by Ivy Layne
Taking in Rosie's soft touch on Scout's paw and her glazed eyes, I said, "Not long. Why? Do you want to go try to get some work done?"
"Definitely. If by work you mean stripping off your clothes and making you come."
"Hmm. I could make room in my schedule for that," I said.
"I was thinking we should move Rosie from the sitting room to the other master bedroom. The one I was using. That way, she'll be close, but we'll have a little space."
It was a good idea. The day before, I'd put Rosie down for her nap, and then Vance had tucked me in. Naked. It would have been heaven, but I'd ended up screaming his name and I'd woken Rosie. I'd learned the hard way that a wailing baby is a complete orgasm killer.
It wasn't my fault. Really. I'd never been a screamer during sex before. I tried to be quiet with Vance. Sometimes, I even managed it. But other times, I lost all control. He really was that good. Remembering, I shifted to lie on my front before I gave in to the urge to peel off my clothes right there.
All I had to do was think about sex with Vance and my body came to life. Think about sex, see Vance with his shirt off, catch that glint in his eyes . . . it didn't take much.
"Let's take her up now," I said. "You can move her crib, and we'll put her down for her nap." I eyed Rosie's slow blink. A few more of those, and her lids would stay closed. "I don't want her to fall asleep out here. She might wake up when we bring her in."
Vance scooped Rosie up and nudged Scout off the quilt while I grabbed our things. Rosie snuggled her head into his shoulder and let out a huff of air. She'd worn herself out with all that rolling. Maybe she'd take a nice long nap. I could only hope.
We were headed to the kitchen door when my phone rang. Charlotte. "Hey, Charlie, what's up?"
"Are you guys busy?"
"Just putting Rosie down for a nap, why?"
"What about after?"
"We don't have anything planned," I said, curious. Charlie wasn't usually this cagey. "What's going on?"
Vance caught my question and looked at me, his eyebrows raised. I shrugged.
"Can you meet me somewhere after Rosie wakes up?"
"Sure, where?" I asked.
"I'll tell you later. I don't want to talk to Vance about it over the phone. Just call me when you're ready."
"Okay, later." I hung up and shoved the phone in my pocket, wondering. What didn't she want to talk to Vance about?
"What's Charlie up to?" Vance asked as we climbed the stairs to the second level.
"I don't know. She wants us to meet her somewhere after Rosie's nap, but she wouldn't tell me where."
"She's been off lately," he said, handing me Rosie so he could drag her crib through the double doors that led to the bedroom that had been my grandfather's. We could move the changing table later.
As soon as Vance slid the crib into place, he returned to unplug the video monitor. I got busy changing her diaper. The sooner we got her settled in her crib, the sooner I could have Vance all to myself.
"She won't talk to me," I said, snapping Rosie back into cotton jammies and fastening the Velcro on her wearable blanket.
"Charlie likes to keep everything inside," Vance said.
"Yeah, like you can talk," I said, laying Rosie down in her crib and turning on the mobile she liked to watch while she fell asleep.
"Hey, I talk about my feelings all the time." He came up behind me and slid his hands beneath my t-shirt, his fingers nudging my bra out of the way. "I feel like fucking you. I love licking your pussy. It makes me really fucking happy when you come on my cock."
"Vance," I protested, my cheeks flaming red.
"Those are feelings. Important feelings."
He led me away from the crib, carefully shutting the door as we snuck across the sitting room to our bedroom. We shut that door as well. Better safe than sorry and all that. I stripped off my shirt, taking my bra with it.
"You smell like fresh cut grass and flowers," Vance said, running his lips over my shoulder. I buried my nose in his hair and breathed. He smelled like Vance, of heat and the outdoors and man. No other scent could fill my heart and set it racing. I dropped my hands to his jeans and pulled at the snap.
"Naked. Now," I said.
"Bossy," he murmured.
I didn't answer, just shoved his jeans to the floor and backed up, pulling him with me to the bed. His long, hard body came down on top of mine, his hips settling between my legs.
"Magnolia," he breathed, rocking his hips into mine. "I was watching you lying in the sun, and I wanted to fuck you there. I wanted to see you naked under the blue sky, all this smooth skin bare for me."
"Too bad the construction workers were there," I said, moaning as his cock rubbed against my pussy, the head teasing my clit.
"They’re not here now." He slid one hand between my legs, his fingertips pressing inside. He brought them back up, gleaming with moisture, and sucked them into his mouth. "You taste so fucking good. I need more of that."
I wasn't going to argue. Vance moved down my body with slow deliberation, the silky slide of his skin against mine a tease, heightening my arousal before he'd really touched me. His tongue flicked across my clit, and I gasped.
Vance lifted his head and met my eyes. "Feel free to scream all you want, Sugar."
I wasn't going to scream. I didn't mean to. A few minutes later, I forgot all about that. He licked, he tasted, he sucked my clit between his lips as he drove two fingers deep inside me. I came in a rush of gasping breath and sounds that might have been screams.
It wasn't my fault. What Vance could do with his mouth and two fingers was a miracle. He surged up the bed and was filling me with his cock while I was still coming.
When he was in to the hilt, he froze. We’d decided to forgo condoms recently and neither of us was used to how different it felt. How intimate. How real.
"Fuck,” he groaned. “I can feel you squeezing my cock with your pussy."
His mouth took mine, his lips tasting of me and of the uniquely perfect flavor that was only Vance. He seemed content to stay where he was, buried inside me, kissing me senseless, pinning me to the bed.
His mouth moved, his lips tugging, teeth nipping, his tongue tasting me, twining with mine. All I could do was hold on and sink into his kiss. Every touch, every brush of his lips told me how he felt, showed me how much he loved me.
I could have kissed Vance forever. I would have. But I needed to move. My orgasm had ebbed into another slowly growing wave of need, tension coiling inside me. Vance was all patience, kissing me over and over, the weight of his heavy body keeping me still.
I lifted my legs, wrapping them around his lean hips, trying to rock up into his cock. He filled me completely in this position, stretching me open. Propping himself up on his elbows, he looked down our bodies to where we were joined.
"Is this what you want?" He didn't thrust. Nothing that overt. Instead, he made a tight circle with his hips. I sucked in a breath. He'd barely moved, his upper body completely still, but the flex of his hips ground his pelvis into my clit, sending a molten flare of pleasure through my pussy.
He did it again, the movement almost nothing, but so intense I didn't know if I could take it. I squeezed my eyes shut and let out a ragged moan.
"I'm going to fuck you just like this," he whispered, "until I feel you come so hard on my cock you take me with you."
He stopped talking and kissed me again, slanting his mouth into mine, swallowing my moans as he made another tight circle with his hips, driving a spike of pleasure straight up my spine and into my brain. I clamped my knees to his sides, hanging on for dear life, kissing him, his mouth my anchor in the rising tide of pleasure.
My nipples rubbed the sparse hair on his chest. My heels dug into his muscled legs. My fingers gripped his shoulders as if I could keep myself from falling. Without the distraction of thrusting, touching, fucking him back, I could feel every tiny change in position. His hips circled one last time, and my clit exploded.
Pinn
ed beneath Vance, all I could do was kiss him harder, feeding from his mouth, giving him every gasp and cry.
I could feel the muscles in my pussy tighten on his cock in hard, sucking pulses, dragging him with me into bliss, just as he'd wanted. His own groans melded with mine, his breath short as he filled me. I was still shaking when he rolled to his back, taking me with him, my limp body draped over his as he reached out to pull the quilt over our bodies.
His hand stroked through my hair, tugging gently at the strands in a way he knew was guaranteed to lull me to sleep.
"Are we taking a nap?" I asked, drowsy and replete.
"Just for a while. I want to lie here with you like this."
"Mmm," I agreed. I could stay here forever, skin to skin with Vance, his cock still inside me, his hands stroking me with reverent love. "I love you," I murmured.
"My Sugar Magnolia," Vance said. I gave a laughing growl at the hated nickname. He tugged a lock of hair and said, "You taste so sweet, I can't call you anything else."
"Mmm." I wasn't going to argue about it while he was playing with my hair and I was half-asleep. Secretly, I kind of liked the way he called me 'Sugar'. But don't tell Vance that.
"I love you too," he whispered against the top of my head. “And I’m going to spend the rest of our lives showing you exactly how much.”
I pressed a kiss to the hollow of his throat and drifted into sleep, my heart full of Vance.
EPILOGUE: PART TWO
VANCE
* * *
What the fuck was Charlie thinking? I stood on the sidewalk, looking at her on the front porch of a dilapidated house in the Highlands, and I shook my head.
"What did you just say?" I asked, sure I must have misheard her announcement.
"I bought it. It's mine," Charlie said, her chin set to stubborn. Shit. I knew that look.
"Bought it for what? Kindling?"
"Vance!" Magnolia shoved her elbow into my side. "It's pretty."
"It's completely structurally sound," Charlie said. She looked down at the dip in the wood of the front porch, only feet from where she stood. "Mostly. It's mostly sound. The foundation is fine."
"And the roof?" I asked, looking up at the ragged shingles. Charlie followed my gaze and frowned.
"The roof needs some work," she admitted. "Come inside and look around."
"I'm not bringing my daughter in there. She'll sneeze, and the whole place will fall down on our heads."
"Vance, it's fine. I had it inspected. It's perfectly safe."
To prove her point, she opened the front door and disappeared inside. Magnolia, the traitor, followed her, saying, "Come on, Vance."
I went after them, Rosie strapped to my chest in her baby carrier. At the first sign the place was unstable, we were out of there. I crossed the sagging porch with a light step, hearing Magnolia say, "I can't believe you didn't tell me you put in an offer, you sneak."
"I didn't want to get my hopes up since I was the backup contract. But the original buyers found out about the plumbing and pulled out."
"What about the plumbing?" I asked.
"It needs a lot of work," Charlie admitted, sending Magnolia a look I assumed was meant to express how annoying I was.
"What's going on, Charlie?" I demanded.
None of this made sense. Charlie didn't need a place to live. She had a whole suite at Winters House, with a cook and a housekeeper and Aiden to keep an eye on her. She didn't need this place. And she didn't know anything about construction or renovations.
"Why would you buy a heap like this?"
"I'm moving in. I'm going to live here," she said.
"What do you mean, you're going to live here?" I asked. I may have shouted. Rosie squirmed against me. I kissed her temple and said, "Does Aiden know?"
Charlotte looked at Magnolia, guilt all over her face. "Not yet. I wanted to see what you said first."
I understood immediately. I was protective of Charlie. We all were. She was the baby of the family. But I was still way more laid back than Aiden. He was going to go ballistic. I shook my head.
"You'd better show us around."
Magnolia and I followed as she led us through the house. The floor was sound, but the brick and tile on the fireplaces had been stripped. The woodwork was fantastic, original and perfectly done, except some moron had painted it in thick layers that would have to be carefully stripped. If Charlie put in the time and money, the house would be amazing.
It was going to be a lot of time and a ton of money. Charlie had the money. Not family money, but her own. She'd been working for Winters Inc. since she was eighteen, part-time all through college, and she had done her MBA while working for the company full-time. She was a vice president at twenty-three, and as far as I knew, she'd spent very little of her salary.
She lived at Winters House, and there was no way Aiden would let her pay rent. She never took vacations. She drove a ten-year-old Audi Aiden gave her at sixteen when he'd upgraded to a newer model. If she'd been banking her salary all these years, it wasn't a stretch to imagine she had a small fortune in cash socked away. But why would she blow it all on a money pit like this place?
"Lay it out for me," I asked after a quick swing through the second level. "What does it need? Other than new plumbing and a new roof?"
Charlotte wasn't easily intimidated, especially by her family. She met my glare and said, evenly, "All the woodwork needs to be restored. The floors need to be refinished. The kitchen and bathrooms are a gut. The upstairs needs to be redone. It has seven bedrooms, including the attic, but only one bath and no master. I want to turn three of the bedrooms into a master suite and add another bath."
"That's all?" I asked, not trying to hide my sarcasm.
"No," Charlotte said evenly. "There are other issues, but those are the big ones."
"And when are you going to do all this work?" I asked. "Honey, you work seventy-hour weeks. Do you have a contractor? Please don't tell me you think you're going to do the work yourself."
"I'm figuring that out," she muttered, breaking eye contact, her gaze sweeping over the foyer of her disaster of a house. There was a light in her ocean blue eyes I hadn't seen in years. Longing and excitement.
Shit. I didn't like this plan of hers for so many reasons. But if it was going to bring life back to Charlie, maybe even drag her out of the prison she'd made of her job, I was all for it.
"Magnolia and I are taking it easy right now. If you need a little help lining up work, let me know," I said. Charlie's face lit with a smile. Yep, I'd do a lot to see my baby cousin look happy. I wish I could remember the last time I saw her smile like that.
Losing Aunt Olivia and Uncle Hugh had changed us all. Some of us, like Gage, Annalise, and me, had extreme reactions—me with my drinking, Gage joining the army and disappearing overnight, and Annalise taking off to roam the country with her camera.
We'd been the showboats in our grief. Charlie had just dried up and shut down. The vibrant, off-beat, funny, irreverent girl she'd been had faded away, and she'd become the Charlotte we knew now. Perfect in every way, but not quite Charlie. I missed her. We all did.
"Do you want me to talk to Aiden for you?" I asked. She shook her head.
"I'll tell him. Just give me some time. I don't want to say anything until we get the new nurse hired and Aunt Amelia settled. And I have some work to do here before I can move in."
"Plumbing first?" Magnolia asked. Charlie nodded. "I'll get you the number of the guy we’re using on the carriage house. He can at least get you a working bathroom while you figure out what to do with the upstairs."
Charlotte started to answer, but the roar of a lawnmower outside the window had her swinging her head around. Magnolia let out a giggle and strode to the window. Her hands on her hips, she gave a low hum of appreciation.
"Charlie," she hissed, as if whoever was outside the window could hear. "Come here."
Charlie did, joining Magnolia at the window. A faint blush rose on her
cheeks as she stared at the neighboring backyard, and she bit her lower lip.
What the fuck?
I joined them just in time to see a giant of a man, every inch of him muscle and ink, pushing a lawnmower. Something about him was vaguely familiar, but at this distance, I couldn't place his face.
God damnit. Why was nothing ever easy? "Stop ogling your neighbor, Charlotte," I said. Her clear blue eyes slid to meet mine, a flash of embarrassment in them before she and Magnolia dissolved into giggles.
"You sound like Maggie when she's being prissy," Charlie said, gasping for breath. "And a little ogling isn't hurting anyone. He doesn't even know."
"That's not the point," I said. Shit, she was right. I did sound like Magnolia when she was being prissy. Fuck me. Unable to stop myself, I went on, "I don't think a woman with four broken engagements is qualified to pick her own dates."
"Four?" Magnolia asked, turning wide eyes to Charlie.
Charlie shrugged, not the least bit ashamed of breaking up with any of her rejected suitors. She shouldn't have been. They were all assholes.
"I'm slow to catch on, but I get there eventually," she said, turning her eyes back to the guy next door, a smile playing on her lips. "Anyway, I'm not looking for a boyfriend. Or a fiancée. All I want is this house."
"And you got that," Magnolia said, giving her a hug. "Congratulations. Anything we can do to help, just let us know."
"I'll keep you posted," Charlie murmured, still watching her dangerous looking neighbor.
If this house made her happy, we were with her all the way. But if that guy next door came within ten feet of Charlie, I was going to kill him. And Aiden, Jacob, Holden, and Tate would be in line right behind me.
Do you want to read Charlotte and Lucas’s story?
Keep reading for a sneak peek of The Rebel Billionaire.
SNEAK PEEK:
THE REBEL BILLIONAIRE
CHAPTER ONE
CHARLIE
* * *
"You're fired."
I laughed.