“Chloe. I’m so glad you could make it,” Yasmin says as she lets me in.
The girls from our group greet me with hellos and hugs. Sam introduces me to her mom and her other friends who are there. I take in the decorations. There are dark teal and cream colored balloons everywhere so I’m guessing those are the wedding colors. I take in a table filled with finger foods and also a dessert bar. The girls let me know to grab a drink from the kitchen.
We settle in and play some fun games. Yasmin and I team up for the game where you make a wedding dress out of toilet paper. Alex is our model and we win. We both love fashion, and I know construction, so it’s no surprise. Our prize is the promise of tickets to The BeatlesLove with the special back stage tour included. I’m really excited because I love the Beatles, but then reality sets in. Ryan loves the Beatles too, but I know he went with Cel and probably other women as well. I guess I’ll invite one of the girls once I figure out what day I can go.
It’s soon time to open the presents. I hope Sam likes mine. I bought a cute pink babydoll from Victoria’s Secret, and then I sewed some little Mickey Mouse ears on it. She opens a few before she gets to mine.
“I love this Chloe. Did you sew the ears on it?”
“Yeah, I did. I’m glad you like it, Sam.”
Yasmin got her a sexy teddy from Agent Provocateur, and Erika got her a bustier and garter belt set that she picked up in Paris while she was on her honeymoon. Candi’s present is next. The girls and I look at each other a little nervously. If it was just us, it would be fine, but Sam’s mother and Maggie and Alex are here. So if there’s something too crazy in that box, we’ll probably all be mortified.
Sam opens the lid and then closes it again. “It’s not that bad, Sam. I knew that your mom would be here, so I held back,” Candi says.
“Okay, here goes,” Sam replies.
She pulls out some sexy lingerie first. It’s racier than anything else she has gotten so far but not too scandalous. Then, she shows us some fuzzy pink handcuffs, edible body oil, and some kind of chapstick that Candi says makes your lips and anything that they come into contact with tingle. It’s all really tame for Candi, and no one is too scandalized.
The party starts winding down after another hour or so, and I get ready to leave. I’m exhausted after my long day at work and know that tomorrow will be even harder. I easily have twelve hours of work that needs to get done, but since it’s Friday barbeque, we will be leaving the office by 6. Yasmin reminds me to let her know what date I want the tickets and tour for. They only do the tour on Friday and Saturday, so she expects me to pick a Saturday since Ryan and his brothers don’t miss barbeque unless they’re out of town. I don’t tell her that I am not planning to ask him to go. Instead, I promise to let her know soon.
I’m just saying my goodbyes when one of Sam’s friends comes over. “You’re dating Scott Griffin, aren’t you, Yasmin?”
“Yes, I am.”
“I haven’t met him, but I know his brother well.”
“His brother?” I ask, afraid that I already know who she’s talking about.
She looks at me like I have no business even speaking to her. And maybe I don’t, but I have to know. “Ryan Griffin. He’s one hot stud. We spent almost a week together a few months ago. It was the hottest time I’ve ever had. That boy knows how to use some handcuffs and other toys. We’ve both been busy, but I can’t wait to see him again and pick right back up where we left off. I’m packing some extra special stuff for Orlando.”
I’m trying not to freak out, but I must not be doing too good of a job. Sam looks at me before answering her friend. “You won’t need that. He has a girlfriend now.”
“Whatever. He told me I was the most fun and best he’d ever had. That’s why he didn’t drop me after one night. So, girlfriend or not, he’ll be sneaking out to see me.”
I can’t take anymore. I just can’t. I say my goodbyes and leave. The girls give me sympathetic looks and Yasmin tries to stop me to talk, but I’m done.
I’m supposed to meet Ryan at his place tonight, but I head to mine instead. I know it’s my fault, it’s all my fault. Knowing that doesn’t make me feel better, though. I don’t let Ryan use handcuffs or toys when we’re together and he’s already been to Love. I’m nothing special to him now. Maybe when we were teenagers, but not now.
* * *
Ryan
Last night with the guys was fun. I wish I could say that I had fun with Chloe last night, too. But, as usual these days, I passed out as soon as I hit my bed. Then she wasn’t there when I woke up, even though that was the plan—she was going to spend the night. Maybe she came by and found me asleep and got mad. She’ll been acting a little weird this morning. I’m hoping that my surprise will make it up to her, but I wanted to do something more immediate as well. I just left her a note on her computer while she’s grabbing lunch. I’m heading back into my office when Scott stops me.
“Hey, Ry. You must be excited by the tickets.”
“Tickets? What tickets?”
“The Love tickets that Chloe won at the shower last night. She didn’t tell you?”
“No. She hasn’t mentioned it.”
“Well, I’m just glad that you’ll finally be going to see it. I know you love the Beatles, and I can’t believe you haven’t gone yet. You guys get a backstage tour, too.”
“Honestly, I never went because Chloe was the one I wanted to experience it with. I didn’t want to take another woman. Even though I didn’t think she’d be back in my life, it just didn’t seem right to go with someone else.”
“I’m glad to see the two of you back together. I know those three years nearly killed you. Sure, there were plenty of women, but I could tell that you were never really into any of them.”
“I wasn’t into them. It’s always been only Chloe for me. Now that I have her back, I’ll do pretty much anything to keep her.”
“About that. Something else happened at the shower and Yas is really worried about Chloe.”
“What happened?” Did she get hurt or something? Who knows what goes on at those shower things?
“I guess one of the women you were with recently is a friend of Sam’s and will be at the wedding.”
“Well, that’s a little awkward, but I don’t really care about some one night stand being there.”
“Well, from the way this chick was talking, she was more than a one night stand. She said you were together several days, where you used handcuffs and other shit with her, and told her she was your best ever. Yas said she made it seem like it was pretty recent.”
“Shit. It was her? I was with her several days, because she was hot and up for anything. It was when Chloe first got here. I realized she was getting too clingy, so I told her it was nice, but I was moving on. I can’t believe she’s Sam’s friend.”
“Yeah, well, there’s more.”
“More?” Fuck. Fuck .Fuck. No wonder Chloe’s been acting weird.
He sighs and then looks me in the eye. “I guess Sam told her you have a girlfriend now, and she said it didn’t matter. That you’d sneak out to see her in Orlando. Chloe practically ran out of my house at that point, Yas said.”
“Oh my God. Crazy, stupid bitch.”
“You wouldn’t, would you, Ry?”
“Are you fucking serious right now?”
“Yeah. I am. I know Chloe hurt you and my loyalty is ultimately with you, but she helped me a lot in high school. If you’re going to go off and fuck some other chick, I want you to break up with her first.”
“If you weren’t my little brother, I’d be kicking your ass right now. As it is, I’m only going to say this once. I. Love. Chloe. I am never going to cheat on her. Do you understand me, Scott?”
“Yep. And that’s the response I was hoping to get from you. Just make sure Chloe knows that, too.”
“I will. Believe me, I will.” We hug it out, and then Scott leaves to head back to his home workroom.
Chloe gets ba
ck with lunch a couple of minutes later. I’m immersed in work and don’t notice her at first, until she almost drops one of the drinks. I immediately jump up and go to her.
“Shit. I’m sorry, Chlo. I should’ve been watching for you. I knew I had you get me too much food.”
“I’m fine, Ry. I just lost my grip for a second.”
“You just missed Scott. He told me that you won tickets and a backstage tour to Love last night.”
“Oh, yeah. I did.”
“You don’t seem too excited.”
“I am. You know I love the Beatles. I just have to figure out a Friday or Saturday to go.”
“Umm, Chloe, you know I don’t miss Friday barbeque, so it would have to be a Saturday.”
“I-I was planning to ask one of the girls to go with me.”
Is she serious? “You’re kidding, right? We always listened to the Beatles together when we were younger. I mean, what the fuck?” I know she’s upset, but really?
“I just thought since you’d seen it before, you wouldn’t want to see it again.”
“I would probably go see it a hundred times, but I’ve never gone before. Why would you just assume that I had?”
“You invited Cel in front of me.”
Fuck. She thought that I took someone else and that it wouldn’t be special for us to go. She’s so wrong. I move to her and cup her face in my hands. “Chloe, I would never go see anything having to do with the Beatles with another woman. I could never share them with anyone but you. I canceled that date, along with the date for the party.”
“Really?”
“Yes, really. So, can I be your date to Love?”
“Yes. I would love for you to be my date. But, you have to let me pay for dinner, drinks at Revolution after, and whatever else you want that night. You pay me a good salary plus the money I’m getting for the Seattle project. I can afford this, and I want to do it for you. I liked it when you let me pay sometimes when we were teens.”
“Okay. You’re the only one who has ever offered to pay for a date. I liked it when you paid sometimes, too. I know it’s not the gentlemanly thing, but it made me feel like you wanted to be with me for me, and not for where I could take you.”
“You didn’t know that already?”
“I did, but it was nice to have it proven to me.”
“I would’ve been fine with grilled cheese sandwiches in the tree house, Ryan. I still would be, in fact. I love that you took me to Victoria, but if you’d taken me to a tent in the forest, I would have been happy, too.”
“I know, Chlo. That’s one of the reasons I love you. Another one is taped to your computer.”
“You left me a note?” She runs out to her desk to grab it and comes back with it in her hands and a smile on her face.
Reason #61 that you are AWESOME and I LOVE YOU: You’ve put up with me falling asleep on you every night.
“I know you were tired, Ry. I fell right asleep, too.”
“But not with me. Why is that, Chlo? I thought you were coming over.”
“Oh. I just, umm, changed my mind.”
“Because of that stupid chick from the shower?”
“Scott told you about that, too?”
“Yeah. Why didn’t you tell me?”
“It’s none of my business.” She starts to walk around her desk, but I grab her and pull her into my office. I shut the door and turn to face her.
“The fuck it isn’t. We’re together, Chloe. I love you. Anything and everything that has to with me is your business. How do you not know this? What do I have to do? I know I was an asshole before, but I thought we were good now.”
“I don’t know, Ryan. I don’t. I know you love me, but how do I compete with some sexy woman who let you handcuff her and do whatever else to her? I won’t do those things. Not even for you.”
“There is no fucking competition. I’m yours. Only yours. You own me, Chloe. I don’t want to tie you up or anything else. I’m not missing out on anything with you. I promise you that.’
“Are you sure?’
“Yes. YES.”
“I don’t bore you?”
“God, no.”
She looks relieved and I think she may actually believe me. I’ll make it up to her soon, but I want to keep that a surprise for a little longer. I want to give her something to think of for the rest of the afternoon, but when I look at the clock, I know there isn’t time before our next conference call. Unless…
“Pull your chair next to mine, Chlo,” I tell her as I go over and lock the door.
She sees the heat in my eyes as I turn back to her. “I have to pay attention to the call, Ry.”
“We can tape it so that if you are too distracted, you won’t miss anything.”
“They aren’t going to miss me screaming.”
“I’ll be able to tell when you’re close, and I’ll put us on mute.”
She moves her chair over, even as she’s still protesting. “I really shouldn’t go along with this, but just the thought of your fingers on me, in me, has me so turned on that I wouldn’t be able to concentrate anyway. If we’re doing this, though, I’m going to take care of you, too.”
“After you come. One of has to be semi coherent and answer questions.”
“Deal.”
As I log in to the call, Chloe reaches under the flowing skirt of her dress and takes her thong off. I quickly realize that I probably won’t be coherent for any of the call. But it’ll be worth it. I hit the record button and move my hand to her thigh. We manage to somehow answer all of the questions, but it isn’t easy. We both come hard, and while it’s good, it isn’t enough. We both want more, but we have to get this work done before going to Orlando.
Chapter 18
Chloe
It’s the following Wednesday, and I’m on one of the Griffin jets with most of the wedding party and Sam’s mom, getting ready to take off for Orlando. I wish Ryan could be here with us, especially since we’re going to the World of Harry Potter tomorrow. It was a surprise from the guys to us girls since they know we all love Harry Potter. I just wish my guy was going to be with me. Especially because Adam keeps texting me and although I can’t tell Ryan, I feel safe when he’s around. I thought about blocking his number, but I need to know if he’s going to do something and he’s dumb enough to tell me ahead of time.
The flight attendant is just about to close the door when Ryan rushes onto the plane. “Sorry I’m late. I had one last call to take care of before I could leave the office.”
“Ryan, what are you doing here?” I ask as I rush to him.
“You aren’t happy to see me?”
“Of course I’m happy to see you, but I know you thought there would be too many last minute calls for us both to be gone.”
He takes me in his arms. “My dad’s going to handle all of the calls for us since he wasn’t planning to arrive until Saturday afternoon anyway. I have my cell phone on me, of course, but he isn’t going to call me unless he absolutely has to. He knows I need some time with you.”
“There’s no bed on this plane, so you guys will have to wait until we get to Orlando. Unless you want to give us all a little show.”
Ryan starts to turn toward Owen, but I stop him. I’ve got this. “It would be a big show, but unfortunately for you, we can wait until Orlando. Just don’t plan on seeing us until tomorrow morning.”
“That’s my girl. I’ll deal with you later, Owe.”
We settle into our seats and fasten our seat belts. Once we’re in the air, everyone moves around, but we stay where we are. We hold hands, share little kisses, and whisper to each other about the naughty things that we’re going to do to each other when we get to our room. It’s so nice to be able to just be with Ryan without worrying about work. I need to give Gary a big hug for doing this for us.
When we land, there are several cars waiting to take us to the Portofino Bay Hotel at Universal Orlando. We’re staying there tonight so we can have early access to Ha
rry Potter. Tomorrow night, we’ll check into our hotels at Disney. Everyone wanted to stay at different ones. Ryan and I will be at the Beach Club Resort.
At the hotel, I find out that Ryan upgraded us to a suite. I remind him that we only really need a bed, but he reminds me that we can have some fun on the couch and chairs too. We do just that for most of the night. We could have kept going but we have to be up early to go to the theme park. Ryan would skip that in a minute, but he knows that I’m excited to go there.
* * *
Ryan
We get up earlier than I would like so that we can get ready for all the Harry Potter stuff. I make love to Chloe in the shower, but she’s firm when she tells me that we don’t have time for another round afterwards. I would be annoyed if I didn’t know how much she loves Harry Potter. She puts on a Gryffindor t-shirt, and I can’t help but love seeing a griffin, any griffin, on her.
When we get down to the lobby, everyone is there except for Yasmin. Scott says that she’s coming down in a minute. We talk for a couple of minutes, and then Owen sees Yasmin. “Holy fuck.”
We all turn to see Yasmin walking towards us wearing a t-shirt that has different game controllers spelling out the word “LOVE.” Scott runs up to her and gathers her into a passionate kiss. A worker comes over and reminds us that this is a family hotel and we need to watch our language and PDA. Owen and Scott apologize, but Scott doesn’t let go of Yasmin, who’s smiling up at him.
The rides are actually really fun. We hit The Three Broomsticks for some Butterbeer and British food. The girls go crazy in the shops, especially when Owen, Luke, and I tell them that it’s on us and they should grab everything they want. Scott is paying for the wedding, so we want to do something, too. One of the shops lets you mail letters with a Hogsmeade postmark. Chloe and I send each other letters and so do Scott and Yasmin.
The minibus that we hired to take us to our Disney hotels is waiting for us outside. We gather our bags and get in. It takes a little while to drop everyone off, and Chloe and I are last. We’re all going to change and then meet at Downtown Disney for dinner and clubbing.
Building Our Love (Griffin Brothers #2) Page 14