be tempted to keep breaking you.” I reached down and put my hands over hers. “Come on, all you have to do is hold on.”
Sighing dramatically, she wound her fingers through mine and sat up. “Fine, but only because Lincoln’s waiting downstairs and Alisha’s going to be there. Otherwise, I’d have stayed right here.”
“Don’t worry.” I winked as I straightened her shirt and kicked her shoes over to her. “Later tonight, I’ll let you stay where you are afterwards.”
“Later tonight?” Her blue eyes rounded as she turned them on me, but then she smiled. “You’re insatiable. I love it, but come on, boss man. You’ve got a whole party waiting for you. Get your mind out of the gutter.”
Laughing as I led her out of the office, I squeezed her hand and shook my head. Having a girlfriend who I worked with was turning out to be a lot more fun than I’d have thought it would be.
We got ready quickly when we got back to the condo, already well on our way to running late. I was practically buzzing with excitement over the account, but I was also excited to meet Alisha. Grant was coming to meet us after his shift at the VA too. I wasn’t usually one for big crowds of people, but this was different somehow.
When Lincoln threw his arms around me and gave me a big hug just before we all piled into my car, I realized why it was different. It was because I knew I would have them both by my side all night long, and that brought a grin to my lips that I couldn’t shake for the rest of the night.
Chapter 30
Lilac
Waking up in Joseph’s bed with him should have freaked me the hell out, but it didn’t. Instead of bolting up and trying to figure out how to keep things between us from getting awkward, I smiled when I opened my eyes to see him sleeping peacefully beside me and snuggled deeper into his arms.
His body was warm and hard against mine, a strong forearm draped around my waist and his breath ghosting against my forehead. Lifting up my arm carefully so as not to wake him, I softly traced the line of his jaw.
There was a smattering of stubble on his cheeks and chin, which somehow only made him more beautiful to me. His features were relaxed in his sleep, but he still didn’t look any softer than usual.
Despite his rough edges that were perfectly reflected in his angular bone structure, I’d come to learn that he could be a big softie. When it came to Lincoln, for instance, I had really seen his softer side.
The celebration at the steakhouse had carried on until almost midnight. Joseph had helped me to make a bed for Lincoln in one of the booths, and then surrounded him by coats. He’d also carried him to his car when we left and up to the guest bedroom when we got home.
I’d been about to whisper goodnight to Joseph when he leaned in close and asked me to spend the night with him in his bed. Being as exhausted as I was by the time we’d arrived back at the condo, I’d been tempted to say no.
Looking up into his gorgeous hazel eyes, his profile lit up by the light of the full moon shining in through the windows, I’d realized that despite how tired I was, I really did want to sleep next to him. In fact, I never wanted to leave his side if I didn’t have to.
After tucking Lincoln in and bringing him a glass of water in case he woke up during the night, I’d agreed to spend the night with Joseph and followed him to his bedroom. We’d just crashed, but it was really nice to fall asleep with his arms around me.
If I really thought about it, the fact that we were basically living together should have scared me, but it didn’t. The longer we stayed here with Joseph, the more I was enjoying it. I knew Lincoln was too.
Both of us were really starting to feel at home here, and Joseph seemed to like having us here as much as we liked being here. He’d even started encouraging me to call it ‘home.’ Since it was star
ting to feel that way, I’d caught myself calling it that a few times. It felt good.
Everything about being with Joseph did. The butterflies stirred in my stomach again, stretching their wings before zooming around happily as I lay there watching him sleep for a few minutes.
He didn’t look like he’d be waking up any time soon, and since he’d given everyone a paid day off, I didn’t have to get up either. But I did anyway.
When I got to the kitchen, I rummaged around in the fridge and took out a carton of eggs, some cheese, butter and other ingredients. Narrowing my eyes at what I had available to me, I realized I had everything that I needed to make a quiche.
It had been a while since I’d made one, but I pulled up a recipe on my phone for the crust and then got to work. I was wearing only my pajamas, my hair pulled up into a high ponytail that I’d thrown it into on my way to the kitchen.
Just as I got the quiche in the oven, I heard voices and turned around to face my guys. My heart nearly melted like the butter I’d just used to make the crust at what I saw.
Joseph was carrying Lincoln, head tipped back as he laughed. Lincoln was holding on to him, sitting as naturally and comfortably as he usually sat on my hip. He was smiling up at Joseph, his bright blue eyes sparkling and happy.
“I feel like I’ve missed something,” I said as I watched them walk toward me.
Joseph nodded at me, then winked at Lincoln. “Inside joke. Boys only.”
“Are you ganging up on me?” My eyes grew wide as I faked insult, but little bubbles of joy popped around my heart at the sight of them together like this.
I’d done my best to be everything I could be for Lincoln, but he’d never had a real father figure in his life. It was really easy to see that he was starting to look at Joseph that way, and even though our relationship was still new, I trusted Joseph not to fuck it up for him.
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