by Layla Hagen
I shrug, as if it’s purely coincidental. “It’s the most comfortable spot. And someone’s happy I’m here,” I add, feeling his erection.
“Always.” With a swing of his arms, he pushes me sideways, laying me on my back and climbing over me. “I had a crazy thought today.”
“Tell me,” I beckon.
Eric’s eyes turn serious as he twirls a strand of my hair between his fingers. “Would you move to Boston with me?”
Wham. The impact of his words knocks the wind out of my lungs for a few seconds. I remain speechless, simply because I can’t wrap my mind around the idea. I try to visualize how my life there could be. With some adjustments, I could continue working for Bennett Enterprises, and I would be with him and Julie, but I break a sweat at the thought of not having my family around me.
“I could never live so far away from my family,” I answer honestly. Uttering every word feels like I’m stabbing him and myself at the same time, but it’s the truth, and he deserves it.
He gives me a sad smile, looking away. “I feared you might say that. I wanted to ask anyway. Hearing you confirm that hurts more than I thought it would.”
“Eric…,” I whisper.
“I don’t want to let go,” he says. “I won’t know how to do it.”
I run my hand at the side of his face, and he leans in to my caress with a vulnerability that completely disarms me and beckons me to peel back my own layers.
“I don’t know how either.”
“Let’s not think about it anymore then, and just enjoy each other,” Eric whispers, nuzzling my neck with his lips.
“Okay.”
***
When I wake up the next morning, I find Eric at the foot of the bed, with an amused expression. I love having him sleep over.
“Hey, stranger,” I greet him, rubbing my eyes. “How long have you been standing there?”
“A while,” he informs me, a smile playing on his lips. “I like watching you sleep.”
“Why?”
“Because you’re peaceful, and sweet, and very kissable.”
I huddle my blanket to my chest, feeling oddly displaced. My flirting talents don’t spring to life before I’ve had my first coffee, so I just smile.
Oblivious to my predicament, Eric continues, “Also, you have a lovely snore.”
This instantly jolts me out of my morning haze. “I definitely don’t snore,” I reply indignantly.
“Thought you’d say that.” With a smirk, he pulls his phone out of his pocket. “But I have proof.”
He presses a few buttons on his phone, and a weird wheezing sound comes from it. Then it hits me.
“That’s me? You recorded me sleeping?”
“Yep, couldn’t resist it.”
I cross my arms over my chest. “That’s not snoring, it’s purring.”
“Aha,” Eric says, furrowing his brow in mock concentration as he listens to the recording again. “Loud purring.”
“Turn that off.”
He does as I say, remarking, “You’re grumpy today.”
“Weird mood this morning,” I inform him, yawning.
“Also, it’s six thirty.”
I nearly choke in shock. “Why would you wake me up so early?”
“So I could spend a few minutes with you before I have to leave. Be right back.” He rises from the bed, heading out of the bedroom, and returns a few minutes later holding a plate and a cup.
“Coffee and cookies,” I exclaim.
“Yep, freshly bought for you. Feeding your sugar and caffeine addiction.”
“Very smart of you. I’m no fun to be around if I haven’t had either of them for the day.”
“You don’t say.” He shoves the plate in my lap, placing the cup on the bedside table. Immediately, I dig in to the cookies.
“Oh, my God, you’re the perfect man.” I close my eyes, savoring the sweet flavor. Pushing myself straight up in the bed, I grab the coffee cup from the bedside table and sip. “Wait, is there a reason you bought this?”
“Are you implying I need a reason to spoil you?” he asks. I shrug, and he continues, “Okay, full disclosure. I do have an agenda that involves making you less grumpy. I figured you might wake up a little… off.”
Yeah, from our conversation last night.
The fact that he had the foresight to do this warms my heart. I resolve to find a way to pay him back.
“You’re a smart man.” Munching on another cookie, I add, “I love that you know what will make me less grumpy.”
“What else do you love?” He cocks his brows suggestively.
“That you make love to me against the wall.”
Eric leans forward a tad, tugging at his lower lip with his teeth. “We’re surrounded by walls.”
“Are you talking dirty to me?”
“Yes, and I’m not even trying to be smooth about it.”
A tingling sensation of arousal singes my body. “Go on, I like it.”
“Pick a wall,” he says in a low, rumbling voice.
My cheeks heat, and as I squirm in the bed, my body responds to him even before my mind is awake. The realization is downright scary.
Peering around the room, I point to the one facing the south.
“That one looks sexy enough,” I suggest.
Eric rises from the bed, offering me his hand. I take it without hesitation and jump out of bed, following him.
Pressing me against the wall, he drags his knuckles down the side of my cheek, finally cupping my jaw. I instinctively arch against him.
“You’re so responsive to my touch,” he says. “I was thinking of all the things I want to do to you while watching you sleep.”
He pins me against the wall, kissing me thoroughly. His tongue does delicious things to my mouth, while his hands find their way under my baby doll nightgown, traveling up, grasping my breasts underneath the fabric.
“I changed my mind,” I tell him. “Let’s go to the kitchen.”
“Huh?”
“That’s a room we haven’t made love in already,” I say out loud. What I don’t say is that I want to feel his presence everywhere long after he’s gone. Also, I have some cream in the fridge, and I thought of a brilliant use for it.
I shimmy to the kitchen with Eric on my heels. Once inside, I take out the can of whipped cream, presenting it to him as if it’s a prized possession.
“You woke up naughty today.”
Licking my lips, I nod. “Blame it on the cookies. They had extra chocolate.”
Hooking an arm around my waist, he pulls me close to him. “How about attributing it to my charms?”
“You’re so full of yourself,” I tease.
“And you can’t wait to be full of me,” he whispers in my ear. I blush violently at his wicked words, which is exactly what he intended, of course. Eric hoists me up on the table in the center of the kitchen, taking off my nightie and pushing me on my back. Need surges through me as he puts whipped cream in one thin line from my navel up to my chest. Then he smears it with his finger in circles around one nipple. He does so with an exquisite slowness that drives me crazy. Watching it unravel before my eyes turns me on to no end. By the time he proceeds to the other nipple, I’m so turned on I feel I’ll break out of my skin. I need him now, but I know he’s not done teasing me. I should have known this would come back to bite me in the ass. Pulling back a notch, Eric smiles at me, giving my clit a gentle smack. I shudder, gasping. Then he places his mouth on the same place and nips at my tender spot.
“No more whipped cream?” I ask.
“Not here. I want to taste you.”
He slides his tongue inside me, mimicking the act of making love, and I nearly come undone. Suddenly, I become desperate for skin-on-skin contact. I pull myself back, pleased when Eric takes my cue, straightening up and unbuttoning his shirt. I unzip his jeans and pull them down together with his boxers. He cups my ass in his hands, pulling me close to him while I lean back, propping myself o
n my elbows. My breath catches when he enters me, slow and deep.
“You’re a wonderful woman, Pippa Bennett,” he says, right before making passionate love to me.
Chapter Twenty-One
Pippa
I’m the first to arrive in my office. Despite Eric’s lovemaking and the coffee he brought me, I’m bone tired. Waking up before 8 a.m. tends to do that to me. Opening my computer, I intend to dive in working through my e-mails, but end up researching Boston.
Eric’s question plays in my mind repeatedly. Could I give this a shot? Boston is beautiful, of course. The truth is, even if the city were hideous, it wouldn’t matter; I’d love it simply because Eric and Julie would be there. The problem is that it’s a six-hour flight away from my family. I love being able to talk to my brothers at any time of the day, or drop in on one of my sisters whenever they need me. I can’t lose that. The one time I lived a few hours away from my family was during college, and I was miserable. I can’t do it again. With a heavy heart, I close all websites I had open about Boston. I have my answer, it seems. I can’t even consider moving away without almost having a panic attack.
On the strength of that decision, I send another e-mail—this time to my lawyer, explaining to him what our next steps should be. It’s high time I took Eric’s advice. Terence won’t know what hit him.
As I lean back in my chair, feeling proud of myself, my phone beeps with an incoming message from Blake.
Blake: Did you have breakfast?
Pippa: Yes, but I won’t say no to some goodies. I’m in my office. You want to stop by?
Blake: Sure. I’ll buy breakfast for me. Two muffins for you?
I smile as I type back.
Pippa: You know me well, brother.
Blake arrives twenty minutes later, looking as if he hasn’t slept all night.
“Have you been partying all weekend?” I inquire as he places the muffins in front of me and drops in the chair on the other side of my desk. “You look dreadful.”
“Good morning to you too, sister,” he answers. “If you keep throwing around insults, I’ll keep your muffins for myself.”
I shrug, but immediately pull the muffins closer to me and out of his reach. “I’m just saying. The post-party look isn’t the best office look to build credibility.”
“Who says I was partying?” Blake shakes his head and then takes a bite from the sandwich he brought for himself. “How come when Logan rides my ass, I want to punch him, yet when you do it, I think you’re adorable?”
I smile coyly. “Because I’m all-around adorable.”
He sighs. “I have no balls whatsoever when I’m around my sisters.”
“Right, I don’t ever want to hear you talk about your balls in my presence.” We fall into a companionable silence as we eat, and I use the time to inspect my brother. He has dark circles under his eyes and is pale, but this is not his usual after-party look, which makes me think he might indeed not have been partying. Maybe he simply has a lot on his mind, and he couldn’t sleep.
“What’s wrong?” I ask.
“Me being at Bennett Enterprises… It’s not working out.”
“Oh.” I can’t help but feel a tad disappointed, but I don’t want to let him see that. Instead, I want to make him see that it is working out, or at least get to the bottom of why he thinks it’s not. “But Sebastian says you’ve been doing great. Logan too. I was afraid you’d be butting heads more often, but you make a good team.”
Blake runs a hand through his hair, looking frustrated, and it worries me. I’ve never seen him so unsettled.
“We do. The problem is that, around here, I’ll always be the younger, player brother. Or at least for a long time. I mean, it’s my fault. I expected I could waltz in and start with a clean slate, and everyone would treat me the way they treat Sebastian or Logan.”
“I know it’s a cliché, but Rome wasn’t built in a day, brother. Neither are reputations. It’ll take time to—”
“Yeah, yeah. But I’m already tired of defending myself all the time. Every time I meet a new partner or whoever, they start with a joke about me. When I was with Logan at the bank, we wasted the first hour talking about a party I was at a year ago.”
“So, what’s the plan?”
“I want to start my own business,” he announces.
“Wow. I’m impressed.”
“I helped a few friends set up bars across the country.”
“Yeah.”
This was a running joke in our family, that he ‘consulted’ them because he had a lot of experience partying, but my brother’s smart.
“I want to open my own bar, and who knows. If it does well, maybe more of them.”
I lean back in my chair, nodding at him. “Sounds exciting. Do you need any money?”
“No, I’ve saved a good chunk from the shares revenue I received over the years.”
“Now I’m very impressed. I thought you blew through all of it.”
“Your confidence in me is astounding,” Blake says, but he’s grinning, and I’m relieved to see my brother morphing back to his usual self.
“Have you told Sebastian and Logan?” I ask.
“No, I wanted to tell you first.”
“Why?”
“Because I wanted your opinion. Sebastian always has his poker face on, and I can’t tell what he’s thinking. Logan will be disappointed, but he usually is where I’m concerned. The point is, I don’t want any of you to feel I don’t appreciate everything you’ve done for our family, because I am. I truly am. But I want to branch out on my own, prove myself.”
“Logan and Sebastian won’t be disappointed. They’ll be proud. I am proud.”
In the vision Sebastian initially had when he founded the company, he’d hoped all of us would find their place in it. When Alice announced she wanted to open a restaurant and Summer became a professional painter, Sebastian, Logan, and I were proud of them, even if it was bittersweet. This will be exciting, just like it is every time a Bennett sibling starts a new venture. It’s an opportunity for all of us to rally together, offering our help. Assisting Blake in setting this up will be fun.
“Okay,” he says, “I’ll talk to them later today.” Rising from his chair, my brother rounds the corner of my desk and bends down to kiss my cheek. “I don’t know what I’d do without you.”
“Now, go break your news to our brothers.”
“I will. Can’t believe I’ll finally have a job where my CPO title will be official.”
“What’s CPO?”
Blake wiggles his eyebrows. “Chief Party Officer.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
Eric
“What do you mean you want to stay there for an entire week?” I ask, looking at my daughter in disbelief. It’s eight o’clock in the morning, and Julie blindsided me with her request.
“Well, the girls’ parents are going on a vacation, so the girls are staying with Mrs. Bennett. They invited me to stay with them. It’ll be like going to camp. And summer school ended, so I’ll be bored anyway.”
“You’ve never wanted to go to camp,” I say.
“But I want to stay with Mrs. Bennett and the girls,” Julie pleads.
“Why do you like sleeping there so much?”
Julie shrugs. “Mrs. Bennett is cool. She makes us Pop-Tarts and even plays Twister with us.”
“But isn’t she old by your standards?”
“Dad, there are cool old people and uncool ones,” Julie says in her ‘You know nothing, Dad’ tone. “You’re going to be an uncool old person.”
I nearly choke on my coffee. “What? Why would you say that?”
“Because I’ve spied on you sometimes when you speak on the phone with people at your office, and you’re grumpy all the time. You only smile when you’re with me or Pippa.”
Wow, kids certainly don’t hold back punches. Scratching my jaw, I try to find the best words to tell her that she shouldn’t get used to Mrs. Bennett and the squad. After
all, we’ll be leaving here in two weeks. But as Julie watches me with wide, pleading eyes, I can’t bring myself to break her heart, so I say, “Okay, you can go.”
Just thinking about her being gone for a week makes me sick. I have to get used to this. As she grows up, she’ll prefer to spend more time with her friends rather than with me. Still, a difficult pill to swallow.
“Yay! I have to be at Mrs. Bennett’s on Saturday. So I can call my friends and tell them we’ll be staying together?”
“Yeah. You do that,” I say.
Julie practically jumps up and down as she darts to her room, pressing the phone to her ear. She’s growing up way too soon.
***
Pippa
On Friday night, I’m at Eric’s place. Alice should arrive in about an hour, so we can start the girls’ night out we planned. Ava, Nadine, my sisters, and I collectively decided we need to let off some steam tonight. It’s been months since we’ve done it. Julie is leaving for my mothers’ tomorrow for a week, and Eric insisted I sleep here for the entire period, starting with tonight. He also insisted that I should bring enough clothes, so now his bedroom is full with dresses, shoes, and makeup items.
Preparing for the night can wait, though. Eric can’t. Julie’s out with Ms. Blackwell, so it’s the two of us alone for a little while. I’d better take advantage of it. I find him in the living room, barking orders on the phone while typing on his laptop. He and Julie will have the evening to themselves, and they’ll spend it watching movies. He’s having the blues because she’s leaving tomorrow, and he couldn’t be more adorable. Well, he’s adorable to me. I’m sure the person on the receiving end of his orders would disagree.
“Stop looking for excuses and start finding solutions,” Eric bellows into the phone.
Right, time for an intervention. I wait until he finishes the conversation then ambush him.
“You said you’re being nicer to your team.”
“I am until they screw up.”