It was no wonder she was all over Lexi all the time.
“Okay. The coffee woman,” Brady amended. “I thought you said you were going to see how things went.”
“I did. They went well.”
“I’d say.”
“What did I miss?” Lincoln asked as he stepped into Dylan’s office. “You two talking about the Hartland investment?”
“We’re talking about Dylan’s latest conquest,” Brady said, picking up a paperweight he’d already inspected and turning it over in his hands.
Dylan snatched it away. “Don’t call her that.”
Lincoln sat in one of the chairs across from Dylan. Lincoln had always been on the quieter side. Never much of a partier, he’d always studied hard and played by the rules. He dated women that were safe, women like their mothers that aimed not much higher than having a good last name and a big bank account.
There was a woman out there Lincoln wanted—they all knew it, but none of them said anything.
Dylan’s eyes slid to Brady.
The woman Lincoln wanted was Brady’s sister Mercedes, and that relationship was never going to happen. The woman was a menace, a spiteful brat, if he remembered her correctly, and a felon, to boot.
What Lincoln ever saw in her, Dylan didn’t know. But Lincoln had never looked at another woman the way he looked at Mercedes Charles.
Dylan imagined it was the way he looked at Lexi Walker.
“She worth bringing home?” Lincoln asked.
The ultimate test: bringing her home and into their upper-crust Boston families. The social scene was a bitch and Dylan and his partners navigated it expertly. They’d been doing it their entire lives.
“She’s worth it,” Dylan confirmed. “But there’s no way in hell I’m doing that to her now.”
“You think she’d run?” Brady asked with a chuckle.
Did he think she’d run from a challenge? No, he didn’t. He imagined Lexi Walker, hunched over, arm out, barreling through any situation she was put into, including the Boston society pages.
“No. I think she’d eat them alive,” he admitted. “And they’d have no idea what hit them.”
Lincoln and Brady both looked impressed.
“Sounds like a winner,” Lincoln commented.
“What’s wrong with her?” Brady asked.
Dylan punched him in the leg. Hard. “There’s nothing wrong with her. She’s busy, that’s all. She’s got her own business she’s trying to run and she’s a college professor.”
Brady looked skeptical and was about to open his mouth when Lincoln’s sister Audrey walked in. She was their head of HR and had balls of steel. A tall redhead, she reminded Dylan of Wonder Woman, the Amazon warrior princess. She looked ready to kick ass and take names at any given moment. Impeccably put together, she eyed the three of them critically.
“Am I the only one working in this office?” Her voice was crisp with authority, despite the fact that they were technically her bosses.
“I was working,” Dylan defended himself.
“Me too,” Lincoln added quickly.
“Not me,” Brady said, sending her a charming smile. Audrey just raised a perfectly arched brow. “I was grilling Dylan about his new girlfriend.”
Audrey’s laser focus shifted to him and bore holes into him.
“It’s new. She’s not my girlfriend.” Yet, he amended silently.
Audrey squinted before consulting her watch. “Did we or did we not have a meeting scheduled for two minutes ago?”
They did have a meeting scheduled, and Audrey closed the door to Dylan’s office for some privacy, not that it helped him concentrate any. In fact, he spent more time imagining what Lexi Walker looked like when she dozed off on the couch while watching a movie, or how tiny she seemed when she stood next to him.
Pregnant. He kept coming back to her being pregnant.
Even though he knew the situation, it was still a hard pill to swallow. Usually, that issue came up later in a relationship but this was a whole new ballgame for Dylan. Like Spencer said, he was either going to have to be in or out, and he’d made his choice.
“What the hell is going on out there?” Lincoln murmured, leaning back in his chair and looking out the glass of Dylan’s office door.
Just then, a woman went rushing by.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen Midge move so fast,” Brady commented about the admin that basically ran his life. She worked Brady’s travel schedule and family schedule. She took care of his every need, including Dylan had recently learned, grocery delivery to Brady’s penthouse.
Lincoln’s admin, Melissa, hurried by, toward the front of the office.
“What in the world?” Audrey said, her voice laced with confusion as she pushed her own chair back and headed for the door. She stuck her head out and then turned to glare at them. “Every single person that works in this office is at the front desk.”
Audrey was a stickler for employees keeping to their tasks during office hours.
“Except us,” Brady noted, pulling the door from her hands and slipping out into the hall, disappearing from sight.
Lincoln shook his head. “How does he always figure out how to get out of these things?”
Audrey rolled her eyes at her brother and opened the door wider. “No point in continuing with just two of the four of you here. We’ll catch up when Grant is back in town.”
Dylan and Lincoln sat across from each other, their meeting abruptly ended. Not that Dylan had any idea what they’d been discussing.
“Well,” Lincoln said, standing from his chair. “I guess we should go see what’s got everyone up in arms.”
“Probably,” Dylan agreed, curiosity getting the better of him.
He and Lincoln left his office, and he nearly stumbled when he turned the corner at the main entrance.
Lexi was there, handing out goodies from her basket and the women of his office were eating it up. Some of them had two or three wrapped items in their hands and they were reaching for more.
“Well, hello,” Lincoln murmured, his voice low.
Dylan almost couldn’t blame him. She was laughing at something Midge said, her rough voice cutting through the rest of the noise. Above it all, he could pick her out.
Her black hair was loose, flowing over her shoulders and falling forward, as she leaned over to hand a wrapped pastry to Brady.
He said something to her and her eyes cut immediately to Dylan’s, her smile stretching even wider, like she’d known he was heading her way the entire time. Brady followed her gaze and understanding came across his face.
“Ah. The coffee woman,” Lincoln surmised.
“Pastry chef,” Dylan corrected automatically, his eyes never leaving hers as they approached. He grabbed her hand, pulling her in close, her ear to his lips. “This is a nice surprise.”
She pulled back, searching his face, something close to a wince on her face. “I hope so. I have a tendency to over-step, or so my sisters say.”
“Sisters?” Brady asked.
“Married,” Dylan told him without hesitation.
“Damn,” his partner said.
“Did you not read the label?” Lincoln asked Brady, holding up a neatly wrapped box of macarons. Sweet Sisters was emblazoned across the box, that adorably sexy caricature of Lexi on the front.
Brady inspected the box. “Bad Girl of Sweets, huh? Sounds like my kind of girl.” He looked between her and Dylan, seeming to note that her hand was still in his and she hadn’t moved away. Dylan liked it, had been craving her body close to his for weeks. “What are you doing with this loser?”
“Don’t let him fool you,” Audrey interrupted, a half-eaten pastry pinwheel of some kind in her hand. “Dylan’s everyone’s favorite and Brady knows it.”
Dylan squeezed Lexi’s hand. “Everyone, this is Lexi, The Bad Girl of Sweets. Lexi, this is everyone.”
He introduced them one by one, and Lexi soaked it all in. She shook everyone’s h
and, including his partners, without hesitating. He liked that about her. She didn’t stand beside him and wave shyly. There was no expectation for him to navigate her through the interaction. She held her own, always.
Hell, the woman was carrying a baby as a favor for someone. She wasn’t afraid to meet a challenge head-on.
“I was just telling Dylan that we should all go to dinner tonight,” Brady said, lying through his teeth, earning a sharp look from his partner. “He said you wouldn’t be interested.”
Lexi looked between the two of them and set her sights on Brady. “You have a younger sister?”
For what it was worth, Brady looked startled. His sister, Mercedes, wasn’t exactly a topic of conversation that came up often. If anything, her entire existence had been swept under the rug in hopes that she would be forgotten.
“I do,” he murmured. “Why do you ask?”
“Because you’re older-brothering me. Trying to play some reverse psychology. My older brother used to do the same to me, and I used to do the same thing to my youngest sister.”
Dylan held in a smile and he could see Lincoln’s lips twitching. Audrey let out an outright laugh while the rest of the office staff hid smiles. Not many people called Brady out on his bullshit. They always knew he was playing some kind of game and they all let him.
Brady, to his credit, didn’t deny it. Instead, he looked a little impressed, his gaze shifting to Dylan.
“She’s a keeper. But seriously, let’s do dinner.”
“Can’t,” Lexi interrupted. “We already have plans. A friend of mine has a band that’s playing in town tonight and I told her I’d go.” Her eyes met Dylan’s. “I told her we’d go.”
He didn’t look mad or annoyed, which was a good thing. He’d told her that he wanted to show her his house and they could have a quiet night in.
It sounded good to her. It had been a long week and she could use a night to relax with Dylan. They spoke on the phone off and on during the week, mostly texted, but some face-to-face with him would do her some good. He didn’t know it, but he was the only thing that seemed to center her at the moment. The whole baby growing inside of her thing had totally thrown her for a loop.
Beth, in the last weeks, had finally transformed back into her real self, that scared and nervous persona dissipating as Alex moved well into her second trimester. Everything had been going fine for Alex until she went to put on her favorite jeans the other day and she hadn’t been able to button them. She’d pulled and pulled, but damned if she could get the things to come together.
She’d had a bit of an internal meltdown about the whole thing, even though she knew it was coming. It was just coming too fast, almost too fast for her to process. Between hearing the heartbeat a few weeks ago and now finally starting to show, she was out of sorts.
And as much as she wanted time with Dylan, her friend Fiona couldn’t have called at a better time. Fiona was a bartender she knew, a woman she’d met at her sister Andy’s bachelorette party and she was one-of-a-kind. A total rocker, through and through, the woman had a life story that was nearly unbelievable. They’d become fast friends, both of them perpetually single and bitter, and bartenders, to boot. They had a lot in common and hung out regularly.
“A band, huh?” Dylan’s partner Brady said, the look on his face telling her that he wasn’t put off by the idea.
Who knew what rich guys did on the weekends? Did they go to shows like regular people? Did they hang out and watch Shark Tank on a Friday night? Or did they just sit around, musing their riches while drinking out of brandy snifters?
Alex looked him up and down. “Not sure it’s your kind of place. Maybe you should sit this one out.”
It was meant as a challenge and she could tell by the look on his face that it was a direct hit. Brady squared his shoulders, his brow furrowing as he did so. He wasn’t intimidating in the least bit. She’d been going butting heads with Spencer since she was a little girl, and if he didn’t intimidate her, no one would.
While Dylan’s partners were both strikingly handsome and ungodly rich, they weren’t all that different than she was, or so she liked to think. If they thought they were any better than her, well, she’d have no problem letting them know just what she thought of that notion.
“I’m sure we could handle it,” Brady said, glancing at Dylan’s other partner Lincoln and Lincoln’s sister Audrey. “Who’s in?”
Dylan held up a hand. “Now wait a second. Lexi and I had plans.”
Lincoln clapped a hand on his shoulder. “Looks like we’re crashing them.”
“You should come too,” Alex told Audrey. “My brother’s going to be there and I think you’d like him.”
Alex noticed Brady’s quick glance in Audrey’s direction and the woman’s eyes cutting to him, as well. Something going on there, she thought.
“Anyway,” Alex said. “I just wanted to drop by and hand out some goodies. I can get out of your hair.”
If anything, the hand that had been holding hers the whole time gripped her harder.
“Not just yet,” he said with a smile as he began pulling her away. “We can talk in my office.”
She turned and flashed the staff and his partners a smile. “Nice to meet you all.”
“Close the blinds,” Brady told them with a quick smile.
Alex felt her cheeks heat at the implication but thought it wasn’t a bad idea. She felt a ripple of nerves dance across her skin.
She let Dylan lead her down the hall. “Sorry to just drop in on you. I wasn’t sure you’d be here anyway. I thought, even if you weren’t here I could just give out some free stuff. It’s a good way to build a customer base, or so Jenna says.” Dylan guided her in front of him, his hand on the small of her back as he gently propelled her into an office. “I like your office. It’s modern. Sleek. Lots of glass.” His hand was hot, the heat bleeding through the back of her shirt. His silence was unnerving. “Totally you, though. It just feels rich in here, not that I know what rich feels like, you know. I just mean it feel luxurious.” The door snicked closed behind them and Dylan continued guiding her until she reached his oversized glass desk, and he spun her slowly around. “Wow, that’s some desk. How do you get it so all the cords are hidden? My desk is all wires and tangled cords.”
“Lexi,” Dylan murmured, her wide eyes flipping up to his.
Wow, the whole nerves thing had come on like a tidal wave. Her heart was pounding in her chest, and she could feel every nerve ending as his fingers danced up her arm. He walked her back until her butt hit his desk.
“Yeah?” she whispered.
“See that button over there?” Dylan pointed. She followed his finger to a little button on the side of his desk. “Press it.”
To get to it, she had to lean way over and backwards. The movement lifted one of her feet off the floor and Dylan held her thigh as she did. Suddenly, she was cradling his hips with her legs and he was flush against her. Her fingers stretched, and when she hit the little button, a whirring noise sounded in the room.
Blinds, shielding them from the rest of the office, came down over the windows, giving them blessed privacy.
Dylan’s fingers trailed up her thigh as it rested high on his waist.
“Do you want to talk about the cords on my desk anymore?” he asked, his voice low and sexy.
She shook her head. She wanted to just take him in for a second. He was still in a shirt, tie, and vest and looked every bit the boss that he was. He looked in-charge, like he was ready to take on anything. And if things got really dirty, he’d just unbutton those shirtsleeves and roll them up.
He held out a hand to her and helped her sit up, so they were face to face. He grabbed her other leg and wrapped it around his hips so she was truly holding him close, and he leaned over her, fists propped on his desk at her sides.
“Hi,” he whispered.
Her eyes darted to his lips as he spoke.
“Hey.”
“I like that
you stopped by,” he said again, leaning infinitesimally closer.
“You don’t mind?” she asked.
He shook his head, now close enough that his nose grazed hers when he moved. And he inhaled, like he was trying to pull her scent inside him, and it was one of the sexiest things she’d never imagined.
“You always smell like cookies,” he murmured, his lips like butterflies against her cheek. “Sweet and delicious.”
“That’s the second time you’ve called me delicious,” she noted, her hand threading through his dark hair and bringing her lips to his. “Yet, you haven’t tasted me once.”
Their eyes met, inches apart, the electricity between them palpable.
“I’m about to change that,” he said. “Unless you have objections.”
“No objections,” she confirmed before sealing her lips to his.
It was slow at first, more an exploration than anything. Dylan tasted like coffee, his kisses short and sensual as his lips devoured hers. He pressed his lips against hers, opened them just a little and sucked her lower lip in. He pressed them against the corner of her mouth, dragged them across hers until she knew the feel of him. He nipped her ever so gently, and ran the tip of his tongue over the same spot.
She gave back the same treatment, enjoying the leisurely warmth of it.
Sure, she’d been with guys where they jumped each other’s bones the second they were alone. Those were usually fast, flash-in-the-pan kinds of things, ending just as quickly as they started.
She’d been with guys where things went excruciatingly slow, and when they finally came to fruition, they were boring as all get out.
Dylan’s kiss wasn’t either of those.
It was slow in a comfortable way, without desperation clawing at their heels, but also hot enough that she didn’t want to stop. Desperation would come if they kept going, if he kept kissing her and making her feel like the most delicate thing he wanted to treasure, but they weren’t there yet.
One of his hands cradled her head, holding her just where he wanted her so he could take his fill of her.
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