by Mia Carson
“Of course not. My mother can invite whomever she wishes, and I, in turn, can choose not to stay.” He turned on his heel and aimed for the front door.
“Harold, wait,” his mother ordered. “Stop right this instant. You’re being ridiculous.”
“I am not. You are, though, thinking you can threaten the woman I love to stay away from me simply because you do not approve of her,” he stormed, whipping around to stare her down. “I let her walk away from me once because of you—both of you. I’m not going to lose her again.”
“You can’t honestly expect things to work out. She’s not right for you,” Prentice scolded him and reached over to grab Bailey’s arm. “This woman right here, she is who you should be with. Think of your legacy, of the children you could have.”
Harold’s gut roiled and he stepped back towards the door. “Is that what you’re doing here? Are you two mapping out my future behind my back?” he asked in a whisper of disbelief. Prentice’s eyes hardened, and Bailey had the decency to look uncomfortable, shifting on her feet. “This is a new low, even for you, Mother. I’m going now.”
“You can’t walk away from your mother forever!”
Harold’s hand was on the door when he rolled his eyes. “No, and I don’t want to, but here’s the deal. Anna is with me. She’s going to be with me, so if you want me here for another Sunday night family dinner,” he said with a pointed glare to Bailey, “Anna will be coming with me. No more threatening her to stay away from me, and no more insulting who she is. If you do, that’ll be the end of it.”
Prentice laughed, but when Harold didn’t smile, she stopped and placed a hand to her chest as if he’d struck her. “You…you would do that? For her?”
“You have no idea what I would do for that woman. Is Jenny here?”
“Upstairs,” she answered quietly.
Harold moved to the stairs and yelled up. “Jenny! Want to go dancing with Anna and me?”
“You’re leaving me alone tonight?” Prentice asked, offended. “Is it not bad enough I’m losing my son, but you’re going to take away my daughter, too?”
“It’s one night, Mother. Besides, you have Bailey to keep you company.”
Jenny appeared at the top of the stairs, heels in one hand and coat in the other, wearing a vibrant blue dress that spun out around her knees. “Dancing? Hell yes!”
“Jenny!” Prentice scowled at her daughter’s cursing and her running down the steps.
“Bye, Mother. I’ll be home later!”
Harold held open the door for Jenny, and she slipped into her heels and coat and raced out the door into the chilly evening air. “I’ll see you next Sunday, Mother,” he said and waved. When he closed the door, both women glared openly at him, but he no longer cared what they thought. Anna made him see this was his life and he would live it however he saw fit. The stuffy, sophisticated life his parents had was nothing like what he wanted to come home to every evening.
He wanted to see his wife with violet hair running a bar and raising their crazy kids who played out in the mud and knew what laughing was all about. He wanted a future he could look forward to, and being stuck in a corner office looking down on the rest of the world was not a part of that. The gears turned in his head as he drove back to his house and honked twice for Anna. When the front door opened and he saw her in a tight, black dress with four-inch heels and her leather jacket, his heart thundered against his ribs. Her violet hair hung loose around her shoulders and blew around her face with the cold air as she raced to the Camaro.
“Jenny! Coming with us?” she asked as Jenny slipped into the back seat.
“A night of dancing versus a night of listening to Mother complain about shit I don’t care about? Not even a debate,” Jenny exclaimed. “Let’s do this!”
Anna rested her hand on Harold’s thigh as she leaned over and planted a kiss on his cheek. “Yes, let’s,” she agreed.
Harold revved the engine and took off into the night.
Chapter 10
Anna sighed, content as Harold massaged her shoulders as they lounged in the massive clawfoot tub in his master bath. The bar had been packed, normal for a Wednesday night since it was open mic, but she was beat. Having Harold back in her life meant long nights filled with passion intermixed with the conversations they used to have together when they talked about anything and everything. She managed to get very little sleep with him around, but she was quite all right with that.
The water sloshed behind her as Harold moved, his fingers digging into the tender spot on her shoulders and at the crook of her neck. “Oh, right there,” she whispered.
He laughed, the deep sound vibrating up through her body. “Huh, I’m pretty sure you said that last night, too.”
“Probably,” she agreed with a grin.
His hands slipped from her shoulders, down her arms, and wrapped around her middle as he hugged her to his chest. He breathed her in and rested his chin on her shoulder. Right here and now was what Anna had wanted with Harold all along. She used to dream of moments like this, simply being held in his arms as they grew lost in each other’s touches. Then she left him, and all those hopes were turned into deep longings. Now that she had him back, she waited for the other shoe to drop that would make him disappear from her life again.
“I’ve been thinking,” he mumbled, “about your case.”
“Aw, can’t we leave the business talk for later?”
“Later I plan on doing very, very naughty things to you,” he promised, emphasizing his words by squeezing her nipples until she gasped with the sharp jolt of want coursing through her. “Business first.”
“Fine, fine, but if you keep playing with them like that, I’m not going to hear a damn word you say,” she warned as his fingers continued their onslaught, cupping her heavy breasts and kneading them. “Harry.”
“Right, business.” His hands stopped and she whined at the loss. “I think I have a way to prove Johnny faked the attack and set him up for what happened at your apartment and your bar.”
She froze as panic settled in. “My bar?” She whipped around. “What do you mean my bar?” She’d just left the bar and everything was intact, so what had happened since she came home to him?
“Your bar is fine,” he assured her. “What I meant was, I think we can use your bar and that contract to set him up like he did you, except he’ll go to jail for good. Him and that friend of his.”
“You figured out who he was?” Anna had spent the past week wracking her brain, trying to remember the UFC fighter’s name, but aside from asking Johnny outright, she couldn’t recall it.
“There’s not many fighters in New Hampshire. Josh Green.”
“I knew it was Josh,” she muttered. “You didn’t talk to him, did you?”
“No, you’d know if I did. I plan on paying him back for that decking he gave me the other day.”
“He’s a UFC fighter, Harry, and no offense, but just because you’re a big guy doesn’t mean you can take him,” she said, shaking her head. “Don’t start a fight with him, please? I don’t want to visit you in the hospital.”
He kissed the tip of her nose, and she glowered at him. “All right, I promise I won’t get in a fight with him…though I still think I can take him.”
“Plan. Can we get back to your plan, please?” She straddled his lap, his arousal greeting her instantly. She licked her lips as she rubbed her sex against his swelling cock. His eyes glimmered with lust as his hands found her hips beneath the water. “I’m waiting.”
“For the plan…or for this?” His shaft spread her lips wide and she groaned as he filled her in one easy buck of his hips. She was soaking wet from the moment he touched her nipples, and the massage had peaked every nerve in her body. “I want you…to do me a favor,” he said in between his deep, languid thrusts up into her sheath.
“Hmm. And what…exactly do you want me to do…except melt?” Her eyes rolled back as his fingers slipped across her wet skin to find h
er bud. He rubbed it in lazy circles, and her vision blurred as the pleasure built. “Harry.”
“I’m going to send that man into full-fledged panic mode,” he informed her, holding her hips steady with one hand so he could drive up even deeper. She gasped as he rubbed her g-spot just right and his thumb pressed even harder against her clit. “I’m going to make him wish he never tried to kick you out of your bar.”
Anna’s head fell back, her hair hitting the water. “And how…are you going to do that?”
“I’ll tell you in a minute. It’d be rude of me not to let you finish,” he growled right as his mouth closed around one hardened nipple.
His tongue lavished her as she rode him. Water splashed out of the tub to the tile floor, but Harold didn’t care and neither did Anna. The desire spiraled out of control in her body. All she felt was Harold, touching her, holding her, filling her every inch with himself and the love that came with it. When the orgasm neared, she shuddered, a moan slipping from her lips. Harold increased his pace, sucking hard on her nipple as he tugged and rolled her clit. Pleasure exploded within her core, and she cried out, the sound bouncing back to her off the tiled walls and floor. Harold clutched her body to his as his growl of satisfaction followed, mingling with hers until he tilted her head forward and swallowed the noise with a kiss that left her even more breathless than before. She collapsed against his chest, her limbs weak and chest heaving.
Carefully, he slipped free, and they both gasped at the loss of connection and the remnants of the orgasm left behind.
“So…how about that plan?” she asked, sitting up to kiss him.
“I’ll get the drinks and you get the snacks?” he suggested. “I’m starving.”
“Sex tends to do that to you,” she said, smiling, and kissed him again.
He growled and pulled away. “If you keep that up, we’ll never get out of this tub and you’ll never get the chance to experience my genius.” His lips found hers again as he said it. “Damn, how did I ever think I could live without you?”
Her heart fluttered and she hugged him, never wanting to let go. “Good question. I’m glad you came to your senses,” she teased.
“You mean we both did.” The kiss deepened, leaving them both aching for more, but Anna giggled and climbed out of the tub, wrapping her body up in a white fluffy towel. “I never said you had to cover up. I was admiring that.”
“I’m sure you were, but we have a plan to devise, remember?”
With the towel wrapped around her body, she proceeded down to the kitchen, leaving a grumbling Harold behind to dry off and follow. She opened his pantry and found a stash of cookies in the back. She popped one in her mouth as he watched, his brow arching, and she grinned. He rolled his eyes and reached for a bottle of wine and two glasses. She was fine with wine tonight. Not that she would ever admit it outright, but he was convincing her that wine had its upsides. The warmth of a red was tantalizing, how it warmed her body and made her feel relaxed and ready to melt into his arms. Tequila led her to being naked as quickly as possible around Harold. Wine took its time.
Snacks and drinks in hand, they trudged back up to his bedroom and plopped on the bed. The towel threatened to come undone and she readjusted it. Harold’s eyes narrowed with hunger when he caught a glimpse of her breasts, but she shook her finger at him.
“Plan now, then later, we can do some of those naughty, naughty things,” she said with a wink.
He mumbled under his breath but handed her a glass of red wine. “As I said earlier, I’m going to make Johnny go into a state of severe panic, so much so that he will go running to you.”
Choking on another cookie, she slammed her fist into her chest, her eyes watering, and glared at him. “Why the hell would you do that?”
“That contract? I want him to know you have it and you’re going to tell him it’s at the bar, locked up somewhere,” he explained. “I’m going to make him think there’s a problem with it and that unless he can somehow prove your copy of the contract has been doctored, then he will lose everything.”
“And you want me to say it’s at the bar so what, he’ll break in and try to get it?”
“Precisely. He’ll go and hopefully bring his little friend along.”
“And we’ll be there to catch him?” she asked skeptically. “Harry, I love you, but I’m not sure I’m ready to face down the man who knocked me out and destroyed my apartment. And willingly beat up his own friend,” she added.
“We won’t be there alone. I have a few friends on the Concord force, and the detective in charge of your case, Leven? He owes me a favor.”
Anna ate another cookie, chewing as she thought over the plan. “And if it doesn’t work? If he doesn’t fall for it, what then? I’m still being charged with breaking and entering, and assault, which I didn’t do. And the asshole who broke into my place will still be out there. Oh, yeah, and I’ll lose my bar,” she added hotly. She chugged her wine and set the empty glass on the nightstand, collapsing back on the pile of pillows with a frustrated grunt. “I promise, I’m not aggravated at you.”
“I know and I get it. I won’t let anything happen to your dad’s bar. I swear it.”
Propping up on her elbows so she could see his face, she asked, “And what exactly is your backup plan?”
His cringe told her he didn’t have one. “It’ll go as planned. I promise.” He emptied his wine glass and stretched out beside her on the bed. She snuggled against him, her fingertips trailing lazily down his chest while he held her. “You know, I think once we get through this mess, I’m going to make some major changes in my life.”
“Oh yeah? And what might those be?” she mused.
“I think it might be time to step away from the family legacy and do what I want to do for a change. And get out of this house. It’s too big.”
She grinned and started to laugh. “So you’re going to live above the bar with me?”
“Why not? It’s as good a place as any.”
“Uh huh, and you’re going to leave your firm? Just like that?”
“To be honest, it was never really my firm to begin with. My parents pushed me into following in their footsteps.” He kissed the top of her head, tugging her closer. “I think I might finally open the kind of practice I’ve always wanted to have.”
“You’re not scared anymore?” she whispered. The day caught up with her, and her eyes closed, too heavy to keep open any longer.
Harold pushed a pillow under her head and grabbed the comforter to cover their bodies. “I am, but it’s not like before. With you by my side, no amount of fear is going to hold me back from what I want.”
“Good,” she murmured and yawned. “Harry?”
“Yeah?”
“Are there any other life changes you’re going to make?” she asked as her heart pounded under her ribs and his laughter flowed over her.
“Patience, Anna, patience. We’ll get there.”
“That’s all I needed to hear.” She kissed his chest and pressed her cheek against his body heat. Sleep came not long after, and she drifted away into a world with Harold and her in their new lives together, facing whatever the world decided to throw at them next.
First thing the following morning, once Harold managed to pry himself out of Anna’s arms, he told Walter to call Johnny back and bring him in for an urgent meeting. He paced anxiously around his office as he waited for Walter to confirm the criminal was on his way back and would be there in a few hours. Detective Leven needed to be called, too, but he would wait until he knew for certain Johnny fell for the bait. He pondered all last night as Anna snored softly in his arms about what to say to make Johnny freak out over the contract.
Since it was written by his father, there were very few holes in it that he could poke, but he read through it again that morning over his coffee and realized the easiest way was to run with the idea he’d told Anna last night. If he thought her contract had been doctored to screw him over, Johnny would have no
choice but to convince Anna to show him her version. She would, of course, refuse and then he would have to steal it.
As he walked past the windows again, he gazed out at the light snowfall and turned his mind towards the other business matter he would see to hopefully today if he found time to sneak away. Last night, as he spoke with Anna about changing his life, he’d meant every word.
The time had come for him to step away from the Jenson family legacy and pursue the life he wanted to have with Anna by his side. If his family and friends couldn’t support him, they could shove it up their arrogant asses, right next to their heads.
Harold pulled out the contract he’d printed that morning. He made a copy of the original and made sure the new one was in full view on his desk. He scanned it into his computer and made changes to show Johnny. If the man in question couldn’t figure out the change in the contract, he would end up screwed. The fake contract ready to go, all he had to do was wait.
“Sir? Mr. Tory is here,” Walter said through the intercom on his desk.
“Send him in, if you please,” Harold replied and sat down promptly behind his desk.
Johnny stepped inside his office, an annoyed look on his face. “What do you want this time? I thought after our last conversation, I made it quite clear what I thought about you and your new girlfriend.”
“Sadly, I’ve inherited you and your uncle as clients,” Harold pointed out, hoping he sounded the right mix between worry and anger. “It appears there is a problem with the contract.”
“What? No there’s not. You said so last week before you threatened to throw me out a window.”
Harold held back the smile that wanted to stretch across his face, remembering that particular threat. “Yes, well, I’ve had a chance to read over the contract again since meeting with you, and I’m afraid I misspoke.”
“About what? I’m fine, right?”
“Actually, you aren’t. You’re currently in danger of losing any hold you have over The Crawler. I’ve been in touch with Anna, and she’s been kind enough to send me an actual copy of her contract,” he said, holding up the doctored document. “If you look right here, it states quite clearly that if your uncle moves out of the state and is gone for a span of five years or more, The Crawler and the first floor of the building will go to Winston, or in the case he is unable, his daughter, Anna, without having to pay the full amount. He’s been gone for seven, correct?”