“I’ve never really fit in with my family. I had dinner with them earlier, and we got into an argument we’ve had so many times before. I’m so different from my brother and sister and don’t understand them, but they don’t understand me either.”
Poor little rich boy. I could practically hear the taunts in my head, but fuck if it wasn’t the truth.
“And your parents?” she asked quietly, gently, like she was giving me the opportunity to talk about it if I wanted to instead of prompting me to keep going if I didn’t.
A deep sigh parted my lips as I shook my head. “My mother is supportive to my siblings, but I can’t remember the last time she supported me in anything.”
Not that I’d given her a whole lot to be supportive of lately, so that was food for thought. Later. “My father works really hard. He used to be around a lot more, but it’s like he kind of just… checked out some time.”
Raeanne gave me a long look, but there was no judgment in her eyes. “This may not be what you want to hear right now, but you’re lucky to have a family who cares enough to fight with you. Lawson and I have no one. Both of my parents were only children, so no aunts or uncles or cousins. Their parents have already passed on, so no grandparents for either me or Lawson.”
The obvious question was about Lawson’s paternal side of the family, but Raeanne hadn’t so much as mentioned anything about his biological father. Whenever we’d gotten close to the topic, I’d practically seen the guards shooting up in her eyes. I figured she’d talk to me about it when she was ready, and I respected her decision. I wouldn’t push her for information before she was ready to give it.
“You told me once that your parents weren’t around anymore,” I said. “If you want to talk about it, I want to listen.”
She smiled when I repeated her words back to her. “When they found out I was pregnant, they were furious. I’d tarnished the family name and reputation and all that. I tried to get them to see things my way, and they tried to get me to see it theirs. None of us relented, and they made it clear I wasn’t part of their family anymore. I left, and up until the day they breathed their last breath, they never forgave me.”
“I’m sorry,” I whispered, horrified that she’d been treated that way by her own goddamn parents and yet had become the best mother I’d ever encountered.
Raeanne lifted her shoulders and scooted closer to me, bringing both of her small hands up to my cheek. The warmth of her fingers sucked the last of the ice from me as she stroked them along the stubble on my skin.
“We’ve all got our crosses to bear. It’s how we carry the weight of them that defines us.” Her eyes were unwavering on mine. “But it’s okay to let others help us carry that weight sometimes, or at least, that’s what I’m told regularly.”
The corners of my lips inched up at her attempt to break the tension in the room. “It is. Thanks for listening to me tonight.”
“Any time,” she repeated.
Our gazes were still locked. My hand curled around the nape of her neck, and she brought her lips to mine. The kiss was soft at first, but as I leaned back and she leaned into me, it took on a life of its own.
Leaving the heaviness of the night behind, I focused solely on the feel of her body against mine, on the taste of her tongue and the way her hips rocked against mine when I lifted her up to straddle my lap.
Much better.
I moaned into her mouth and tightened my grip on her. Talking to her had felt good, but this was so much fucking better.
Chapter 26
Raeanne
Well, this was unexpected.
One minute, Tessa and I had been debating which of us had the best book boyfriend—okay, boyfriends plural. But they were fictional, so what did it really matter?
Lawson had been in his room, listening to music and reading a book of his own. So we knew he wasn’t listening in on us.
The next minute, I received a highly distressing call from Declan, during which he sounded like he was about to either Hulk out on the world or burst out in what I was sure would have been very angry, very manly tears.
Then we had a heart to heart that would have made the characters in the books my book boyfriends came from extremely jealous, given that those alpha types in fiction never seemed to open up when they should.
And then, what felt like the very next minute, Declan’s hard length was pressed against me through the thin material of my yoga pants, his tongue devoured my mouth like he was trying to conquer it, and his hands were under my shirt.
They found my breasts and skimmed above my bra, making me whimper when his palms scraped against my nipples. This was insanity. So yeah, very unexpected.
We should not have been doing this after we’d both ripped open emotional wounds, but I couldn’t bring myself to stop.
It was like I’d ripped myself open to a certain extent and watched Declan do the same thing to himself just so we could get here. Almost like we were putting each other back together again, but we were doing it with actions instead of words.
There was something about this kiss that froze time, that made me sure that even if I eventually forgot what kisses were, this one would stay with me forever. I grabbed his face and pulled him closer to me.
I’d never tasted anything quite like this kiss. It was a moment when everything was paused and my wildest dreams felt possible.
Declan responded to me with a ferocity of his own, a need that seemed to be burning in him as acutely as it was deep inside me. Way down deep in the very core of my being.
We ripped at each other’s clothes, and there was none of the tenderness in him that there had been the first time we’d been together. My shirt hit the floor, quickly followed by his.
Getting rid of our pants took a bit more maneuvering, but we managed eventually. The lacy panties I wore were torn clean off me, even if I’d never thought that it was possible for it to really happen.
Our kisses didn’t stop. Our ragged breaths and heavy moans mingled in the air, along with the occasional pop of the fire. Hands roamed and groped, explored and delved.
Reaching between us, Declan’s fingers slid through the slickness between my legs. Sparks of pleasure burst from my clit when he circled it with his thumb, making me break the kiss to release a cry of his name.
“Don’t stop,” I practically begged, but as fast as this had started, I needed him more than I’d ever needed anything before.
Declan’s forest-green eyes bored into mine, the hunger in them ravishing even if they were half-lidded.
“You never have to beg me not to stop, babe. Just tell me when you want me to.” His voice was thick with his own need, but the hunger in his eyes abated for a moment to let me see the sincerity behind his words.
Sliding a finger into me, I didn’t know which one of us let out the loudest moan. He hooked it until he was massaging the most sensitive spot inside. My toes curled, and my head fell back, allowing him access to my neck.
Licks, nips, and kisses paved a path to my mouth as he used his free hand to bring it back to him. His tongue worked with his fingers as he pushed another into me, his hips bucking up in time with them.
Winding my own hand between our bodies, I wrapped my fingers around his shaft and relished the appreciative groan I got in response. I stroked him up and down until we were going at it like two extremely horny teenagers.
“Raeanne,” he gritted out when I felt him thickening in my hand. “I need to be inside you now.”
“Yes,” I breathed, releasing him just as he did the same. I felt the heat and hardness of him against my clit, so sensitive that my hips refused to keep still as I sought out some kind of friction there.
Declan growled as he crashed his lips against mine and blindly felt around on the floor. He shifted against me, and I knew what he was doing, even if I couldn’t see it. I heard the rip of the foil packet, and his knuckles brushed against my stomach. Then he broke away from me for a second.
After a q
uick glance down, he lined himself up with my entrance and placed his hand on my hip. Lifting myself slightly on my knees, I lowered myself onto him.
He kept his eyes on mine, our bodies trembling together as I buried him to the hilt inside me. There was no hesitation this time, no time for adjustment, and no going slow. I set the pace, and Declan picked it up seamlessly.
Pleasure wound tightly below my belly, my entire body tensing the way it might when I was on a rollercoaster about to drop. Declan ground his teeth together, every muscle in his body taut with restraint.
“Declan, I—” The rollercoaster peaked, and my stomach dropped, the anticipation and buildup ending as I rode out my release before I could finish my sentence. His grip on me tightened as my muscles began milking him, his eyes just about rolling back as I felt him pulse deep within me.
“Fuck, Raeanne.” He rested his forehead against mine while I was still floating somewhere down the tracks, the ride not quite over for me yet. I spasmed a few more times around his thick cock, then collapsed against his hard body.
His arms closed around me, holding me far more gently now. Neither of us seemed to be in any rush to untangle to do what needed to be done, and I decided to just give us both a fucking minute.
A thought I’d had earlier crept to mind, and in the haze of the aftermath, I didn’t have the capacity to filter what came out of my mouth.
“Why wouldn’t you let me come to your house earlier?”
He stiffened infinitesimally, but then planted a firm kiss on top of my head and relaxed again. “You wouldn’t like it.”
“I don’t care if you don’t have any money.” I yawned, snuggling closer to him as I enjoyed feeling his body so totally joined with mine. “All that matters to me is who you are, not what’s in your bank account.”
“You’ll see it one day, I’m sure of it,” he replied, though even through the haze I realized he was being vague again.
As the blissful euphoria of my post-orgasmic state receded, worry took its place. Please don’t let him be hiding something from me. I didn’t know if I could take it if he was.
I’d let him in so completely, trusted him with my son, and opened our home whenever he wanted to visit. If he wasn’t as into this as I was, it wasn’t only myself I was worried about. Lawson would be shattered if he ever had to find out that the only man he’d ever trusted ended up being no better than the ones who’d walked out on him before he was even born.
Chapter 27
Declan
The coffee house where I was waiting for Finley was warm and smelled like the sweet, bitter scent of my morning fix. Lost in thought about Raeanne and what had happened between us a few nights ago, I didn’t notice him until he dropped into the chair across from mine.
“Earth to Declan,” he sang out, snapping his fingers in front of my eyes. “Who are you partying with in La La Land right now? It better be me.”
“It’s not.” I smirked. “La La Land has way better partiers than you.”
He rolled his ice-blue eyes, but the amusement in them didn’t go anywhere. “Well, if it’s not that, then what do you want with me on this fine morning? If you’re looking for money, I can only give you a ten. I refuse to enable you in your poor-person lifestyle. You should get a job, man.”
“Joke all you want, but that’s actually what I wanted to talk to you about.” I watched his eyebrows climb as high as they could go.
“Seriously? You got a job?” Incredulity was present in his lowered chin and squinting eyes. “I don’t fucking believe you.”
“I don’t have a job yet, but I do have one for you,” I said, feeling more confident in my idea after Lawson and Raeanne raved about it when I took them to the art museum.
Finley sat back in his chair and crossed his arms, only one brow returning to its usual location. “Oh, yeah? I have a job, but pray tell, what did you have in mind for me?”
“It won’t only be for you. It’s for me, too.” I took a sip of my coffee as I let my words sink in.
He tilted his head, his eyes searching mine before his jaw slackened. “You are being serious, aren’t you? You really have an actual job in mind for yourself.”
I nodded, not able to hide the smile that tugged at my lips. “I have an idea for a business, but I’m going to need your help in building it.”
Explaining my idea to build a contemporary library as concisely as I could, making sure that I gave him enough details about what I wanted the building to contain. “In essence, we’re going to need to design a building that has space for a civic living room, a cinema, makerspaces, recording studios for older kids, access to public services, exhibitions and community events. And that’s just as a start.”
Finley let out a low whistle. “That’s no small thing, bro.”
“No, but what better way to start my career than with a bang worthy of all the time everyone has been waiting to see what I would do with my life?”
Caution crept into his gaze, clouding the clear blue of his irises as a deep V settled on his forehead. “It’s going to be expensive, and it’s going to require a bigger crew than what I have on hand at the moment.”
I set my coffee down and bent over to retrieve my slim laptop from the backpack I’d brought with me. While I might have been having coffee with my best friend, this wasn’t simply another coffee date with my best friend.
I was eager to get started, and I was ready to work for it. “You tell me what you need, and I’ll make it happen. I’ll get you a bigger crew and whatever materials are necessary. All you need to do is ask. I want this place to be iconic. I want it to be somewhere for everyone to enjoy, but I especially want it to be someplace safe for the neighborhood kids to go.”
“Are you okay?” He frowned at me, genuine concern in his expression. “This is the first time you’ve ever shown initiative in doing something, and this is what you’re going with?”
“I’m ready to put my mind to work. Go big or go home, right?” I lifted a brow at him. “Unless you’re not up for the challenge?”
He scoffed. “Of course, I’m up for the fucking challenge. I live for these kinds of builds. They just don’t come along very often. I’ve even already thought of an architect I think will be perfect for this job. I’m just trying to understand where this is coming from.”
“It’s coming from me,” I said. “I’ve been searching for something to feel this passionate about for years, and I’ve finally found it. I told you just a couple of months ago that I was enjoying my time fucking around until I found something worthwhile, and now I have.”
“Those weren’t your exact words.” A knowing smirk appeared on his lips, arrogantly peeking out beneath the red beard he wore. “Tell me, is this because of Raeanne and Lawson?”
“They might have had a hand in it.” I wiggled my fingers above the keys on my laptop and gave him a pointed look. “Now, are you going to tell me what you need or what?”
He sighed, a lock of fiery hair falling across his forehead but his smirk firmly in place. “Fine, but we’re getting back to this in a minute. We’re going to need an appointment with the architect I have in mind. Then we’re going to need to contact some of the other guys I’ve worked with to find out if they’d be available to join the crew.”
My fingers flew across the keyboard as I took notes of everything he said.
“We’re also going to need to find the land where you want to build this and see what we have to do to acquire it.”
“I already have my lawyer on that,” I said. “There’s a lot near the Big Brother hall that’s vacant. Negotiations are ongoing as we speak.”
“I’m mildly impressed,” he said, tossing me a wink before rolling his lips into his mouth as he thought. “If you’re serious about all these specialized places within the library, we also need to start contacting vendors to find out what the requirements for each space will be, and we need to start looking into permits.”
“My lawyer’s already on that, too,”
I said. “Right. Is that it? A lot of this was on my list as well, but I was hoping you would know an architect we could work with. Let’s start there and work our way through the rest.”
“That’s a very preliminary list, dude,” he warned me. “I know your family is richer than most of the deities in this realm, but I’m going to ask this anyway. Are you sure you’re up for this? You could start your Big Bang into the world with something smaller.”
With a firm shake of my head, I shut my laptop and signaled the waiter for another coffee. “I’m doing this. I’m more than up for it, but I’m not doing it with my family’s money. I’m doing it with my own.”
“Well, technically, your own money was earned from what you have in your trust fund.”
“Let’s not get into semantics, huh?”
He leaned forward, propping his elbows on the table and a devilish grin spreading on his face. “All righty then, let’s talk about the other thing you wanted to avoid. You said Lawson and Raeanne had a hand in this. How big was that hand?”
Breathing out through my nose, I bit my cheek as I contemplated his question. “I want them to see me being successful. I feel like a loser every time they ask me what I do, and I don’t want to feel that way anymore.”
“So taking on one of the biggest projects this town has ever seen is your answer?” His eyes widened. “Also, isn’t it kind of going to give away the whole being rich thing? You do realize that most developers don’t even have the money to start dreaming about something like this, right?”
“We’ll cross that bridge when we get there.” Hopefully by then, they’d have seen that I wasn’t a typical rich prick, and I’d be able to tell them the truth. If not, I’d formulate a plan B on the fly. “It’s not just for them, Fin. I want to do this because I think the town needs it. Every time I get to the Big Brother hall, I hear the way those kids talk. I’ve heard the dreams they have. All I want is to give them a chance to realize them.”
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