“Nice to meet you, Ms. Berryman,” he said, offering a warm, tanned hand.
“You too, Mr. Tilford.”
“Please call me Bellamy. Everyone does.”
“Bellamy.”
“Bellamy is Taurus’s head of development. He’s generously agreed to help us with the transfer of the old files to the new digital format.”
I nodded. I knew that already.
“You wouldn’t have time for lunch, would you?” Bellamy suddenly asked. “I’m starving and we have all this information to go over. Maybe it would go easier if we had some good food to share.”
Grant cleared his throat. “We really need to get this process started,” he said, his eyes moving from me to Bellamy.
“I think a lunch meeting would be fine. And I’m starved.”
“Great.”
I grabbed my suit jacket and Bellamy helped me slip it on as Grant watched through narrowed eyes. We hadn’t had much of a chance to talk since the other night. He was out at the sites all day yesterday and locked up in his office all morning. I wasn’t even sure what I would say to him if I’d had the chance. But I kind of liked the fact that he seemed openly jealous of Bellamy.
“See you around,” I said, wiggling my fingers at him as Bellamy and I slipped through the door.
Chapter 17
“So, I’m assuming you know how to work one of our tablets,” Bellamy said after we’d ordered too much barbecue at one of my favorite restaurants.
“Of course. I own like three of them.”
“Then that’s the biggest hurdle. Saves us an hour of conversation.”
I laughed. “Then what will we talk about?”
Bellamy refreshed my glass with a pitcher of sangria the waitress had brought a few minutes ago. “What about Grant?”
I groaned. “Why does everyone always want to talk about him?”
“Who else asked about him?”
“Rebecca.”
He nodded, a grave look on his face. “She’s always been fascinated by him. You’d think she had a crush on him or something.”
“Don’t all personal assistants have a crush on their bosses?”
“Does yours?”
“No. She’s in love with the boss’s brother.”
“Kevin?”
“You know him, too?”
“Of course.” Bellamy picked up his wine glass and drank down half of the spiked wine. “Kevin hung out at our office a lot. I think it was the only time he could get with his brother because they both kept such long hours.”
“I thought Grant was just a partner of the company.”
“Grant was the founder of our company. He didn’t know shit about building these handy little devices, but he understood a good idea when he heard it. He sank so much money into it that we were all afraid he was going to end up living on the streets before we had a product to launch. But when we launched…he could have been a multimillionaire, but he shared the profits, insisted that we all take a fair share even though it was his money that made the company possible. And he spent day and night at his desk, putting everything he had into every part of the company.”
“Sounds like Grant.”
“The man’s a fucking saint.” Bellamy poured more sangria into his glass and downed that one, too. “I couldn’t believe it when he decided to walk away so close to us going public. He’d be a billionaire right now if he hadn’t cashed out.”
“That’s what Rebecca said.”
“It’s the truth.”
“Is that why you agreed to come here and help us with this thing?”
“I owe Grant everything.”
He studied me from across the table, his eyes seeming to see right through me.
“What?”
“You’re the one who broke his heart, aren’t you?”
I nearly choked when he said that, and I wasn’t even drinking anything. I picked up my glass and swallowed a little of the sweet wine, unsure how to respond to his question.
“We all figured someone had broken his heart. For four years, he rarely left the office. As far as anyone knew, he didn’t date. We saw him flirt a few times, but nothing serious. So we decided he was being loyal to someone who broke his heart.”
I shook my head. “You got it backwards.”
“Kevin told Rebecca once that he had a girl in Houston before he left, someone who was supposed to come to California with him.”
“I’ve heard that, too.”
He watched me. “You’re nervous. I’ve obviously hit a nerve.”
“There are a lot of people trying to figure out what Grant and I mean to each other. But it’s really no one’s business but ours.”
Bellamy lowered his head, conceding my point.
“But, the thing is, we care about Grant. He’s a good man who did a generous thing for all of us. We don’t want to see him hurt.”
“I’m glad Grant has people like you in his life.”
The waitress arrived just then with our food, plates piled high with ribs. I clasped my hands in my lap and waited until she was done, thanking her politely as she walked away. Bellamy studied his plate for a moment, then looked at me again.
“I guess all I’m saying is that I would like to see Grant happy. And if that’s you…”
“Grant has a mind of his own. He’ll make his own choices.”
Bellamy smiled. “That’s true.”
He lifted his glass and held it up. “Here’s to good barbecue.”
I smiled. “And good friends.”
***
I was at my desk late that night, my eyesight blurring as I stared at my computer screen. Angela had left hours ago, as had most of the office staff. The quiet was nice, but the pile of work that only seemed to grow higher was discouraging.
I sat back and rubbed my eyes, climbing out of my chair to go find some coffee. I should’ve had a machine in my office, but it never seemed necessary before. I wandered down to the break room, but the machine was off and cold.
“I have some in my office.”
Grant was watching me from the hallway, a handful of papers in his arms.
“Do you ever go home?”
“Do you?”
“I don’t know. Not recently. New boss. You know how it goes.”
His eyes moved slowly over the length of me, taking in my bare feet and untucked blouse. I tugged at my blouse, tugging out the wrinkles as though that would make my overall appearance any better.
“Trying to impress?”
“To some extent.”
“I’m sure you’re very impressive.”
“What I am is exhausted and I still have four hours of work waiting for me.”
“Yeah, me too.” He leaned against the doorway, glancing over his shoulder as though looking to make sure we were alone. “What do you say we sneak out of here? We deserve a little break.”
“We do, don’t we?”
He held out his hand and I took it, followed him down the hall to his office. He dropped the papers on Rebecca’s desk and grabbed his jacket. We backtracked to my office so that I could grab my shoes and then left, climbing into his Mercedes and making our way through the silent streets of downtown Houston in the middle of the night.
He lay his hand on my knee and I didn’t see the point in pushing it away. Clearly encouraged, he slipped his hand farther up my leg, squeezing my upper thigh as he turned the car toward his apartment building less than a mile away.
“You have good friends, you know?”
He glanced at me. “Do I?”
“That Bellamy. All he wanted to talk about was what a great guy you are, how you gave up millions by leaving Taurus right before they went public.”
“Hmmm…”
I looked over at him. “Is that all you have to say?”
“What do you want me to say? I made plenty of money on Taurus. I didn’t need to stick around for more.”
“But if you’d stayed just a week or two—”
�
�Didn’t want to.”
“Why not? Why did you come back here?”
“I’ve already told you,” he said as he pulled the car into the parking garage under his building.
“No, not really.”
He pulled the car into a parking spot and turned toward me, his hand moving to my face. He tugged at my jaw, pulling me around so that I had no option but to look him in the eye.
“I came back for you. I heard about the trouble Berryman Construction was in, heard there was an opportunity to swoop in and be the savior. I couldn’t pass that up.”
“You intentionally came back to buy my legacy.”
“I intentionally came back to prove to you and your father that I’m not a loser. That I can provide for you.”
“I never had any doubt.”
“But your father did.”
“Is that what this is all about? You’re trying to prove something to my dad?”
He shrugged. “I came back for you.”
I leaned into him, pressing my forehead against his. “Okay.”
He kissed me lightly, then climbed out of the car and came around to help me out. We went upstairs without saying anything, walking hand in hand to the bedroom. It was as natural as breathing, I think. Even undressing on either side of the bed, sharing a toothbrush, and curling up together was natural. His touch on my body, the feel of his weight on me, was natural, too. Like this was the way it was meant to be. Like this was how it always should have been.
Chapter 18
The sun was shining on my face when I woke the next morning. Grant had yet to put anything over the windows in his bedroom, so the room was bathed in light early in the morning. I rolled over, moving into the warmth of his naked body. Even in his sleep his arms came around me, tugging me closer against him. I couldn’t imagine feeling any more secure than I felt there with him like that.
I closed my eyes and let sleep drift over me again. I was just sitting there on the threshold, about to fall into dreams, when I heard the door slam downstairs. Grant didn’t move, so I assumed it was just part of my dream. But then the bedroom door opened and a woman gasped.
I sat up, tugging the sheet up over my chest. Rebecca, her face pale as she stared at us, stood inside the doorway.
“What are you doing here?”
Her eyes moved from Grant to me, then back again.
“Sorry,” she said in that soft, breathless voice that most southern women seemed to have, “I didn’t realize you would still be here.”
“No problem, Rebecca,” Grant said, sitting up behind me, pressing his lips to my shoulder.
Her eyes seemed to widen, making me wonder how much of an eyeful she was getting.
“The painters…” she mumbled.
“Give us an hour,” Grant said, his arm coming around my waist as he pulled me back down against the mattress.
“Grant!”
He started kissing me, but not on the lips. His mouth moved over my throat as his body slowly slid down the length of mine. I caught sight of Rebecca leaving the room just as he pulled the sheet down over my breasts, capturing one nipple between his teeth. I cried out, as much from shock as from the slight spark of pain. And then he was moving farther down and my thoughts started to become foggy before they slowly disappeared altogether.
“Oh, you’ve got to stop,” I groaned.
“You don’t really want me to stop.”
I reached down and brushed a lock of hair out of his face. “Rebecca is just outside.”
“Maybe we’ll teach her a thing or two. I’m sure her husband would appreciate it.”
He smiled as he moved back down between my thighs, his tongue doing amazing things to my clit. I cried out, pressing my fingers into his hair to pull him closer. And then his fingers were brushing against my lips, sliding inside of me easily. I lay back, giving myself up to anything and everything he wanted to do. Why fight something this amazing? Why fight a man who was determined to do whatever he wanted to do?
Why fight a mind-blowing orgasm?
When I caught my breath, he climbed out of bed and reached back for my hand.
“Join me in the shower?”
The water was hot. The shower one of those walk-through things that gave the illusion of space. He positioned me under the primary showerhead and grabbed a bar of soap, running it slowly over my back. When his hands were good and soapy, he put it down and ran his hands over my breasts, taking his time washing every little spot, tweaking my nipples between his forefinger and thumb, before lifting the weight of my breasts and holding it in the palms of his hands.
“You’re insatiable,” I said, twisting in his arms and sliding my own soapy hands along his chest.
“I have a lot of time to make up for.”
“You say that like there’s been no one else keeping your bed warm.”
“And you say that like you think there’s been a string of women coming and going.”
“Mostly going, I hope.”
“What about you?” He pushed me back against the wet, cold wall. “How many men came and went from your bed?”
“Hundreds.”
“Hundreds, huh?” He pressed his hand against my throat, tight enough that I could feel the potential danger in it. “I’m supposed to believe that?”
“You don’t think there’d be hundreds of men capable of wanting to be in my bed?”
“Oh, I believe it’s possible. I just don’t believe you’d do that.”
“You have no idea what I did after you left.”
“I don’t.”
“Does that make you jealous?”
He looked down at me, his tongue sliding slowly over his moist lips. His free hand moved over my breasts, sliding slowly down over my belly.
“You’re mine,” he said softly. “I don’t like the idea that anyone else ever touched you like this.”
“How many would make you truly jealous? How many men in my bed?”
“Even one…I won’t even let myself think of just one.”
“You were jealous of Bellamy yesterday.”
He reached down and grabbed the back of my thigh. “The way he was looking at you,” he said roughly. “I wanted to bloody his nose.”
He lifted me up even as I grasped his shaft, stroking it gently as he slid me up high against the wall. “I like that,” I whispered as I guided him to me, as I helped him find my entrance and slide deep inside of me. I closed my eyes only briefly, long enough to catch control over the pleasure roaring through me.
I wrapped my legs around him as the weight of his body pinned me against the wall. He braced himself with one arm on the wall just above my head, his other around my waist, holding me in place.
“You’re mine,” he said, his forehead against my own, his lips so close to my lips. “Only mine.”
“And you’re mine.”
I ran my hands over his jaw, drew him to me until our lips touched for a long moment. Then he began to move, and this became the only thing that mattered. The past was gone, the future just a momentary distraction. This was what mattered.
***
Rebecca was downstairs when I made my way down a while later. Grant left ahead of me, saying something about a meeting he was late for. He kissed me, his hand sliding over my bare bottom before he walked out the door, still tying his tie as he went. I stood in his bathroom for a little while, snooping through his medicine cabinet, sniffing his cologne straight out of the bottle—funny how it never smelled the same in the bottle as on his skin—and checking the brand of his toothpaste and his deodorant. Just learning all those intimate details that eluded me up until now.
“I’m really embarrassed,” Rebecca said as she watched me come down the stairs. “I’m sorry.”
She did look embarrassed. There was high color on her cheeks, and she wouldn’t look me in the eye.
I paused halfway down the stairs to watch the painters carefully apply blue tape around surfaces that weren’t to be painted. There were three
of them, young men in white overalls who moved deftly. They had the blue paint I’d suggested for the living room and a host of supplies that suggested their level of professionalism.
“If they’re working down here, why were you upstairs?”
“I knew Grant was still here. I just didn’t know he wasn’t alone.”
“You go into his bedroom a lot?”
Rebecca blushed. “We had a routine in Los Angeles. We’d meet at his place for breakfast every morning to go over his schedule for the day. If he wasn’t up when I got there, he told me to come wake him.”
“This isn’t Los Angeles.”
“I realize that.”
My cell phone buzzed in my pocket. I pulled it out and dismissed a calendar reminder that I was supposed to meet my dad for breakfast. I started down the stairs again, pausing as I reached her side.
“From now on, the bedroom is off-limits.”
“Of course.”
I looked her up and down, letting my eyes linger until she blushed so brightly her cheeks were nearly glowing.
“I don’t know what things were like in Los Angeles. I wasn’t there. But here we believe in personal space. And privacy. I suggest you learn a few boundaries if you want to stay employed at Berryman Construction.”
“Of course, Ms. Berryman.”
I inclined my head slightly and walked off, pausing at the door.
“Oh, and tell Grant that I’ll be out of the office this morning. If he needs me, he should call my cell.”
It was petty, but it sure made me feel good.
Chapter 19
My dad stood as I walked toward him in the crowded restaurant. I took his hand and let him pull me in for a kiss on the cheek, the familiar scent of him filling me with guilt for not doing this sooner.
“I’m sorry I haven’t responded to your phone calls. Things have been crazy at the office.”
“I’m sure they have been,” he said as he helped me into my chair before reclaiming his own.
“Grant has everyone switching to computer tablets to keep track of paperwork. It’s causing a bit of confusion for some of the workers.”
“I can imagine.”
“That’s sort of why I asked you to breakfast. I was wondering—”
DOTTY (The Naughty Ones Book 3) Page 95