by Marie Force
“Did you and Hayden rehearse these questions before I got here?”
“No,” Flynn says, seeming genuinely surprised by the question. “Why? What’d he say?”
“He asked how Woody Woodpecker was doing.”
Flynn’s laughter rings through the hallway. “That’s a good one.”
“Have your laughs and just hope one of those little bastards you call nephews doesn’t one day unman you.”
He winces and covers his package with both hands. “Please, God, don’t let that happen.”
“It’s not the most fun I ever had.”
“Annie and Hugh feel awful about it.”
“I know. She sent me a huge basket of treats along with an apology from the boys. It was nice of her.”
“Least she could do after her animals nearly neutered you.”
“It was nowhere close to neutering, so you can quit that rumor before you start it.”
“And you’re sure everything down there is… you know… okay?”
“It’s all good,” I say, laughing at the horrified expression on his world-famous face.
“Well, that’s a fucking relief, huh?”
“You have no idea. I’d better get to it. I’m sure there’s a ton waiting for me today.”
“Good to have you back. Are you flying up to Napa with us Thursday?”
“Yep.”
“Gonna be a blast. I can’t wait.”
“Me either.” I continue on to my office, but seeing no one else in the hallway, I knock on Leah’s door on the way by. Through the glass window on the side of her door, I see her wave me in. She’s on the phone, so I deposit the now-cold coffee and the bag containing the scone on her desk, and she smiles her thanks.
“Marlowe won’t want to do that,” she says into the phone. “She doesn’t make statements on behalf of causes she’s not affiliated with. No, I’m not willing to ask her to make an exception.” She rolls her eyes at me. “I wouldn’t recommend that. She’s apt to pull out of the event if she suspects you’re going to blindside her. And as her assistant, I feel it’s necessary for me to warn her of the possibility. I’m sure you understand that my job is to protect her from any embarrassment.”
I’m impressed and… Fuck, I’m aroused by the authoritative way she speaks and how she goes to bat for Marlowe. She’s truly become one of us in the months she’s worked here.
“You do that,” she says. “And let me know what they say.” She ends the call by slamming the receiver down on her desk phone. “What a douche.”
“Who was that?”
“The organizer of a benefit Marlowe is supposed to headline at the end of next month, wanting to know if she’d be willing to make a statement in advance about some other cause he’s involved in that has nothing to do with the benefit. He’s trying to get everything he can out of her, and that’s not happening.”
“Good for you for having her back.”
“Um, well, that’s kinda my job.”
“You just did it really well.”
“Thanks,” she says, smiling.
Is it my imagination or is she, who stares at me every chance she gets, having trouble looking at me today? “Leah.”
“Hmm?”
“Look at me.”
She flips her gaze up to meet mine, and what I see in hers triggers something basic and almost feral in me. She’s afraid. Fucking hell. What’s that about? The Leah I know is freaking fearless.
Regardless of the scandal it’s apt to cause, I close the door so we won’t be overheard. “What’s wrong?”
“What? Nothing’s wrong. Why do you ask?”
“Don’t lie to me, Leah. I can tell just by looking at you that something isn’t right.”
“Just because you fucked me doesn’t mean you know me.”
“Oh that mouth… That fresh, fresh mouth. It’s going to get you in so much trouble one of these days.” If we were anywhere else, I’d take her over my knee and show her what happens when a sub mouths off to her Dom.
She shrugs, as if she couldn’t care less if she’s in trouble. “Thanks for the coffee. You didn’t have to do that.”
“I actually did it at home, but you were gone when I got back from the gym.”
“Oh.” She looks inside the bag and breaks off a piece of the scone, popping it into her mouth. Her lips are a little puffy and swollen from last night. Knowing I’m responsible for that sends another tingle of lust down my spine. “I didn’t know where you were.”
“Is that why you left?”
“I had to get to work.”
“At six in the morning?”
“I was awake, I didn’t know where you were, so I left. Why? Are you pissed or something?”
“I didn’t know where you were or why you left.”
“Well, now you do.”
“I go to the gym every morning at five.”
“That’s insane.”
I move closer to her. “Maybe so, but that’s been my routine for years.”
She spins her chair so she’s facing me, but the wary, guarded expression remains. “I suppose that would explain the muscles.”
I lean over, put my hands on the armrests and get very close to her face. “Were you running away by any chance?”
“No,” she says without blinking. “I wasn’t. Were you?”
The question infuriates me. I just said I go to the gym every day at five, but I can’t deny the question strikes a little close to home, making me uncomfortable from the realization that maybe I was running away, not that I’d admit that to her. “No, I wasn’t. Last night was kind of intense.”
She nods. “Just a little.”
“Was it too much?”
“No.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes.”
“I never want you to be afraid of me.”
“I’m not.” She diverts her gaze. “Not physically anyway.”
“What does that mean?”
“There are other ways to be afraid of someone besides physically.”
“Like how?”
“I… We…” She glances around me at the door. “We shouldn’t be doing this here.”
Goddamn it. She’s absolutely right, and I’m the one who should’ve said so, but there’s no way I can go on with my day without knowing what she means. “Tell me what you’re afraid of.”
She takes a deep breath and releases it, sounding resigned to the fact that I’m not going to let this go. “I made a rather huge confession to you last night, and even if you don’t believe it’s true, it is, and now that puts me in a rather tenuous position in this situation. I never should’ve told you—”
I kiss her. I kiss her hard. I don’t even care that anyone could see us if they walk by her office and look into the windows that surround her door. I slide my hands under her ass and lift her right out of the chair.
She lets out a squawk of protest but doesn’t break the kiss, which quickly becomes a full-body affair when she wraps her arms around my neck and opens her mouth to my plunging tongue.
We really shouldn’t be doing this here, but try and stop me from gorging on her sweet, sassy sexiness. I’m becoming addicted, and that scares the living fuck out of me and has me withdrawing from the kiss, slowly but deliberately. “Tell me why you’re afraid.” I kiss her neck and breathe in the fresh, clean scent of her. There’s not a lotion or potion out there that could capture the essence that is so uniquely her.
“You could crush me,” she says in a small voice that’s so out of character for her that I lift my head and look at that expressive face that can hide nothing from me—or anyone. If she thinks it or feels it, she broadcasts it in one way or the other.
“I won’t. I wouldn’t…”
“But you could, and that scares me.”
“I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but I seem to be getting into whatever this is as deeply as you are.”
“I’m not sure that’s possible.”
Again, her h
onesty staggers me. She cares that much? Jesus…
“Put me down, Emmett. I’m supposed to be working, and so are you.”
Because she’s absolutely right, I return her to the desk chair. But I don’t want to. I want to carry her out of there, take her home and spend the entire day inside her.
Utter madness.
She runs her fingers through her hair, attempting to straighten the mess I’ve made of it. “You’re doing that fierce scowling thing again, like you want to rip the limbs off my body.”
“That’s not what I want to do to your body.”
“I thought you said this could only be one night. You had your one night.”
“Fuck what I said. Be at my place by six. We’re going to talk about this.”
“Don’t change your mind because of what I said last night. I didn’t tell you that to put pressure on you.”
“Didn’t you?” I ask with a smile.
“No, I really didn’t. I don’t do shit like that.”
“I know you don’t. Be there at six. We’ll talk then.”
“You work until eight.”
She pays such close attention to me that she knows my routine almost as well as I do. I’m surprised she didn’t know about the five a.m. workouts. “Tonight, I work until five thirty. Be there.”
“Or else what?” she asks in that saucy tone I’m starting to crave.
I narrow my eyes in a look that I already know has no effect on her. “You won’t want to find out.”
“You’re really not scary at all, even when you’re trying to be.”
“I never want you to be afraid of me in any way. Domination isn’t about fear.”
“I told you—I’m not afraid of you that way.”
“We’re going to talk about this.” After what I went through with Elena and the monster who ruined her, the thought of any woman being afraid of me isn’t something I can handle. I’m going to put a stop to that before this goes any further. And yes, I’m fully aware that if this is going to continue, I’m going to have to make an actual commitment to her, which I am so not prepared to do. But I’m also not prepared to stop something that feels so fucking good.
So there you have it. If I want more of her, I have to give her more of me.
Chapter 12
He’s so fucking sexy when he’s riled up, especially when wearing a three-thousand-dollar suit. Ellie told me he travels to London twice a year to get the best suits in the world. I watch him go, paying close attention to the exceptional fit of the gray pinstripe. Now I know what he’s got going on under the gorgeous clothes he wears, and let me say for the record that my vivid imagination didn’t do him justice.
“Do I smell Emmett?” Marlowe asks when she steps into my office a couple of minutes after he leaves.
I realize I’ve been staring at the door that whole time. He scrambled my brains with that wild kiss right in the office where anyone might’ve caught us. “He stopped by.” I hope she won’t make a thing of why he was visiting me. I still haven’t said anything to her about him. “You just missed him. What’s up? Did the grocery delivery arrive on time this morning?”
“Yes, right on time.” Marlowe lands in my visitor chair, and yes, I still want to scream every time the extraordinary woman who’s now my boss and friend plops herself down in my office to chat. “Have I mentioned how much I love having my own Addie?”
“A few thousand times,” I say, smiling. “Although being compared to the gold standard never gets old.”
“Have you seen Bridezilla today?”
As one of Addie’s closest friends, Marlowe is a bridesmaid. “No, but they were here earlier. I think they’re gone now. They’re flying up to Napa this afternoon.”
“It’s getting close!”
“They have to be so excited.”
“They are,” Marlowe says, but her expression is troubled.
“Everything okay?”
“Between us, Hayden told me that she’s been having some memories of her mom that have her really upset.”
“Oh, really?” I’m sad for Addie, who’s been so excited about the wedding.
“Her mom died when she was twelve, and she’s had trouble remembering things that aren’t in photos. Until recently, I guess.”
“Is there anything we can do for her?” After everything Addie has done for me, there’s nothing she could ask of me that would be too much.
“We just have to love her. That’s what I told Hayden when we talked about it.”
“That’s easy enough.”
Marlowe smiles and nods. “I have some other news.”
“What’s that?”
“I met a guy.” I’ve never seen such a goofy smile on her face before, except in movies when she’s pretending to be someone else.
“Who is he?”
“His name is Rafe, which is short for Rafael.”
“How’d you meet him?”
“He’s an exec with the company that distributes our films in France. I met him the last time I was in Paris, and he’s since relocated to LA.”
She’s giddy and glowing, and I’m thrilled for her. “That’s amazing.”
“I agree. I want to bring him to the wedding. Can you add him to the list for the plane? He can stay with me. His last name is Laurent.” She spells it for me.
I make a note to add him to the passenger list. “I’ll make sure there’s a seat for him at the reception, too.”
“Addie told me to bring him, so she’s aware.”
“Great. I’ll take care of it.”
“I can’t remember the last time I had a real date for a wedding,” she says with a laugh.
“I’m happy for you.”
“I’m happy for me, too.”
“Are there pictures of this new man?”
“Of course.” Marlowe pulls her phone from her back pocket and scrolls through, her face going soft with pleasure at whatever she’s seeing. Damn, she has it bad for this guy. She hands over the phone to me. The photo is of the two of them together, wearing big smiles. The guy is gorgeous, with dark wavy hair and stunning blue eyes.
“Whoa. He’s beautiful.”
“I know. It’s sort of intimidating to be with a guy who looks like that first thing in the morning.”
She’s in such a great mood that I decide to bite the bullet regarding Emmett. “So, while we’re on the subject of men and dating, it seems that I’m seeing someone, too.”
“Emmett, right?”
My mouth falls open in shock. She already knows? Did he tell her?
She lets loose with the big ringing laugh that made her a star. “Do you honestly think you’ve been fooling anyone with the way you stare at him or that he’s succeeded in hiding the way he stares right back at you?”
I swallow hard. Yes, I thought I was doing a rather great job of hiding my massive crush from the others. And he stares at me? I didn’t know that. “I guess I’m not the actor you are.” I can feel my face getting red.
“It’s okay. I get it. He’s hot.”
“Ridiculously. But I understand that it’s not really appropriate…”
She waves her hand dismissively. “I trust you both to be professional at work, and if things don’t work out, to keep it out of here.”
My heart sinks at the possibility of it not working out. “Of course.”
“Then I don’t see a problem—and congratulations. He’s a great guy, and he’s lucky to have you. I think you’ll be good for him. He doesn't talk about it, but he’s had a rough go of it at times.”
I want to beg her to tell me what she means, but I know she never will. There’s no way she’d ever betray his trust. And besides, I’d never ask her to.
“He seems… Reluctant to get involved.”
She nods. “He would be.”
Why? I want to ask so badly. But I don’t. I’m going to have to ask him. But will he tell me?
“Just be patient with him. I think you two could be amazing together.”
<
br /> “Really?” That this incredible, accomplished woman thinks I’d be amazing with her friend is overwhelming to say the least.
“Absolutely. He’s so serious all the time. You’ll put some sunshine into the dark corners inside him.” She checks the time on her phone. “Oh crap. I’ve got to run. Hair appointment and then nails. Got to be presentable for the festivities this weekend.”
Of course I already know her schedule, but I don’t remind her of that. Before she leaves, I fill her in on the conversation I had with the guy organizing the benefit and watch as her eyes narrow with displeasure.
“I let him know that shit’s not going to fly,” I add.
Marlowe’s smile stretches across her face and makes her eyes dance with delight. “Go get ’em, tiger.”
I roll my eyes at her. “You want me to tell them you’re not available for the benefit?”
“Nah, I’ll do the gig, but I’ll have a talk with him beforehand to let him know what he’d better not say if he ever wants my help again. Thanks for the heads-up.”
“No problem.”
“Okay, I’m off. Text if you need me.”
“Enjoy the pampering.”
“Oh, I will.”
She goes to an exclusive salon in Malibu where she’s tended to in a private area, which she prefers to people coming to her home. Before I worked for her, it never occurred to me that for someone like Marlowe, everything she does has to be planned in advance to ensure she’s safe from the paparazzi, not to mention the adoring public that think nothing of interrupting her private life. She loves her fans and goes out of her way to accommodate them, but not when she has foils in her hair.
I spend the rest of the day focused, working my way through a long to-do list for Marlowe and helping Aileen sort a larger-than-usual mail delivery. Even though I keep busy, the day seems to drag. I don’t see Emmett again until five thirty when he walks by my office, gives a knock to the window and keeps moving.
My heart does a cartwheel at the sight of him and his not so subtle reminder that we have plans. I clean up my desk, grab my purse, phone and keys and head out, making sure he’s gone before I step into the lobby. Aileen has left to pick up her kids from school, so there’s no one there to see me leave right on time, which is a rarity around here. We’re so busy all the time that we can rarely finish a workday by the official five-thirty quitting time. But nothing could keep me at work late tonight when I have very important plans with the man I love.