Anything For Love

by Melissa Foster

  “How about if I come in your mouth, you come on mine, and then you get me hard again?”

  Oh, how she loved that option! “Can you…?”

  “Have I ever failed you before?”

  She scrambled over him. He wrapped one arm around her hips as he ate at her sex and fucked her mouth, hard and fast. Her entire body vibrated, heat and ice coursing through her as they drove each other out of their minds. Her senses reeled, short-circuiting, and she couldn’t hold on to a single thought beyond the mounting pleasures inside her and the feel of his thickness pushing in and out of her mouth. She felt him flex beneath her at the same moment he did something incredible with his tongue, and they both surrendered to their passion and spiraled over the edge. Pleasure exploded inside her as she swallowed the proof of his arousal, and she collapsed beside him.

  He came down over her and captured her mouth with savage intensity, his half-hard cock grinding against her center, making her want and need him again. It took only a minute, and then his hard length was riding her slickness and they were both clamoring for more. He sheathed himself and drove into her in one hard thrust.

  She cried out with the ferocity of erotic pain and pleasure engulfing her. “Again!”

  He held her tight, taking her harder, deeper, and kissing her like she’d never been kissed before. Waves of pleasure crashed over her with every stroke of his tongue, every thrust of his hips. Their bodies smoldered as they gave in to their carnal desires, soaring higher until they shattered into a million sated pieces, bound together in a tempo all their own.

  A LONG WHILE later Beau and Charlotte showered, loving on each other even more, and finally dressed to join the others. Everyone was waiting for them, and they’d probably missed breakfast, but Charlotte didn’t care. Even though she wanted to see everyone, she was in no hurry to leave their suite. She packed her bag, knowing she had to leave soon but wanting every minute alone with Beau that she could get.

  Beau gathered her in his arms, gazing lovingly into her eyes. He did that so often, looked at her like he had a million things to say, but said nothing, or little. She liked that thoughtful side of him.

  “Two days?” He pressed his lips to hers.

  “Two days. Then we’ll have until you leave for L.A. Thursday.”

  His eyes turned from sated to serious. “I want to drive you to the airport.”

  She’d known he would. She didn’t want to feed in to his worries any more than she wanted to negate them. But their lives were soon going to be far apart, and she didn’t want him to worry every time she went somewhere that he’d lose her like he’d lost Tory.

  Treading carefully, she said, “Jilly and Aiyla and everyone are going together, and your brothers are staying to spend time with you. You should be with them.”

  His grip on her tightened, and his jaw followed. “Char—”

  She silenced him with a kiss. “I know you worry, but Ty would never let anything happen to Aiyla, and he’d never let anything happen to me. Your mistake wasn’t that you caused an accident. You were busy with your brother and you missed texts. You never miss a thing with me, Beau. Ever. And you’re picking me up Tuesday, right?”

  He nodded, his jaw working overtime. “But my brothers can wait.”

  “I know, but they don’t have to.”

  He exhaled and touched his forehead to hers. “This shouldn’t be so hard.”

  “Yes, it should. After my parents’ plane went down, I was petrified of flying. My grandfather basically forced me to fly here. You know he could have afforded to hire a driver, or he could have allowed me to drive, but he knew that would only further instill a fear of flying.”

  “How did I miss that? My brave girl is even more courageous than I thought. Guess that makes me a wimp.” His lips curved up confidently despite his words. “You’re right. You’ll text me when you get to the airport?”

  “Yes, and when I land in New York, and when I get to my hotel, and by then your brothers will be so sick of me texting you, you’ll want me to stop.”

  “Never.” He kissed her then, slow and tender. “You are great at fixing thirty-year-olds.”

  “I only need to be good at loving you.”

  His expression warmed, and he said, “I have to ask you something. Where do you keep your car?”

  “What car?”

  His brows shot up. “You don’t have one? What if there’s an emergency?”

  She shrugged. “I had one, but it died a few months ago. I just haven’t gotten around to picking out a new one.”

  He uttered a curse. “That’s what we’re doing Wednesday. You can’t be here without a car.”

  “Shh. No more worry talk.”

  “We’re getting you a car. A good one. A four-wheel drive.”

  “Maybe if you kiss me again, I’ll think about it.” She pursed her lips like a fish, and he kissed her hard.

  There was a knock at the door, and before they could answer it, Jillian peeked her head in, eyes closed. “Are you dressed? It’s time for us to get going so you and the guys can have your penis party.”

  Charlotte burst out in hysterics.

  Beau shook his head. “Since when do I have a sister with a trucker mouth?”

  Nick stuck his head in over Jillian’s. “She’s always had a trucker mouth. You’re just never around enough to hear it.”

  Beau carried Charlotte’s bags, and Jillian slipped her arm through hers, heading down the hall in front of Beau and Nick.

  “You look very blissed out, and I do not want the details. But on the way to the airport we’re going to discuss how you come up with so many amazing sex scenes. I swear you should sell your stories to men as how-to guides.”

  Chapter Eighteen

  WAKING UP WITHOUT Charlotte sucked. Showering without her was even worse. Not because Beau needed sex, although that was a nice bonus, but because waking with her in his arms, showering with her, and spending the morning with her had become as much a part of him as the oxygen he breathed. He wanted to call her, but she was having breakfast with her publicist, so he sent her a text. How’s my shortcake? Good luck today, and have fun with your friends tonight. Miss you. He stared at the screen for a long moment, and then he did something he’d never thought he’d do. He added a heart emoji and then he added a kissing emoji. He sent it off, picturing her rosebud lips curved up as he headed upstairs to find his brothers.

  They’d spent the afternoon in town yesterday buying supplies. Then they’d swung by Hal’s ranch for a quick visit, since they didn’t see him very often. They’d ended up staying for dinner and hanging out with their cousins Treat, Rex, and Josh, and their wives and children. When they’d returned to the inn, they’d unloaded the truck and brought tools up from the workshop. Today they’d work their fingers to the bone, but it’d be worth it.

  The event staff had left them with a full refrigerator. Like bread crumbs marking his brothers’ way, he found two coffee mugs and plates drying on a towel next to the sink.

  “Hey,” Graham said as he came in from the terrace wearing his favorite gray MIT baseball cap. “Nick’s outside on the phone. He said he wanted to see the grounds.”

  Beau poured himself a cup of coffee. “I have to go down and collect the eggs. Come with me. We’ll grab him on the way.”

  “Eggs? You have a refrigerator full of food.”

  “We also have a coop full of chickens.”

  “We?” Graham said as they headed out to the yard.

  Beau didn’t know how to respond. He’d taken himself by surprise, too. When they came around the side of the inn, he spotted Nick pacing by the woods. “Everything all right with him?”

  “Knowing Nick, he’s got one of his ranch hands holding the phone up to one of the horse’s ears so he can talk to them.”

  Beau laughed. “He does love his horses. I really appreciate you guys sticking around to help. I can’t hang Charlotte’s chandelier by myself, and with the three of us, I think we can get both the study
and her bedroom done.”

  “When’s the last time you asked anyone for help? That told us how important this was to you.”

  Nick ended his call and said, “Sleeping Beauty awoke without a kiss?” He shoved his phone in his pocket and said, “Or did Graham cuddle you awake?”

  “Bite me.” Beau motioned toward a trailhead. “Come on. We’re going to visit the Chickendales.”

  Graham and Nick exchanged a glance.

  “Dude…?” Nick scoffed. “What the hell is a Chickendale?”

  That was just the first in a long line of questions about Charlotteisms. They collected the eggs, and as Beau showed them the rest of the property, he detailed each of the things he’d like to fix, starting with the barn roof and ending with repairing the floors, steps, walls, ceilings, and repointing the fireplaces in Snow White’s cabin. The workshop was also on his list. He’d replaced most of the rotted wood, but it needed a new roof.

  “You realize you just listed weeks’ worth of work, not two days,” Nick pointed out on the way back to the inn.

  “No shit. I’m not talking about now. I just need your help with the study and her bedroom.”

  When they reached the inn, Graham said, “I still can’t get over that cabin. I would have liked to have met her great-grandfather. What a skilled visionary. No wonder she doesn’t want to leave this place.”

  “It’s all she’s got left of her family. That’s why I want to get these rooms done before I take off for L.A. I’ll come back and finish up the rest over time.”

  “You sure you want to do that?” Graham asked. “Move to L.A.? Work on a reality show? It’s a great opportunity if you want a public life, but…”

  Beau had been wrestling with accepting the public aspect of the offer from the get-go. Now that he was with Charlotte, the traveling wasn’t as appealing as it once was. Before Charlotte had come into his life, he’d worked himself to exhaustion just to be able to sleep at night. She’d calmed those demons. But what if everything was easy and right with Charlotte only because they were far away from the ghosts and memories in his hometown? If he wasn’t moving from one project to the next, would all those memories come crashing down on him again? Was it fair to put Charlotte in that position? And even if it was, he’d been dead set on taking the job and had cleared his professional slate for the next two years.

  Nick was watching him. His brother had been quiet throughout their walk, eyeing Beau like he had something to say. Beau was uptight enough from missing Charlotte. Knowing he was leaving at the end of the week for God only knew how long didn’t help. He was in no rush to butt heads with Nick.

  “The wheels are already in motion,” Beau said, and changed the subject to give himself something else to focus on. “We’ve got to get this done before Char gets back.” He led them into the study. “I figured we’d start with moving the shelving units and furniture to the suite she uses for storage upstairs. Then we can paint the room. The new furniture is being delivered this afternoon, and once that’s in, we can move down to the bedroom.”

  “You ordered her furniture?” Nick slid a worried look to Graham.

  Beau crossed his arms and set a steely gaze on Nick. “Yes. I ordered her furniture. You have a problem with that?”

  “Nope,” Nick said tightly. “Let’s do this.”

  He and Nick began packing the contents of the shelves into boxes while Graham emptied the desk drawers.

  “How many Bradens does it take to renovate a study and a bedroom?” Nick said with his first smile of the day.

  Beau was glad for his levity. “I appreciate the help, man. Three sets of hands will make this process go much quicker.”

  “Hey, Beau? How long has she lived here? There are old check registers from several years ago, and all sorts of shit in here.” Graham handed Beau a birthday card. “Look inside.”

  “When I said she never leaves her office, I meant it. I doubt she’s ever gone through these drawers.” He opened and read the childlike handwriting. Dear Grandpa, happy birthday. I love you, Charlotte. “Why don’t you let me go through the drawers? You can help Nick.”

  “You think it’s okay?” Graham asked. “Packing up her stuff like this? What if it was just an offhand comment about using the study as an office?”

  “Every comment she makes is offhand. It’s one of the things that makes her Charlotte.” And one of the things I love about her. “We’re not going through her stuff, just packing it up temporarily. We’re going to put it all back. Besides, asking would have ruined the surprise.”

  As he emptied the drawers, he found Charlotte’s grade school pictures. She was adorable, with a gap-toothed smile and pigtails. He found anniversary cards from her grandmother to her grandfather and a few more birthday cards. He didn’t read the cards from her grandparents, but he peeked at the ones from Charlotte, filling his heart up with pieces of her past.

  The bottom drawer of the desk was locked. “You guys haven’t found a desk key, have you?”

  “Nope,” Nick said. “But I found a bunch of old Twix bars in a jar on the bottom shelf. Guess her grandfather was a chocolate lover.”

  “Did you check underneath?” Graham asked.

  Beau ran his hand under the desk, shocked when his fingers ran over a key taped to the bottom of the drawer. “I’ll be damned.” He held the fancy old-fashioned key up to show them.

  “When in doubt, go with whatever’s simplest.” Graham went back to packing.

  Beau couldn’t remember a time when anything had been simple.

  He unlocked the drawer and found a thick, leather-bound book with Once Upon a Time embossed in gold script across the front. He imagined Charlotte as a young girl sitting on her grandfather’s lap, listening to him read her fairy tales. He withdrew it from the drawer, and a handful of loose pages slipped out. As he collected them, he realized what he’d found. Within the tattered pages of the book were Charlotte’s drawings of fairy-tale-themed rooms. He sat in the leather chair carefully looking through them, marveling at the thick, uneven crayon images she’d described, the detailed faded pencil marks of a teenager, and the careful, intricate drawings of a young woman breathing life into her dream and feeding her grandfather’s happiness. She’d drawn frilly canopies, garden murals, castle beds, and dozens of other pictures. Each page was labeled: THUMBELINA ROOM, HENNY PENNY ROOM, CINDERELLA ROOM, and many more, including some he’d never heard of, like the TOWN MUSICIANS OF BREMEN ROOM and the ELF MOUND ROOM.

  “I’m ready to haul this stuff upstairs.” Nick peered over Beau’s shoulder. “What’s that?”

  “This?” Is everything that matters. He carefully tucked the pages back into the book and said, “This is the very heart of my girl.”

  CHARLOTTE MARCHED OUT of her editor’s office and straight to the seventh floor of LWW Enterprises. It was six thirty, and the offices were still buzzing with employees. See? It’s normal to work long hours, she fumed as she stormed off the elevator toward Aubrey’s department. Her editor thought her writing had changed. It’s not erotic or edgy enough, and it might disappoint your fans. She’d blamed it on Charlotte working too hard. Ha! If she only knew how much fun she’d been having lately!

  Becca shot to her feet as Charlotte approached, her blond, side-swept barrel curls bouncing around her shoulders. Her skirt was tight, her leopard-print blouse was low-cut, and her cherry-red lips curled up into a smile as warm and welcoming as any Charlotte had ever seen. She loved Becca, and every time she saw her, she mentally added to the story line she wanted to write featuring Becca as the heroine.

  “Charlotte, so good to see you.”

  Charlotte embraced her. “You, too. How are things?”

  “First of all, your fans are chomping at the bit for Roman! Have you looked at your Instagram page lately? They’re making bets about who is a better lover, Roman or Daryl.” She waggled her brows and said, “I’d love to be in the middle of that manwich. How’s it going with Roman? Is he everything you hoped and more?”<
br />
  When she thought of Roman, she immediately envisioned Beau. “Yes, but unfortunately, Chelsea thinks otherwise.”

  Becca winced. “Sorry. She’s a tough cookie, but she knows her stuff, so…”

  “I know I have to give her criticism the weight it deserves, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t sting.”

  “Aubrey and Presley are waiting for you in Aubrey’s office.” She leaned closer and whispered, “But you had a rough time down in the lion’s den. Wait here one second. I have something to ease the pain.” She sashayed across the room, rockin’ the 1940s pinup style better than Gwen Stefani. She returned with a wine cooler and a Twix bar.

  “You are a goddess!”

  “I know, right?” Becca shrugged one shoulder and handed her the goodies. “Do you need me to take care of anything for you before I head out? Do you need a car for later, or…?”

  Charlotte held up her wine cooler. “You’ve already made my day. I’m fine, thanks. I’m going to drag the bigwigs out for a drink. Want to join us?”

  “Can’t, but thanks. I have to meet my trainer in twenty minutes. I love kicking his ass.” She grabbed her purse and said, “Buy Aubrey extra drinks tonight, please. She’s been hell on wheels since finding out that boy toy of yours is going to be the new face of Shack to Chic.”

  “What? She knows?” She hadn’t had a chance to tell Aubrey yet.

  “Honey, nothing is a secret in the entertainment world. Ciao.”

  Charlotte peeked into Aubrey’s office. Aubrey and Presley were sitting with their backs to the door, whispering, with their foreheads nearly touching. Aubrey’s hair looked even blonder next to Presley’s dark burgundy tresses. Charlotte realized that Presley and Jillian both had the same hair color, which fit, since they were equally bold.

  “It’s not nice to tell secrets,” she said as she entered the room.

  They both squealed and jumped up for a group hug.

  “Careful not to spill my drink!” Charlotte laughed. “God, I’ve missed you guys so much. Where’s Libby?”