One Night with Him (One Night Series Book 5)

by Eden Finley

  At the same time, I said “Yes,” and Garrett said “No.”

  Strong arms wrapped around me from behind.

  “Shotgun best man at your wedding,” Garrett said as Blair dragged him away.

  “See you back at home,” Blair called out.

  “Good luck with your meeting,” I yelled.

  Gage’s lips landed on my neck. “Now they’re gone, want to go up to the room?”

  I didn’t answer. I grabbed his hand and dragged him out onto the street in the direction of our hotel.

  ***

  Gage crashed out hard as soon as we reached the hotel room. He was all over me on the walk back, promising dirty things to come, but by the time I’d brushed my hair out of the hairsprayed mess the hotel salon had done for Garrett and Blair’s wedding and then brushed my teeth, Gage was snoring.

  I let him sleep. He still wasn’t sleeping well—and still lying about it. I was a light sleeper, so when he got up, I was conscious of it.

  After a shower, I came out of the bathroom to find him sitting on the edge of the bed running his hands through his hair.

  “Sorry, did the shower wake you?” I asked. “I tried to be quiet.”

  “I fell into a dream about Dad. Then I woke up without you and kinda freaked out. I didn’t know where you went.”

  I threw my arms around his neck as I straddled him on the edge of the bed. “I’m here.”

  His large arms wrapped around me, and he laid his head on my shoulder. “I know I haven’t lived with Dad for over a decade, but I talked to him every week. How am I supposed to go on without him?”

  My eyes stung, trying to fight off tears, and my nose ran.

  “I wish I could tell you it gets easier,” I whispered. “I’ll be here for you no matter what. I’ll always be here for you, even if we don’t work out.”

  He pulled back and frowned. “You think there’s a chance this isn’t going to work out? Not gonna happen.”

  “I mean—”

  His lips were soft as he kissed me, and his hands were gentle.

  Like this, in his arms, I had no doubt that what he was saying was true.

  Tingles trailed wherever his hands wandered from my neck down in between my breasts and back up again.

  Open, wet kisses ravished my skin as he made his way down to the collar of my shirt.

  “Off,” he said, pulling back.

  “We don’t have to—”

  “Off,” he said more forcefully.

  Even though a niggly feeling told me he was using sex to avoid going back to sleep and dealing with his dad’s death, I wasn’t going to bring that up. I’d give him this. I’d give him whatever he asked for.

  “You know, I never thought you’d be this bossy in bed. You’re always taking my orders at work.” I reached for my shirt and took it off.

  He leant forward, taking my nipple into his mouth. My hands ran through his hair, and my body rocked into him.

  “You can boss me around all you want in the office,” he said. “Here, in bed, I’m in charge.”

  “And if I don’t want to?”

  His hands fell away and he lay back, propped up by his elbows. “You don’t want to?”

  “You know how defiant I can be when being told what to do.”

  He grinned. “Trust me. You’ll like every single thing I tell you to do. Strip.”

  My hands went to my pyjama pants.

  “Uh-uh. Turn around and do it.” He made a circle with his finger.

  “You’re pushing your luck,” I grumbled but did it.

  “Slowly take them off.”

  I followed his instructions, curious as to how far he’d take this bossy charade. Gage was always a yes, dear person. I imagined that if he ever did have a relationship his most uttered words would be “Yes, dear.”

  The fact he was domineering in bed piqued my curiosity. And I’d be lying if I said it didn’t turn me on.

  He sat up, and his large hands squeezed my butt. “I love this ass.” His lips landed on one cheek and then moved over to the other. “I so wanna take your ass virginity one day.”

  I glanced down at him over my shoulder. “What makes you think it’s available to take?”

  “I know you, Pip. I probably know you better than you know yourself. There is no way you trusted any of your dates to go there. Hell, I’m not even sure you’ll let me go there. Won’t stop me from wanting it.”

  “Dammit.” I hated he was right.

  “Turn around.”

  As soon as I did, his mouth was on me.

  “Mmm,” he hummed against my clit.

  He gripped my thigh and lifted it so my foot landed on the bed next to him and gave him better access. His tongue ran from my clit to my hole and back again. Pleasure zinged through my body like I’d never felt before.

  The intimacy, the love, the adoration … everything I felt for this man consumed me.

  “I could do this all night,” he said.

  “I’d be tempted to let you, but we need rest.” I panted and rolled my hips.

  He pulled back but was still close enough I could feel his breath on my sensitive skin. “We’ll sleep on the plane.”

  His fingers snaked around the back of my thigh and between my legs, joining his tongue in driving me crazy.

  “Gage.”

  “I need you on my cock,” he rasped. With one hand, he lowered his boxer briefs, freeing his impressive erection. Long, hard, and thick. The perfect trifecta.

  His big palm grazed over the back of my leg and gripped hard to pull me down on top of him and onto his waiting shaft.

  “I want you to fuck me,” he said. “Take what you need from me.” Despite his orders for me to take charge, he was the one who gripped my hips and manoeuvred me to the pace he wanted. “Yeah, just like that.”

  He leant back, taking his hands with him as he put them behind his head and lay down. His hooded eyes raked over me, and I’d never felt sexier. When they flicked up to meet my eyes, a charming half-smile appeared, showing off a dimple. “I love watching you.”

  My face heated.

  “And I love making you blush.” He reached for my cheek and his thumb ran over my skin to my lips. “I need your mouth.”

  When I bent over and brought my lips to his, he bucked his hips. His cock hit that spot inside me. I groaned into his mouth when he did it again. My body quaked.

  “You’re gonna need to come now.” He grunted.

  “Touch me.” I straightened back up again and grabbed his hand, guiding it to my swollen, aching clit.

  “Like this?” He teasingly moved his thumb in small circles.

  “More.” I trembled.

  All it took to fall apart was his thumb pressing down on me.

  “Fuck, Pip.”

  My mouth fused with his as he continued thrusting beneath me. He came with a moan. Sweating, breathing heavy, and one hundred percent spent, I collapsed beside him.

  Gage rolled towards me, his knee going between my legs and arm wrapping around me. Soft lips met mine. “See? No chance of this not working out.”

  14

  - GAGE -

  “Maybe it’s the travelling,” I said as I held Pip’s hair back as she puked in an airport bathroom for the second time in a few weeks. “The baby could be allergic to aeroplanes.”

  “Or maybe it’s morning sickness. Seriously, why do women do this to themselves?”

  I scoffed. “Pretty sure it takes two people to make a baby. Unless my sex ed lessons were all wrong.”

  “Hey, this baby took a sperm donor, an egg donor, a surrogate, and an entire team of doctors. Think that means this baby took, like, a rugby team to make.”

  “Totally sounds like you were banged by a rugby team.” My attempt at making the mood lighter was barely working, but I kept trying. “Can’t say I like that idea, but it could be fun to watch.”

  Pip spluttered and then spat into the toilet. “Could you maybe not make me choke on my own spew?”

&n
bsp; “When did we become the romantic couple? Spew, gangbangs … fun times.”

  She raised her head and glared at me, but I figured joking about the baby was better than grumbling about it.

  “Come on,” I said, “we only have one more leg of our journey left. We can make it.”

  Pip groaned and pulled herself off the floor. “I hate you.”

  “No, you hate Garrett and Blair. It’s their baby who’s making you sick. Not mine.”

  Pip tensed. “You’re getting better at hiding your resentment, but only slightly.”

  “Hey, I’m trying.”

  She wrapped her arms around my waist. “I want you to know that I didn’t do this out of spite. Yeah, I was mad at you, but I was just trying to get my life back together after you left me. It really fucking hurt, and I saw this baby as a way to escape my pain.”

  “How’s that working out for ya?” I gestured around the bathroom and pointed out the fact she’d been sounding like a demon as she hurled up her breakfast.

  “Ironically, doing something selfless to make me feel better is actually kinda selfish on my part.”

  With a sigh, I rubbed her back. “I want this to be the last time we talk about my issues with the baby. I know they’re my issues, and I even know they’re irrational. If anything, it was my fault for not telling you all sooner about my past. If you knew, you would’ve been on a plane with me to go see my dads on that very first day I found out.”

  “So, no more baby issues?”

  “None that you have to be worried about. I’m not going anywhere.”

  ***

  Work was a mess when we got the call from Tony telling us our vacation was over. We’d been home a total of five hours when he claimed mayday. Garrett was still in the States with Blair, I hadn’t seen my office in six months, and Pip was still jetlagged and vomiting.

  Yet the very next day, Pip and I were back in the office, fixing all the mistakes the guys in Sydney made and picking up the slack from being four men down for a week.

  My plan to show Pip how committed I was went out the window, along with sleep, watching TV, and eating proper meals. I told myself it’d only be a few days before we could get on top of things.

  That turned into a week.

  Then two.

  Even when Garrett came home from his honeymoon, we couldn’t catch up.

  Pip and I had decided to be a couple, but we weren’t spending couple time together. We worked side by side as we always did, but there was no romance in working twelve-hour—sometimes fifteen-hour—days. The most we could get was a stolen kiss or a quick side hug. It was if we’d gone back to being friends. Working on different projects, we often finished work at different times, so even though we worked twenty feet from each other, it felt like I hadn’t seen her at all.

  Weekends? We didn’t know what they were.

  We were wiped.

  Which was why my uncle found me practically asleep on my desk. He cleared his throat, and I almost jumped out of my skin.

  “I’m awake. I’m awake.” Holy fuck, I so wasn’t awake. I blinked, trying to clear my vision.

  “Go home. Get some sleep. And then tomorrow, take the day off.”

  “Can’t,” I said through a yawn. “Too much to do.”

  “I know you’re going through a lot right now, so work might be a distraction, but you’ve been in here the last fourteen days straight. Take the day. The work is still going to be there when you come back. We’re slowly getting on top of things.”

  “We said that last week, and then you put in a bid for a new client.”

  “In my defence, I didn’t think he’d take my offer. I way overcharged.”

  I laughed, but even that had no energy behind it. Tony was right that the work had been good at keeping me distracted from thinking about Dad, and the idea of having nothing to do tomorrow scared me, because I’d have nothing else to do but think about Dad. Unless I could somehow score Pip the day off too …

  “Go home, Gage,” Tony said again.

  “Okay.”

  “And take Pip with you.”

  Great minds think alike.

  “That’s the plan,” I said.

  “I was stupid enough to try her first. Should’ve known you’d be the one to cave.”

  “I’m so tired I don’t even have the energy to give you the finger right now, Uncle Tony.”

  “There’s my nephew.”

  I made my tired feet pass the empty assistants’ cubicles and go into Pip’s office. “Home time.”

  She didn’t look away from her computer. “Did you get the proofs done for that cleaning company?”

  Shit. “Uh, I’ll do it on Wednesday.”

  She still didn’t glance my way. “Why not tomorrow?”

  “Tony ordered us both to have a day off. He also told me to come here and drag you home too.”

  “Can’t. Too busy.”

  I laughed. “That’s what I said. Didn’t work.” Approaching her around the back of her desk, I reached for her shoulders and started massaging. “Come on, darlin’. Let’s get out of here.” I leant in and kissed her cheek and lingered longer than a friend would. I was reminding her that we were more than that. Always would be. “I’ve missed you.”

  “You see me every day.”

  “How many times have I kissed you in the last two weeks?” I asked.

  “Countless.”

  “Lies. How many times have I kissed you properly?”

  She let out a loud breath. “Fine. You win.” She lowered her voice. “I’ve missed you too.”

  “Now, shut down your computer. We’re going out for a late dinner.”

  Pip moaned as she stood. It was an exhausted, painful moan, but that didn’t stop my traitorous body from responding. “We should order in.” And then she went and said something like that, where the innuendo was non-existent but I heard it anyway.

  “Our first official date isn’t going to be takeout on your couch. That’s too …”

  “Normal? Excellent-sounding? Gage, I’m wrecked.”

  I pulled her in close and cupped the back of her head as she buried it in my chest. I loved the feel of her against me and her citrusy shampoo scent. Having Pip in my arms was truly the only time I felt content.

  “We’ll have a quick dinner, and then I’m going home with you.”

  “Presumptuous much?” She laughed.

  “We don’t have to do anything, but I want to be next to you. Hold you awhile.”

  “Work is stupid.”

  “Shh, the boss might hear you.”

  “Work is stupid!” she yelled.

  “Heard that,” Tony called back.

  “See, he doesn’t care. He knows I love it here.”

  Tony appeared in Pip’s doorway. “What are you two still doing here? Go before I throw more work at you.”

  “Are you ready for our first date?” I asked her.

  “When you say it like that, I feel like I should be scared.”

  “Come on.” I grabbed her hand and led her to the elevators. Like zombies, we ambled our way to the underground carpark. “We’ll go in my car, and I’ll bring you to work on Wednesday.”

  “Last time you said that—”

  I winced. “Nope. We’re not talking about that tonight. This is you and me doing something we should have done years ago. We’re not Pip and Gage. We’re two people on a first date.”

  “Two exhausted people, wearing the same thing we’ve worn all day at work, trying to hold up adult conversation. It’s a tall order. I like to make an effort on a first date. I probably look like I haven’t slept in weeks, my hair isn’t washed, and I’m pretty sure I spilled coffee on my blouse this morning.”

  “You’re still as gorgeous as ever. Besides, are you forgetting I’ve seen you at your very worst? Remember the stomach bug of 2015?”

  “Nope.” She shook her head. “I blocked those horrible forty-eight hours out.”

  “I recall matted hair, pale skin, vom
it the colour of—”

  She covered her ears. “La, la, la, la, didn’t happen, didn’t happen, didn’t happen.”

  “I took care of you then, and I promise to take care of you forever. We’ve let this drag out for too long. It’s our time, Pip. Nothing—and I mean literally nothing—will make me stop loving you.”

  There was a ghost of a smile on her lips before her mouth closed over mine, and even though I was one hundred percent telling the truth, I couldn’t help thinking she didn’t buy it.

  The scars I carried around from my past had imprinted on her own insecurities. She was waiting for me to bolt, and on some level, I was waiting for her to screw me over. The only thing that kept me from pushing her away was the fact it was Pip. I trusted her more than everyone in my life combined.

  “Are you sure you want to go to dinner?” she murmured against my lips.

  I forced myself to pull back. “Playing dirty isn’t fair. Yes, we’re going to dinner.”

  “Where are we going?” she asked as we got in the car.

  “I’m offended you think I don’t know where you take all your first dates.”

  “Okay, but if this goes bad, who I am I going to call to come save me?”

  “You’re stuck with me.”

  “Wow. Bringing that out on a first date? Dunno if that’s the way to get a second.”

  “I’ll be getting a second. And a third. And a fourth.”

  “Aww, cute, you can count to four without using your fingers.”

  Yes! This was what I needed—a dose of normalcy between us, but now with sex. “Are you this sarcastic to all your dates? Because I think we found a reason you’re still single.”

  “I thought I wasn’t single anymore?”

  Damn right, she wasn’t. “You know what I mean.”

  Instead of pulling up to her usual restaurant, I drove by slowly as if looking for a spot to park but with no intention of taking one.

  “There’s a spot,” Pip said.

  “Yeah, about that. We’re not eating here. I thought about it, because it’s your first-date place, but I’m going to show you that I’m nothing like those dickheads you’ve dated over the years.”

  “I would argue, but unfortunately for me, it’s true. They’re all dickheads.”

  “Have you tried that new place on the corner yet?” I asked.