Graduation and Gifts (Untouchable Book 8)

by Heather Long

  Right. That kind of seemed unfair now. Someone else…

  “You earned it,” Archie reminded me in a tense tone, as if he could sense the direction of my thoughts, and I wrinkled my nose. “But that said, your shares in Standish will also pay dividends quarterly. At the moment, you’re looking at earning somewhere between three and six million per year, depending on our financial returns.”

  Holy.

  Shit.

  “Now, you can turn around and reinvest that money or put it into a portfolio that we can then diversify. But before we make any calls like that, I want you to get a financial manager, preferably one vetted by me and Wittaker, with Wittaker taking an advisory role.”

  My head kind of spun for a moment. It was a lot to take in. “Wait…you don’t want to do it?”

  “Babe, I have a financial advisor,” Archie told me, and I blinked. “But in the effort of total transparency, I don’t want you to think I’m taking over your money or trying to control it. I want you to have the control. I want you to understand the decisions being made. More, I want you to make the decisions with me and to tell me what you think. I love the way your brain works, but this—this is not what you’re used to.”

  He wasn’t wrong about that. “Archie…I don’t know what to do with all of it. Wittaker wanted me to talk to the financial advisor the week after my birthday when they released the trust to me, but I honestly don’t know what to do with that kind of money.”

  “First, you stop being afraid of it,” Archie told me almost sternly, and I scowled.

  “I’m not afraid of it.”

  “You are, a little. Because you know how to live paycheck to paycheck. You know how to stretch a dollar out. You know how to use coupons and find the best deals.”

  Honestly, I was so proud that he listed those attributes as positives not negatives that I leaned in and gave him a kiss. He caught me close and kissed me again, this time possessing my mouth with a sweetness that had me sighing as his tongue sought mine. I would never get tired of kissing him or falling into his orbit. He pulled every part of me.

  “Okay,” I admitted when he released my lips. “I don’t want to become someone else because of the money.”

  His expression gentled. “There it is. Do you think I’m so terrible?”

  “Of course not, but…”

  He raised his eyebrows, a hint of shock on his face. “But? Did you seriously end that sentence with a but?”

  A giggle escaped, I couldn’t help it. “Archie, you’re so you. You’re not remotely terrible, but you are a force of nature. You storm through my defenses, and you throw money around with such ease. You are comfortable with huge price tags and exorbitant fees. It doesn’t seem to faze you in the slightest.”

  “And that’s bad?” he checked.

  “No, I think you’re the best rich person I’ve ever known. You’re not a snob. You are hands down one of the best people I’ve ever known, period. You are so focused on others and caring about them. You are generous to a fault. You are as far from terrible as you can get.”

  He laughed. “Well, that doesn’t sound too bad. I think you’ll be an even better rich person than me.” The teasing light in his eyes took any sting from the words, except…

  “I don’t think badly of you.” It was very much the last thing I wanted him to think.

  “I know, babe, seriously. That said, I’m not the only wealthy person you know.”

  A sigh escaped me. “Your parents aren’t totally wretched.”

  “That you can even say that with a straight face after everything that’s happened just proves to me how much better than both of them you are.” Before I could protest, however, he pressed a finger to my lips. “Listen, please?”

  It was the please that secured my silence.

  “Okay.” He exhaled the pair of syllables as if he needed to steel himself in the coziness of our living room to dive into this topic with me. Guilt struck in the next second. Archie should not have to gird himself to have this—or any for that matter—conversation with me. I cupped his face, and he quieted.

  “I know you want me to listen, but, Archie, nothing you tell me is going to change how I feel about you. I might get mad or I might yell, and I’ve even been known to throw things when I’m not being an utter delight.” As I spoke, I climbed over to straddle his lap, and his eyes brightened, even as the corners of his lips tilted upwards. “Don’t ever be afraid to talk to me.”

  “I love you,” he said, hands on my hips as I wrapped my arms around his neck. Then with a little sigh, he gave me a squeeze. “Now sit that beautiful ass still so I can talk to you about this without you trying to distract me.”

  The playfulness was back, but he meant what he said. As tempting as teasing him was, I bit the inside of my lip and saved that for later.

  He groaned. “I know that look.”

  “What?” I protested. “I didn’t say anything.”

  “You didn’t have to. You’re going to make me pay for that statement.”

  I raised my eyebrows. “Didn’t you want me to listen?”

  “Yes.” He gave my hip another squeeze, and I returned the favor by tugging his hair lightly.

  “Then start talking.”

  He pinched my ass, and I jumped. “If you insist.” At my rolled eyes, he pinched my ass again, and I laughed.

  “If you think that’s going to deter me…”

  Nipping my lower lip, he gave it a gentle tug, and I hushed. Forehead resting against his, I waited.

  “First step, financial advisor. Wittaker has put together a file with six names, I marked the three I liked, but I want you to review all six of them. Then if you have questions, we can discuss it. The final decision will be yours.”

  That didn’t seem so bad.

  “Wittaker will arrange for your first meetings, if the advisors are out of state, we can do it over video call or take the meeting to them.”

  Yeah, I wasn’t going to touch that one, instead I soothed myself by playing with his hair.

  “The first couple of meetings will be the worst. You need to know every asset at your disposal. Everything listed in your name, every dime and dollar coming to you as well as when it is coming to you. A trust isn’t just a stagnant pool, if handled correctly, it also continues to earn interest and income that will then help the trust grow. Sometimes, the funds it earns are used to pay the administrators, lawyers, and advisors, which means your nest egg isn’t touched.”

  My head ached at the idea of how much money would have to be present to earn the incomes of three different people—or at least the fees of three different people. Wittaker couldn’t be cheap. While Archie had never told me how much his fees were, I figured somewhere in the five hundred dollars per hour range.

  Rubbing a hand against my back, he grinned.

  “Don’t freak out.”

  “I’m. Not. Freaking. Out.” Okay, so maybe I was a little. I closed my eyes and sucked in a deep breath. The caress of his hand running up and down my spine made me sigh. “Okay, I’m freaking out a little.”

  He smiled. “I know you are, that’s why I wanted to talk to you about this alone. You’d probably be even more wound up if the guys were here. Money isn’t a fun topic for a lot of people to talk about.”

  “Unless you have money,” I pointed out. Money had never bothered Archie.

  “That’s because it’s a resource. For some, it’s status. For others, it’s survival. For me? It’s just another resource I have to make life easier for the people I love.”

  Warmth bloomed inside of me.

  “And now, you have that resource too. Not that I won’t still insist on paying for meals and spoiling you with presents.” He curled a lock of my hair around his finger. “I guarantee you the guys will feel the same. Boyfriend privileges.”

  Yes, they had made that very clear. “Brother boyfriend privileges.”

  Archie threw his head back and laughed. The sound was so open and joyful, it chased away
some of my nerves. Still chuckling, he gave the lock a gentle tug. “No distracting me.”

  “I would never.” I lowered my lashes, and he snorted.

  “Anyway… We need to lock down your financial advisor before we move out of here. Ideally, we’ll have that first meeting set up so you don’t have to worry about things for a few weeks…”

  “Is this the part where I find out where you’re planning to whisk me away for the summer?”

  “No,” he said without missing a beat and winked. “This is the part where we discuss the annual shareholder’s meeting that takes place at the end of August every year.”

  I groaned. “Archie…”

  “Babe,” he plowed ahead. “Ten percent of Standish means—”

  “Wait.”

  He paused.

  “Ten percent of the whole company?” It was the first time that registered, I thought. Maybe. “I thought it was just ten percent of his shares, which is still too many because those should be yours…”

  “What’s mine is yours, so I’m fine with it,” Archie told me. “And yes, ten percent of the company. Between us, you and I control about twenty percent. Grandpa actually has forty-nine percent. That leaves Edward with roughly thirty-one percent. And he’ll likely lose another five percent to Muriel, now that the prenup has been fulfilled.”

  I frowned. I hated that whole prenup nonsense and how Archie dismissed himself in it. At the same time… “If you have shareholders, how does the family hold so many shares? I mean, that’s a hundred percent, right?”

  “Of the master stock in Standish Enterprises? Yes, we own the majority and controlling interest. Now, we have subsidiary companies that also have stockholders, and we are also accountable to them in some ways.”

  Oh, I felt a headache forming behind my eyes, but at the same time…

  “There’s a brief on this, right?” Because when I’d been at Standish, there had been briefs on everything.

  Another smile slid across his lips. “Yes, there is. And I’ve had all the materials compiled for you to read.”

  “You could just vote my shares for me.”

  “I could,” he agreed, sliding his hand to my nape. “But I won’t unless you really discover you want nothing to do with it. I will never fault you for that. Right now, Grandpa holds my proxy, but eventually, this is going to be mine to run or to hand off day-to-day control to someone else. Though I’m not sure that’s what Grandpa wants.”

  “What do you want?”

  I smoothed my hands over his shoulders and down his chest. The shirt was soft under my fingertips.

  “You.”

  I laughed. “Besides me.”

  “Oh,” he grunted as I traced my fingers to the hem of his shirt and slid them under to stroke his abs. “I haven’t decided on that. Grandpa wants me to think about it, but I really want to work on my degree, fuck you, design and build things with Jake, fuck you, play video games with the guys, fuck you, maybe take you skiing every winter, and you know…”

  “Fuck me?” I grinned.

  “Every day and in every way. I love to hear you come. I love to see you come. But there is nothing like the way you feel when you come, all hot, silky, and wet as you pulse around my cock.”

  I went to work on the buttons of his shorts. “Are we done discussing my finances?”

  “Are we agreed on your financial advisor and reviewing the brief so you not only understand your finances, but control them?”

  The zipper was loud in the silence as I slid it down. I ran my knuckles along the very stiff erection waiting for me and already peeking out of his boxers before I stood up. I pulled the shirt I was wearing up and over. “Well, let’s see,” I continued, leaving the dark green lace bra in place. Archie rubbed his hands against his thighs as I reached for the buttons on my shorts. I hadn’t worn this set yet, and since he’d already soaked my panties, we might as well enjoy them. “Wittaker has six candidates, you like three of them, but you want me to look over all of them and maybe narrow it down to two that I meet and discuss things with.”

  The shorts pooled at my feet, and Archie’s eyes darkened as he eyed the sheer lace green panties. I tugged his shorts, and he lifted his ass so they slid down easily and then off. I didn’t remove the boxers.

  I was rather fond of them. They had a game controller on them with the space for his ‘joystick’ around the slit. I’d picked them out myself, and his wicked grin had been worth it.

  As I wrapped my hand around his length and gave it a couple of slow pumps, he blew out a breath. “Correct.”

  “You would also like me to make the decisions this week before we have to move out of the apartment.” A bead of pre-cum glistened over the slit, and I smeared it over the head with my thumb.

  “Very much so,” he said on a sigh, and a muscle in his jaw seemed to be twitching like he was holding himself back.

  “Then there’s the briefs on the stock portfolio because that will also earn money and it comes with voting rights, even if the stock shouldn’t be mine.” I stroked his already hard cock and cut off his objections as he clicked his teeth together. Easing my thighs forward as I straddled him, I took advantage of the height difference to lean down and nuzzle a kiss to the corner of his mouth. “And I’m assuming after I’ve educated myself, I can assign my proxy to whomever, and they can handle that while I’m in school. With you. You know, hanging out, fucking, studying, fucking, playing…”

  He groaned. “Fuck me, Frankie, hearing you talk like that is almost as sexy as imagining how wet that pretty pink pussy of yours is.”

  “That didn’t answer my question,” I whispered after trailing a path of kisses to his ear. I scraped my teeth over his lobe as his hands finally gripped at my waist. “After I’ve done all this, I can assign my proxy…”

  “You can do whatever you want.”

  I squeezed him a little tighter. “I wasn’t done.”

  His swift inhale made me smile, and I traced my tongue over the whorls of his ear. “After I’ve studied and fucked you, maybe ridden this hard cock until you explode inside of me and I can’t see anything or feel anything but you, or maybe I’ll suck you into my mouth and swallow every drop of your cum… Hmm, I could do both. We have the rest of the evening. After all of that…”

  In a move I’d half expected but still delighted in, he pulled me to him and bit down lightly on my nipple through the lace. “Anything you want, babe, I mean it.” Then he sucked and teased at the nipple until I had to tilt my head back to try and hold onto my rapidly shredding control.

  Fuck it, I nudged my panties aside and just dropped down on him in one thrust. It was a bit of a stretch at this angle, but I savored the fullness of it and the way his expression went taut.

  “Fuck,” he groaned.

  “That’s the idea,” I said and began to move. The roll of my hips, a bit of a twist, and I could ride him. It didn’t quite hit my clit every time, but Archie slid his fingers between us, even as he raised a hand to fist my hair, and then he was stroking my clit and kissing me.

  There was nothing rushed or hurried, even as we tried to devour each other. I wanted to feel him come apart, and at the same time, he swallowed my cries as he ramped me higher. I was clenching so tightly around him, it made it hard to move, and still, we enjoyed the lazy heat of it.

  As hard as I tried to push him over first, he sucked my tongue, twisted one nipple, and applied so much pressure, I came on a scream. Then he dropped his hands to my hips and began to thrust up, fucking me right through that orgasm, and when he came, I swore I saw stars too.

  Collapsing against him, I ignored our joint mess and the fact he still had on a shirt. I’d fix that in a minute.

  “Good talk,” I whispered. “Can we do all our financial discussions this way?”

  He roared with laughter and then stood. I had to wrap my legs around his waist so I didn’t lose him, not that he seemed to have any intentions of dropping me. We were almost to our bedroom when it occurred
to me, he had been getting a little harder with each step as we ground against each other, and I clenched down on him.

  “As you wish,” he told me before we fell together onto the bed. “Let’s discuss terms…”

  Chapter Twelve

  Independent Women

  Frankie

  “You are not driving up to UNT with the guys to kick his ass,” Rachel informed me as she slid into the booth opposite me. We were at Mason’s. Marsha had already waved at me, and the girl who’d taken my job—okay in all fairness, she earned the job, but I might still be a little salty about it—was our waitress. She was toothachingly sweet though, so I couldn’t complain.

  Much.

  “Yes, we are,” I told her. We were taking a day for us. Okay well, Rachel was making a day for us. She’d shown up to ‘kidnap’ me, and the lack of argument from the guys told me they were all up to something and I was looking forward to the day with her, so what the hell. Besides, I’d been woken up by both Jake and Coop this morning when Jake decided to skip the morning run, and I ached in all the right ways.

  Honestly, I wasn’t complaining.

  “No, you’re not and stop grinning like such a smug bitch who got laid this morning.”

  I snorted. “What makes you think that?” Not that I was denying it.

  “The looseness in your stride, the fact you can’t stop smiling, and the pair of fresh hickeys you’re showing off at the top of your boobs.” She delivered the last line with such utter sweetness, I scowled and then laughed before adjusting my tank top. I didn’t mind the hickeys, but four boyfriends and they could get out of hand, so the guys tried to put them out of sight, most of the time.

  Jake, however, liked that little stamp to be on display and those were both from him. Coop’s were currently on the curve of my ass, a matching set because he didn’t want me to feel unbalanced.

  Grinning, I took a sip of my chocolate shake and shook my head. “Stop trying to change the subject.”