Coldhearted Boss

by Grey, R. S.

  He laughs against my skin then reins me back in to the topic at hand, tacking on one more reason for me to love him. “All right, how about this? I didn’t take that kiss in the mess hall any further even though I was tempted to.”

  My eyes widen. “I would have killed you.”

  His brow arches and his fingers grip my panties just below my hips. He starts to tug them down and goose bumps bloom across my skin. “Would you have?”

  I watch his every movement as he draws the silk down my thighs. His gaze falls heavy between my legs and my first instinct is to hide myself before I realize it’s Ethan looking at me like that. Ethan.

  None of it makes sense and yet…it all does.

  Fate has such a funny way of conducting business sometimes. I would have appreciated a simple meet cute. Maybe he could have just offered to buy me a beer at that bar and we would have got to talking. Through polite conversation, he would have come to find out about my predicament and offered me a job here on his crew.

  Instead, I stole his wallet.

  And well…as much as it pains me to think something as cliché as this, the fact is, Ethan was the real thief in the end.

  “Ethan?” I say, drawing his attention back up to my face.

  I reach down and drag my hands through his hair, knowing there’s definitely a better time to say this. We’re half-naked and he’s about to go down on me. It’s not exactly roses and champagne in front of the Eiffel Tower, but I don’t want to wait another second before telling him the last piece of truth I’ve been keeping locked away.

  “I love you. I think I started falling for you the first night in that bar, which is why I got so carried away in the weeks that followed. We really let each other have it.”

  He smiles then, and the way it lights up his face makes my insides flip upside down.

  “It does feel like we’ve been through a war.”

  No kidding.

  “Truce?”

  I hold up my hand for him to shake, and instead, he grabs my palm, turns it face up, and plants a kiss directly in the center.

  “Truce.”

  Epilogue

  Taylor

  Six years later

  “Taylor Larson Stone.”

  The announcer’s voice rings out over the loudspeaker in the arena and I stand frozen for a millisecond before my brain screams, That’s you! GO!

  With shaking limbs, I start to cross the stage, knowing I have a little fan club somewhere watching. I kept thinking I’d be able to listen for them when it was my turn to get my diploma, but it all happens too fast. I walk to the center, shake the dean’s hand, pose for a photo, and then they’re on to the next person. I shouldn’t be crying as I descend the steps. No one else is crying. In fact, the guy in front of me immediately starts texting again, bored out of his mind.

  Maybe to some people, a college degree is a given.

  For me, it wasn’t.

  I never thought I’d be here, a graduate of the University of Texas School of Engineering. For the last six years, I’ve been anything but the typical student. For my first couple of semesters, I took all my courses online while Ethan and I finished up work on Pine Wood Resort and then moved back to Austin together. There, I continued working for Lockwood Construction in a part-time position, all the while continuing to take courses at the community college.

  Ethan was the one to convince me to apply to UT. It still felt like a pipe dream, especially considering McKenna was only a year away from applying herself. She was at the top of her class back in Oak Dale, president of everything. She had college in her future no matter how many ways you slice it.

  Still, I applied, if nothing else so I could say, Well, at least I tried!

  I didn’t think I would get in. In fact, I was so sure of it that I didn’t factor it into our plans. Ethan and I were both eager to take the next steps in our relationship. We wanted marriage and kids. We wanted a family of our own.

  We had a tiny wedding ceremony back at Pine Wood, right on the edge of the lake where we used to spend our weekends swimming and reading. I stood across from him, pregnant, though I didn’t know it at the time. We said our vows while the breeze from the lake rustled the flowers pinned in my hair. Mckenna and my mom cried the whole time, which in turn made me cry the whole time, but you better believe our hair looked amazing.

  Ethan and I didn’t have a honeymoon. There was no time. Lockwood Construction had a big project starting up—one I was going to help assist on—and then, well…everything happened all at once: I took a pregnancy test and found out I was pregnant the very same day my acceptance packet came from UT.

  When Ethan got home that night, I was on the floor in our bathroom, crying and clutching the manila envelope in one hand and the test stick in the other. Apparently I looked like I was on the verge of a nervous breakdown because he hauled me onto his lap and started kissing my cheeks, my hair, anywhere within reach.

  “Taylor,” he said, desperately trying to get me to look at him. “It’s okay. This will be okay. I know it’s overwhelming, but don’t be sad—”

  That’s when I finally spoke up, and to this day he still quotes me on this. With a smile and a broken sob, I said, “Are you kidding?! This is the best day of my life!”

  Being a mom in college was as hilariously difficult as anyone would expect it to be. Late-night study sessions while breastfeeding an infant often had me seeing double the next day in class.

  I had semesters where I only took one class and I had semesters where I crammed three courses into a shortened summer session and thought I was going to die from stress. Thankfully, Isla stepped up in a big way. I never had to think about hiring a nanny because she was there. I mean, really, at all hours of the day and night. I thought I’d never be able to repay her, but she’s due to pop any day now, and I’ve already stocked her freezer full of meals and helped her set up the nursery. Tanner’s a nervous wreck, so the plan is for me to be with her in the delivery room too, just in case he faints and has to be wheeled out.

  I smile down at the fake diploma in my hand and then glance around me. Most of the students here had the standard college experience: four years of studying hard, taking risks, changing majors, finding themselves. Most of them are twenty-two, just babies. I know at twenty-eight, I’m not all that much older, and yet somehow I feel like I should be sitting here stroking a long gray beard.

  The remainder of graduation passes by quickly now that the hard part is over with. Just before we stand up to toss our caps, my seatmate to the left leans over, smiling wide. “Got plans tonight? Me and my friends are throwing a party to celebrate graduating. We’ve got a house over in West Campus.”

  I’m tempted to flash him my diamond ring and tack on the fact that I’m not only a mom of one little boy, I’m expecting another. Beneath my graduation gown, there’s an itty bitty bump, but honestly, I’m flattered by his invitation. It’s good for the ego. So, instead, I smile and save him from having to awkwardly withdraw his offer. “Thanks, I appreciate it, but I have other plans.”

  Those other plans are waiting for me outside the arena with what looks like the entire contents of a party supply store. There are balloons and posters and bouquets of flowers. There are more people here than I was expecting, but I’m hung up on Ethan and Andrew looking like carbon copies of one another, standing at the front of the group. Andrew’s wearing a clip-on bowtie and khakis, and his dark brown hair is styled back from his face, very fancy, just like his dad’s. He’s holding up a big poster that reads, My mom is #1!

  It’s so silly, with wobbly letters and cut-out stars half falling off of it, but here I am, tearing up again because Andrew made it just for me. Truthfully, he could glue a toothpick to a piece of paper and I’d think it was better than anything Picasso managed in his entire career.

  “Mommy!” he shouts as he sees me, darting through the crowd and body-slamming into my legs.

  I’d have completely lost my footing if the crowd wasn’t so thick.
Thankfully, a nice family catches my stumble and after quick apologies, Andrew is pulling me toward his dad as quickly as he can. I tell him there’s no rush, but then, that’s a lie, because I want to get back to Ethan as badly as he does.

  He’s standing just a few yards away in the center of the madness, holding a bouquet of wildflowers—a tradition we’ve kept up since our days in Rose Cabin. He looks devastatingly handsome in his suit, but then I suppose he always has. It’s why we’re all here in the first place.

  His warm smile sends goose bumps down my arms, and though we’re in a sea of people, the world falls out of focus behind him. When Andrew finishes tugging me over, I stand perfectly still for what feels like forever, just looking up at Ethan, reveling in this moment we’ve been working toward together as a family for so long. My burdens have been his burdens. My hardships have been equally shared. He’s been my rock and I wish I could tell him so without breaking out in a full sob.

  “Congratulations,” he says, leaning in to kiss me. He covertly wipes away my tears while his face is pressed against mine, and I’m grateful for the sweet gesture. When he tries to step back, I don’t let him. I squeeze him tight and hang on for just a little longer, needing his calming presence. His hand hits my stomach, right over our baby, and my eyes squeeze shut. Just like that, I feel like I can tackle the world again. I peel back and smile up at him.

  “Thank you.”

  And though he stays by my side, that’s the last chance we have for a private word because everyone else is rushing in now: Isla and Tanner, McKenna and my mom, even Jeremy and Khloe drove in from San Antonio with their daughter Mia, who Andrew happens to think is the coolest person he’s ever met.

  I get tugged aside for what I think is a photo with my mom, but McKenna’s actually recording us instead.

  “Okay! Here we are at Taylor’s college graduation. Taylor, tell us what you majored in!” She sounds like one of those cheesy dads recording his family opening gifts on Christmas morning. Timmy, tell the camera what Santa brought you!

  I roll my eyes but still play along. “Construction engineering and project management.”

  She laughs. “Wow, that’s a mouthful! And what do you plan on doing now that you’ve officially graduated?”

  “I’ll be working as a project manager at Lockwood Construction.”

  Everyone already knows this. It’s been the plan all along, ever since Robert took me under his wing and started showing me the ropes all those years ago.

  “And tell us, are you nervous about taking on your new role? Knowing you might have to deal with stubborn men who don’t like the idea of a woman running the show on a jobsite?”

  My eyes find Ethan and he’s visibly amused, knowing where my thoughts are headed before I even have to open my mouth.

  “You know what? I like to think I’ve had some pretty good practice dealing with stubborn men.”

  * * *

  Later that night, after the chaos of the day, Ethan and I are in the kitchen, tidying up. Well, he’s tidying up and I’m sitting on a barstool, eating another piece of the cake McKenna and Isla made for my graduation party. There are layers of fresh fruit and homemade buttercream frosting and I’ve made it my life’s mission to ensure that not a single crumb goes to waste. No crumbs left behind is my new motto.

  “How are you doing over there, Mrs. Stone?” Ethan asks, smirking at me over his shoulder.

  I give him a wide smile as I bring another forkful of cake to my mouth. “Just making sure the baby is well fed, that’s all.”

  He arches a brow and shakes his head before turning back to rinse off the last dish.

  He’s absolutely delectable—maybe even more so than the cake.

  His suit jacket and tie are long gone. His shirtsleeves are pushed up to his elbows, and his suit pants fit him to a T. I’m looking at his butt, filling my head with wicked ideas when my mom walks out of the hallway and interrupts my stream of thought.

  “Okay, Andrew’s officially asleep,” she says, grabbing her purse off the kitchen counter and slinging it over her shoulder.

  “Took you a while,” I tease.

  “Well, how am I supposed to say no when he asks for ‘just one more book’? Before I realized it, we’d read a dozen, just like always. It’s that charm of his—he has too much of it.”

  I smirk. “Blame his father.”

  “It’s all Taylor,” Ethan refutes.

  My mom shakes her head and walks toward me, dropping a kiss on my forehead. “I’m proud of you, kiddo.”

  My throat squeezes tight with emotion as I offer up a little smile.

  “Still need me to watch Andrew next Saturday?” she asks, heading for the door.

  “If you can. We’ve got that fundraiser for his school.”

  “All right. I’ll have Simone close the salon for me that day. I should be able to get here around dinner time.”

  For the one-thousandth time, I think of how grateful I am that my mom moved to Austin once McKenna started at UT. I love that we’re all in the same city now.

  “Thanks, that’d be great.”

  “Thanks again, Anne. Here, I’ll walk you out,” Ethan says, drying his hands on a towel so he can see her to her car.

  When he walks back into the kitchen and meets my gaze, my dirty thoughts from a few moments ago come roaring back hotter than ever. It makes no sense. We’ve been married for years. We sleep in the same bed every night. The man has seen me give birth and breastfeed and cry and bleed, and yet he looks at me with the same level of need he did all those years ago, like I’m still the most seductive woman he’s ever laid eyes on.

  “All finished?” he taunts, swooping in to steal my plate and finish off the last bite.

  “Hey!” I protest, reaching up to try to take it back.

  He holds it over my head and then leans down, kissing me.

  He steps closer, forcing me to lean back in my barstool so the countertop hits my lower back. He reigns over me, slanting his mouth and deepening the kiss. I fist his shirt, wrinkling it in my palm, and then his hands find the spaghetti straps on my dress so he can slide his fingers underneath them and push the silky material down my shoulders.

  A shiver racks through me.

  Our kiss is sinful, yet sweet thanks to the buttercream frosting.

  If I wasn’t already pregnant, we’d be fixing that tonight.

  “Mommy?” a tired little voice says from down the hall. “Dad? Can I have some water?”

  We break apart, half groaning, half laughing. It’s part of the territory. There’s very rarely a lazy session of lovemaking for us these days. More often than not, we’re throwing on a TV show and running to the bedroom for an afternoon quickie, or we’re locking the bathroom door and laughing as we collide against the tiled wall in the shower, hungry and rushed to have each other before parent duty calls again.

  Ethan leans down and whispers a promise against the shell of my ear: “Later.”

  And then he’s stepping back, walking over to the cabinet to get one of Andrew’s cups for water.

  I walk over to find our little boy standing in the door of his room, looking guilty for being out of bed. His brown hair is in disarray and he has his scruffy teddy bear tucked under one arm. I scoop him up, secretly happy to have another moment to squeeze him close today.

  “Is Dad coming too?”

  “I’m right here, bud,” Ethan says, passing him the water cup over my shoulder.

  “Will you guys tell me a story?”

  “Didn’t Nana read to you already?” I ask, smiling.

  He nuzzles his head against my neck. “Just a little,” he says, shattering my heart into a million pieces.

  There’s no way we’re walking out of this room without telling him a story first. The boy has us wrapped around his finger.

  “Okay, come lie down.”

  Once we’re all settled on his bed with him tucked under the covers between us, Ethan starts us off.

  “One time, there
was a beautiful princess—”

  Andrew cuts him off. “You’re supposed to say ‘Once upon a time’!”

  “Ah.” Ethan nods reverently. “Of course. Once upon a time, there was a beautiful princess named Taylor.”

  “That’s Mommy’s name!” Andrew says, eyes wide with wonder.

  I smile and shake my head, resting my head beside Andrew’s on his pillow and closing my eyes as I listen to Ethan’s deep voice when he continues.

  “She was smart and clever, but her kingdom had fallen on hard times and she was the only one who could save it.”

  “What did she do?”

  “She got a job so she could make money to help save the kingdom and all its people.”

  Andrew cracks up. “Princesses can’t work, Dad!”

  “Of course they can,” he insists.

  “What was her job?”

  “She helped build castles—at least she wanted to help, but there was an evil coldhearted dragon standing in her way.”

  I chuckle, aware of where he’s going with this.

  “Oh no,” Andrew gasps, fully invested.

  “The evil dragon was mean to her and tried to stop her from saving her kingdom, but the princess didn’t let that deter her—”

  “Deter?” Andrew asks.

  “She didn’t let that stop her. She kept working hard, even when the dragon snarled and stomped and growled. And you know what happened?”

  “What?!”

  “Her bravery saved her kingdom after all, and on top of that, she managed to soften the heart of the dragon so much he fell in love with her.”

  “But he’s a dragon!” Andrew protests. “Dragons can’t love princesses!”

  Ethan’s hand gently strokes my hair as he replies, “This one did.”

  I hope you enjoyed sharing a cabin with Taylor and Ethan ;)! If you love enemies-to-lovers, handsome jerks, and witty banter, keep reading for an excerpt from my bestselling romantic comedy

  ARROGANT DEVIL.