Sunday Love

by K. J. Lewis

  “Actually, I rarely say yes to being pulled into political messes anymore,” I add. “It’s a full-time job on its own, and I don’t like putting my team in the situations we have found ourselves in in the past.” I load the last plate into the dishwasher. “Okay, that’s the last of it. I’m going to run a book over to Fran and I’ll be back.”

  “I’ll take it,” Theo says.

  “Nah, I want to stretch my legs. This is our last night here.”

  “Elise, you know the rules.”

  “What are the rules?” Reid asks.

  I roll my eyes as Theo answers, “Blake is the lead on security for the team. He’s ex-Army, Special Ops. What he says goes. He can be a little unorthodox sometimes, and I have felt the need to reign him in before, but he’s the best in his line of work.”

  “You only felt the need to reign him in,” I point out, “because his comfort level with my role is different than yours. You’re overprotective. He knows that he has all his bases covered, but he doesn’t baby me. That doesn’t make him reckless. There’s a difference.”

  “Please, can we have this conversation again for the hundredth time?” Theo asks.

  “Separate corners,” Ross says, entering the kitchen. He grabs a bottle of water from the fridge.

  “I need to take a book to Fran. Want to walk with me?” Theo asks Ross. I exhale all the air in my lungs in total frustration. I pull the book from my bag and hand it to Theo, who kisses me on the forehead before leaving.

  I plop myself down on the couch and Reid takes the chair across from me. He watches me for a minute but doesn’t say anything. He rests his elbow on the arm of the chair and runs his finger back and forth over his chin like he is trying to choose his words before he speaks. His ankle is propped over his knee, looking sexy as sin.

  “Why don’t you just say what’s on your mind, Reid.”

  “Elise, I understand that you and Theo have a process that works for you when it comes to working together, but you need to wrap your head around the fact that I will be your new boss. Yes, Theo will be running things and will stay on from Chicago, but you will be in the New York office.”

  “Reid—”

  “Let me clarify so there is zero confusion. If you and I are discussing a difference of opinions, you don’t call Theo in to save the day for you. You are in a relationship with me, not Theo.”

  “Am I?”

  “Are you what?”

  “In a relationship with you?”

  “What does that mean, Elise?”

  “It means, it’s been a week. Are you ready to say you’re in a relationship?” As soon as I ask the question, I see the difference, the sudden shift in his eyes.

  “I told you, I love you. I’ve never said that to a woman before, Elise. For me, with ‘I love you’ comes a relationship. I have no doubts about what I am ready for. You’re the only one who has to decide. And you have to make this decision. Just you. Not you and Theo.”

  I choose to ignore his last comment, because I hate the uncertainty I see in his eyes. I stand and walk to his chair. He lowers both feet to the floor as I straddle him. Our eyes never leave the other’s, but neither of us says anything.

  Finally, he lowers his hands to my knees and slowly slides them upward. His eyes darken when his hand reaches the pistol still affixed to my thigh. His thumbs skim my sex before his hands move under my t-shirt—his t-shirt. He moves his hands up my torso, his thumbs brushing against the underside of my breast.

  Lifting my hands to his face, I trace the lines of unease. I wrap my fingers around his neck and pull him to me for a kiss that I hope will calm him. I go straight for the soul-wrenching, feel-it-in-your toes, I’m-claiming-every-part-of-you kiss. I want him to know what I’m just not ready to say out loud yet. He doesn’t take control. He doesn’t move us to the next step. He just let’s my kiss stand on its own, telling him the next part of our story.

  “I do want this relationship with you, Reid. I just don’t know what that looks like for us yet. We have a lot of unknowns in the next few weeks.”

  “So, let’s define it.”

  “Define it how?”

  “Give it some definitions so you can know what it looks like. So that you can have what you need to feel good about this.”

  “I already feel good about this, Reid. A definition is not going to change that. There is just a lot going on. I have an entire house to pack and move in five days. What I need defined is the parameters of how we are going to make this work in an office setting. You are going to be my boss. Already you have fought me on how I manage my team, and my relationship with Theo. You don’t understand what I do in this company and that worries me. I can’t do the things I do with limitations placed on me.”

  “I do not want you taking jobs that will put you in harm’s way.”

  “Would you feel like that if I wasn’t the victim of rape?”

  He doesn’t answer. He seems to be sitting with this question.

  “That’s a problem for me, Reid. I don’t want to be seen as a victim. Especially by my partner, and even more so by my boss. If you only see me as a victim, you can never fully see me at my greatest potential, which is to see me for what I am. A survivor.”

  “I have never treated you as a victim, nor have I held back my passion for you. I wish I could explain it to you, Elise, but I can’t. I’ve never felt this protectiveness for someone before. I don’t want you in a situation where you have a gun strapped to your thigh. I don’t want you in a situation that you can’t tell me about. I don’t want you in a situation that could jeopardize everything you have worked for.”

  “Reid, I’ve told you from the beginning, my team fixes shit. Most of it is average, everyday corporate issues, but some of it is fixing what no one else seems to be able to fix.”

  “It has to stop.”

  “Or else?”

  “Elise.” He pins me with a look so intense, I admit I’m a little intimidated. “It has to stop. You are not a ‘you’ anymore. You are a ‘we’ now. You say you’re a fixer. Fix this.”

  It’s late. Theo and Ross came in right after Reid and I finished our conversation. I use the word “conversation” loosely. “Stalemate” is probably more accurate. Somehow we were both able to pull it together enough to share some wine and talk about things other than the merger.

  It’s our last night together for at least a week, and instead of spending it pretzeled around each other having amazing sex, we are at a standoff on opposite sides of the bed.

  “Fuck it,” I say and roll over on top of Reid.

  “Elise,” he warns, clearly still not in the mood to make nice.

  “Fuck. It,” I repeat, grabbing the fly of his plaid boxers and pulling until I hear a ripping sound.

  “What the fu—”

  I cut him off when I envelop his dick with my mouth. His scent turns me the fuck on. I apply suction as I pull out to his tip before slamming back to his pelvis. I gently skim my teeth the length of his now-hardened shaft, giving him a light nip at the head.

  “Jesus Christ, are you trying to kill me?” he says in the middle of a full body tremor.

  I wrap my hand around him and give hard, pulling strokes while caressing the soft section of skin under his testicles. His chest rises and falls in a rhythmic pattern. His eyes are closed and he’s letting his hips move freely of their own accord. I love the way his face flushes when he’s feeling pleasure. My thumb dances across the tip of his cock, spreading pre-come in its wake, while I wet the middle finger on my free hand. Lowering my mouth to take him again, I peruse the area of puckered skin before slowly inserting my middle finger into his ass. He moans and shifts his hips back, giving me permission and wanting more. Fully inside him, I run my tongue along the underside of his cock, giving him time to acclimate. I know the minute I move my finger that I have found what I am looking for. Petting the bundle of nerves with the pad of my finger, I watch his body respond to me, and it’s an aphrodisiac to my soul.

/>   “More?” I ask him.

  “Fuck me running, yes.”

  His encouragement is all I need, and between my mouth, my hand, and my fingers, I guide him through an orgasm so intense his fingers and toes are gripping the mattress around me. I use his come to lube his still rock-hard cock before running some over me. Straddling him, I slowly push out as I guide him into my ass. When he realizes what I am doing, his hands cup my bottom and help support me until my cheeks reach his pelvis. Tonight is all about giving Reid pleasure.

  “Elise.” He closes his eyes, and I can see he is trying to control himself. I sit still as long as I can, but my body has a mind of its own and it begins to move in small thrusts. Each time my hips gyrate in a circular motion another expletive leaves his lips.

  He moves to sit up and I push him back down with my hands to his chest. I move my ass up and down on his cock. He’s losing himself in me, and I relish the control I feel from it. Leaning down, I take his bottom lip between my teeth and bite. It pulls him out of his haze, and before I realize it, his eyes lock on mine. Whatever he sees there has his blazing. Faster than I can see it coming, he has me on my stomach, ass in the air, a stinging handprint on my right cheek, and his dick is resting against the crack of my ass.

  “Open, Elise.”

  He leaves a matching handprint on my left cheek when I don’t comply.

  “Elise.”

  Slowly, I run my hands over my cheeks and spread myself open for him. His dick twitches when it grazes my entrance. Inch by hard inch, he enters me again, and it’s even deeper this way with my shoulders to the mattress. The expletives are leaving my lips now, and he sets a cadence of strokes and slaps that have me begging him for more. His hand wraps around my hair and he pulls me into a kneeled position, my back to his front. His hand wraps around my neck. My hands palm the side of his thighs as his pace intensifies.

  “Reid.”

  “I run this,” he reminds me. He slaps my pussy, adding a hard bite to my earlobe, and I shatter around him, my arousal running down my thighs.

  A few more hard strokes and Reid’s hand tightens around my neck as he comes again, inside me.

  Connected, we fall forward, Reid on top of me, trying to catch our breath, coming to terms with the explosiveness of the feelings we both just experienced. His hands find mine.

  “I love you,” he says.

  “I’m scared.”

  “Of what?”

  “Of saying it back. Of what it means.”

  “What does it mean?”

  “That you have the power to destroy me.”

  He places a soft kiss to my temple.

  “I love you, Elise.”

  “I love you, Reid.”

  Elise: My flight arrives at 4 Xoxo

  Me: I’ll pick you up

  Elise: I can take a cab or the train

  Me: Forget the train – just hop on my platform 9 and 3 quarters

  Elise: You know you make my Huffle puff when you speak Harry Potter to me. If I opened my Gryffindor would you Slytherin?

  Me: Speak Parseltongue to me and I’ll let my snake out

  Elise: Reid *feign shock*

  Me: Girls call me Aguamenti- Every time they hear my name they get wet

  Elise: smh

  Me: You’re staying with me tonight. My house is called the Shrieking Shack for a reason. I’ll show you tonight.

  Elise: Reid! I have to turn off my phone. I’ll take a cab. Text me the address.

  Me: Are you sure you’re a muggle cause that ass is magical – I’ll pick you up.

  It’s been almost three weeks since I left Elise in Colorado. It took longer than anticipated for her to get packed and close out the accounts she was working on. I want her to focus solely on building the New York office and laying some groundwork for how I want my company to function moving forward.

  Ryan, Fran, and Gabby arrived last week. Blake arrived this morning after finishing whatever was going on with the Speaker. Elise never brought me in on the case. I tried to put feelers out to see what she was mixed up in, but I came up with nothing. I do know Theo had to increase the value of Jacobs, Inc. by $5 million last week when we were finalizing the papers. I still haven’t told her that if she doesn’t figure out a way to distance herself from the dangerous messes then she will find herself out of a job. I’m hoping she will come to it on her own and realize that she can manage fixers without having to be one. In truth, I’m not comfortable with anyone on the team being placed in harm’s way.

  “Got a second, Boss?” Blake knocks before entering the office I am using during the transition. I have redesigned a floor in the building I own just for this team. My main office is on the top floor, but I put a small side office here on the 23rd so I could have a place to watch and learn for a few weeks.

  “What can I do for you?” I ask without looking up from my laptop. He eventually earns my full attention when he closes the door. The office is small, but it’s state-of-the-art, and when he closes the door, the windows shade over and give us privacy.

  “I’d like to talk to you off the record.”

  “What’s on your mind, Blake.”

  “I know you have people in the field asking about the case Elise and I are working on.”

  “I don’t know what you are talking about.”

  “Bullshit and you know it. You don’t want to be mixed up in this. You keep poking around and it’s going to draw unnecessary attention. Elise knows.”

  “What does Elise know?”

  “I could fill The Garden with the shit Elise knows. Specifically, for this conversation, she knows you’re poking around.”

  “Blake, I’m not Theo. I’m not here to be a Scout Leader. Things will be changing over the next few weeks.”

  “Look. Whatever, man. I’m flex and can work with just about anything.” He leans forward. “Until you cut her off, you’ve got to let her do her job. You are putting her at greater risk by getting involved. Security is my job and I can’t, scratch that, I won’t have you fucking that up because you think Elise needs you to swoop in and protect her. She knows better than anyone when she needs to reach out for help.”

  “I don’t need to be schooled on Elise. For damn sure that is not your role here.”

  He lifts his hand in concession and sits back in a slightly less combative pose.

  “I’m simply suggesting that you try trusting Elise. If Elise were mine…” He lifts his hands again in response to the surly look on my face and tries again. “If Elise were mine, I couldn’t say I’d want her mixed up in this shit either.” He studies me for a minute. “It’s my job to know things.”

  “She told you?” I ask.

  “No. I’m not blind.”

  “Does that mean the others know?”

  “No. Except Gabby, but you knew that after her night in the woods with Owen.”

  “You know about that?”

  “I told you, I know everything.”

  “Does Elise know you know?”

  “We haven’t discussed it, but yes. She knows I know. It’s also her job to know what we all know.”

  “So what? Ryan and Fran, they’re just slow on the uptake?”

  “No. They don’t have the instincts or backgrounds that Elise and I have. They typically handle the vanilla issues, the corporate accounts. They assist under our guidance on the cases better left in the dark.”

  I stare at him without adding anything more to the conversation. He eventually gets the hint and stands to leave.

  “You can trust Elise. She knows when to call for backup and she knows when to say no to a case. See you tonight.”

  He leaves before I can ask him what tonight is.

  Trust Elise. I swirl in my chair and look out my window at the city I love. The midtown buildings that overlap one after the other. Taller buildings standing in protection of the smaller ones. Trust Elise. I’m lost in thought when my cell buzzes.

  “Beckett.”

  “My girl gets in at four. Ma
ke sure your sorry ass is there to greet her.” As usual Theo forgoes any preambles.

  “No. My girl gets in at four, and don’t tell me what the fuck to do.”

  “While she is in New York and I am in Chicago, she will be your girl so don’t fuck it up.”

  “Is that the only reason you called me?”

  “Mostly. Ross and I will be there next Monday for the gala that night.”

  “Great. I signed the papers yesterday. The lawyers have them.”

  “Yep. I’m on the way to sign mine now.”

  “In about an hour, you’ll have an insane amount of money to do with as you please,” I remind him.

  “And in about an hour, you’ll own a company that is a complete mystery to you,” he goads. But it’s not the best day for it. The men in Elise’s life are already overreaching boundaries.

  “Go pick up our girl. We’ll talk later.” He hangs up before I can tell him, yet again, that Elise is mine.

  When I exit the building, Coop is waiting to drive me to the airport. It’s rare that I don’t take the time to work and multitask, but for the first time in a long time, I’m nervous. Out of the close to four weeks we’ve known each other, we’ve only been together for one. One amazing, crazy, melt-in-your-mouth week. Fuck. I get a hard-on just thinking about her. The last weeks have been difficult not having her with me. It’s odd how quickly you can acclimate to someone. I can’t wait to have her next to me again. And not just for sex but for the everyday things, too. My phone vibrates and I resist the temptation to let it go to voicemail.

  “Beckett.”