He wanted to do something meaningful. He saw more in investing than just people trying to generate wealth. To him, what he did helped people to achieve their dreams. It created the types of lives they wanted to live, enabling them to build families and leave legacies.
Nick Freeman was nothing short of amazing. And then there was me. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t think of a reason why he would fall in love with a freelance website coder whose track record only showed a truly terrible taste in men.
I woke up with the same thoughts and questions running through my head. Lying on my back and staring up at the ceiling for a while, I waited to see if my mind had come up with any sorts of brilliant insights while I was sleeping. That was something I’d read about one time, that dreams were just your brain’s way of distracting and entertaining you while it dealt with more important things.
I didn’t know how much of that I really believed, but it made sense at least to an extent. If my brain wasn’t having to focus on all those things it had to do all day while I was awake, it had the opportunity to really focus on major things.
It was somewhere in the middle of my second hour of drifting in and out of sleep and avoiding really tapping into my feelings by waxing poetic and philosophical about my brain that I forced myself to face reality. Not just that my stomach was rumbling with hunger and I needed to get up to eat. Or that there was work ahead of me for the day.
As I forced myself up out of bed and went into the kitchen for a cup of decaf coffee, I had to come to terms with the truth that I had definitely reacted to Nick and his revelation in a bad way. Not even just in an ambiguous way. An actually actively bad way.
Part of me was tempted to pick up my phone and call him, but I stopped myself. That wasn’t enough. This was another one of those situations when my mother’s voice showed up in the back of my mind, and I knew she was absolutely correct. If she were here, she would tell me this was a face-to-face situation. Sometimes in life, phone calls just won’t do. Breakups, invitations to special events, bad news, and apparently apologizing for walking out on a man telling me he loved me.
All situations that warranted going to the effort of actually talking to him.
Getting down the coffee, I let out a sigh and went to the bathroom for a shower. Much like my deep thought session in bed that morning, the shower was one of those points in the day when I could do a lot of procrastinating. It was the perfect opportunity to keep avoiding the uncomfortable and potentially disastrous conversation ahead of me.
Just because Nick told me he loved me the day before didn’t mean he was still in a warm-and-fuzzy mood. I knew I wouldn’t be. If I had been the one who had opened up to him the way he opened up to me and he had just gotten up and walked out of the house, I would be furious. That was no reason to believe he wouldn’t feel the same way.
To stop myself from whittling away the rest of the afternoon in the shower, I made the water just too cold so I would get out fast. I got dressed, made myself presentable, and left. My original plan was to head directly to Nick’s office. Then I remembered what Minnie told me about raising her sons.
A brief detour brought me first to the florist to pick up some flowers for Nick, then to my favorite donut shop. That part might have partially been because I was starving.
One of the two bakers who co-owned the shop was behind the display case when I walked in. He stood up, wiping glaze off his fingertips on to a bar towel hanging from his belt loop. He grinned at me.
“Hey, Bryn,” he said. “Need a little afternoon pick-me-up?”
“Yes, but I’m actually going to be getting a box. Probably a dozen,” I said.
“Pregnancy working you hard, isn’t it?” he asked.
“If only that was all I was trying to deal with right now,” I said.
“Well, I just finished up a couple of new batches and stocked the display case. What sounds good to you today? I’ve been working on a few new flavors and just introduced a couple of seasonal options,” he said.
I walked up to the glass display case and leaned over to look at the meticulously arranged rows of pastries. From shimmery pink icing covered with multicolored sprinkles to decadent Boston cream just starting to ooze out of the back of heavily ganache-covered rounds, they all looked delicious.
“Do you have something that says, ‘I’m sorry I rebuked your declaration of love’?” I asked.
Anthony tilted his head to the side and looked up for a few seconds. “Fresh strawberry with cream filling?”
“Okay. How about ‘I think I might feel the same’?”
“Death by chocolate all the way,” he said. “And let’s just throw in a few more flavors to cover any of the other emotions that could come up in that conversation.”
A few minutes later, I parked near the investment firm. Clutching the box of assorted filled and ring donuts in one hand, and the bouquet of daisies in the other, I took a deep breath and walked up to the office.
I didn’t even get the chance to prepare myself or come up with what I was going to say as I walked down the hall to Nick’s office. As I approached the last door to the building, I saw that both he and Peter were standing in the lobby. They looked up at me, and Nick’s eyes went wide.
Bracing myself for however he was going to react to me showing up, I opened the door and walked inside.
38
Nick
Bryn was just full of reactions I wasn’t expecting. After spending the better part of the workday fuming over the way she’d acted the night before and the fact that I hadn’t heard from her, there she was. I would have been pleasantly surprised just to get a phone call from her. At least it would have been a step. This was more than a step. This was a full-blown gesture.
Our eyes met as she walked across the lobby to me. My eyes fell on the flowers she was carrying. Never in my life would I have thought I would be the one getting flowers from somebody. That was my go-to move for apologizing. And I had to admit, it felt pretty good. My mother knew what she was talking about, and she had taught all of her sons well. It was always the way I apologized, and it always would be. It was effective as hell.
In fact, seeing Bryn standing there with flowers, a box from the nearby donut shop, and her belly looking just the teeniest bit soft, twisted me up inside. Every bit of anger I was feeling the night before and leading all the way up until this moment disappeared.
My eyes kept going back to her belly. She was only a couple of months along at this point, so it wasn’t like she was really showing yet. There wasn’t anything round or pronounced about her stomach. But there was definitely a change. It made everything so much more real. She was really having my baby.
“Nick,” she said, taking a step closer. “There’s something I need to say to you.”
“You could have called me,” I said.
She shook her head. “No. After what happened last night, I needed to talk to you in person.”
“Let’s go into my office,” I said.
I started toward the hallway, but Bryn shook her head again. “No. I can say it right here.” She drew in a breath and let it out resolutely. “Nick, I am so sorry for the way I reacted to you last night. I know it wasn’t easy for you to say that to me, and there’s no excuse for me to have walked out the way I did.”
“I understand,” I started, but she held up a hand to stop me.
“Please,” she said. “Just let me get this out. When you said that to me, it totally took me by surprise. That’s actually a massive understatement. I never would have expected for you to feel that way about me. I was so scared when you said it, because I figured you had to be just reacting to the emotions of what was going on or saying what you thought I wanted to hear. I didn’t think it was at all possible that it could be true.”
“Why not?” I asked, surprised to hear her say that.
“Because I’m a mess. I’m a few months out of a shit relationship with a sociopath. I have, up until now, had horrible taste in men,
and I’m a hormonal, emotional wreck. You deserve more.”
It probably wasn’t the appropriate response, but I couldn’t help but laugh at that. It just sounded so ridiculous that she would worry about not being good enough for me.
I stepped up close to her, making sure she was looking directly in my eyes so there would be no question about what I was going to say, or the meaning behind it. “Bryn, I love you. I meant it when I said it last night. And I mean it now. I love you. Wherever you are, that’s where I’m supposed to be, and it’s where I want to be.”
Bryn smiled, tears starting to shimmer in her eyes. Her shoulders relaxed and I realized she was shaking slightly, like she’d been holding tight until she found out what I was going to say.
I looked back at Bryn and saw her glance down, then back up at me, the tip of her tongue touching her bottom lip just slightly. I was about to accept her apology and suggest I take the rest of the day off work so we could go back to my place for some makeup sex when the door opened. Bryn looked over and drew in a sharp breath, her body tensing up.
That reaction told me everything I needed to know. I didn’t even need to look at the door to know it was Justin. Gently resting my hand on Bryn’s arm, I guided her a couple of steps back so that I could put myself between her and him. He wouldn’t get close to her.
The look on the other man’s face was somewhere between smug and angry, like he was furious at her for coming here to see me but feeling pretty self-important and satisfied with himself for being there. It was a message to her. He had clearly followed her here to my office. He wanted her to know she didn’t have the option of not being near him, not paying attention to him.
His goal was to make sure he was always right there, never far away from her. Bryn wasn’t going to have the opportunity to put him behind her and forget their relationship, because he was going to haunt her life and make it miserable. That was his tactic. It was completely clear now. She didn’t think Justin had anything to hold over her so he could blackmail her, but he didn’t need anything. He had himself.
He could follow her, aggravate her, and harass her until she couldn’t take it anymore, then he’d have her right where he wanted her. And her money in his pocket.
That wasn’t going to happen. Not as long as I was anywhere around to stop it.
I crossed the lobby to Justin in two steps, pulled back, and planted a punch directly on his jaw. The impact dropped him to the ground. Bryn gasped, nearly dropped the flowers and box of donuts out of her hands. I turned around and put an arm around her waist, sweeping her up against me and closing my mouth over hers for a deep, hard kiss.
The noise had caught Gabe’s attention, and he came running out of his office into the lobby. I ended the kiss but kept my arm wrapped around her.
“Let’s go. We can put the flowers in water at my place,” I said.
I looked over at Gabe, who had his eyes locked firmly on Justin. Bryn’s ex was still on the ground, grumbling as he started to get to his feet.
“I can handle him,” Gabe said. “You go.”
Keeping myself between Justin and Bryn, I guided her across the lobby toward the door. We hopped in my truck where it was parked right outside and headed back to my place. There was nothing that was going to keep me from Bryn now. I was done playing games. Done pretending I didn’t know what I wanted or that we were just having fun together. She was everything to me. And that everything was so much more than I ever could have imagined existing.
I looked over and saw Bryn sitting in the passenger seat, and I knew I never wanted to be away from her.
39
Bryn
My mouth was on Nick before he even got the door open. As he fumbled with the doorknob, I kissed him with everything in me. The door opened and we tumbled through, our mouths playing across each other hungrily. Our tongues tangled, and his hands roved over my body. I couldn’t touch him in return because of the flowers and donuts still in my hands, but he took care of them as soon as we got inside.
He took the flowers and tossed them to the side table. “We’ll put those in water in a little bit.” He took the donuts from me and tried to put them on the table, but they slid off and landed with the lid partially open. “And that will be a snack later.”
I giggled and threw my arms around his neck for another kiss. We started toward the couch.
I ran my hands down his chest and stopped at his belt. Our lips pressed into one another with the giggling anticipatory rush of adrenaline that only ever happened with him. I was giddy with desire, hopelessly incapable of thinking beyond his body and mine, intertwined right here and right now. There was nothing else that existed. The donuts could wait.
Pulling on the belt, I yanked it to the side to unbuckle it and grasped the leather hard to pull it through the golden loop, releasing it from the hook. Nick’s fingers were pulling my shirt up over my shoulders, and I had to stop momentarily, breaking our embrace, to allow him to pull it all the way off me. As it flew across the room and landed somewhere around the television, I turned my attention back to his pants, pulling at the button and finding the zipper in the crease of my knuckle and thumb. As I pulled down, the promise of his throbbing cock made my core hot and wet, and my lips tingled.
As the pants fell down his legs, pooling at his feet, he wrapped his arms around me and pulled me tight. The thick, round bulge in his boxer-briefs pressed into my stomach, and my mind ran wild with the anticipation of it sliding into me, lighting me up with every inch.
His fingers worked quickly to unhook my bra, and I pulled my shoulders forward to let the straps slip over them. The cool air rushed across my exposed chest as my heavy breasts fell away from the fabric and bounced. I watched his eyes follow the bounce and smiled. I leaned back in his embrace, and he took the invitation to kiss down my neck until his lips reached one nipple, taking it onto his tongue. I gasped as his warm breath closed around the taut, perky, pink nipple, and his tongue swirled around it. Filling his hand with my other breast, he kneaded into me, and his cock twitched at my center.
I reached down and caressed the stiff package with both hands, rubbing along the side as it pressed into my abdomen. The groan that escaped his chest told me he wanted more, and I hooked my fingers into the waistband and began to pull down. Nick released my breast from his lips, and I took the initiative to kneel in front of him. On my knees, I pulled the restrictive boxers down and revealed his cock slowly. When it finally sprung out at me, I smiled up at him as I wrapped one hand around the base.
Opening my lips slowly, I slid my tongue along the head, gathering up the sticky, sweet fluid that gathered there. He shuddered in my grasp and moaned. I loved hearing that sound come from him, knowing that I was the only person who could please him this way. I took him into my lips, my tongue sliding underneath and my hand stroking him until he was brushing against the back of my throat, and he cried out in the agony of pleasure.
Fingers filled themselves with my hair as I began to bob back and forth over his cock, tongue sliding across the veins as I went, moaning deeply so he could feel the vibration of my voice rattle through him. I was so wet, so turned on, that I slid a hand down my own chest, pulling at a nipple before running down my tight stomach to my now damp panties. I slid my fingertips inside, and my body lit up as I touched myself with him inside my mouth. I stayed there, letting the tension build as my finger swirled on the sensitive pearl in my center, Nick slowly taking more control and guiding my motions. I jerked him hard into my lips, my fingers sliding across his wet, pulsing cock.
Suddenly, he pulled me up, and I rose, not knowing what he was guiding me for but ready for anything. He took my hands and guided me to the couch where he sat and then lay back. Pulling my thighs toward him, he directed me silently to straddle his face. As I did, I sat my knees by his shoulders, my breasts brushing against his hardened muscles and my mouth at his cock once more. I took him into my mouth and squealed as his strong, sure fingers pulled my panties to the side
and his tongue pierced me, pushing through the folds and sliding into my pussy.
I tried to concentrate on his thick cock on my tongue, stroking him to bring him pleasure, but his own tongue was writing a poem of ecstasy on my clit, and I closed my eyes, letting his staff rest against my cheek as I held its base. My thighs tightened as I felt the pressure building inside me, threatening to explode and leave me breathless and out of control. I tried to focus on him, stroking him, sucking him, running my tongue along the sides of him and bringing that sound of pleasure back to his chest. But his fingers found my opening, and all was lost. My ability to focus was tossed away as they slid inside me, his tongue dancing across my sensitive pearl, opened and receiving of his attention.
The cry built up slowly, softly in my chest. It was a pleading sound, and it was low and yearning at first. As it grew in volume, it raised in pitch. I clenched my eyes shut as the head of his throbbing cock pressed against my bottom lip. My fingers clenched around the staff as the incredible wave of a powerful orgasm began to crash around me. His fingertips brushed the upper wall in hurried motions, the tip of his tongue toying with my clit as I came, my legs shuddering and my voice crying out in a long, high note. I arched up, sitting and pressing my hands into his chest as I bucked on him. His hands slid around to my ass to hold me in place as his tongue pressed into my center, and I rode the wave until I could breathe again.
When I finally gained a measure of control, I slid down his body, trailing my juices along his chest and stomach as I did, until my center was brushing against his. A playful smack on my ass told me he had as much patience as I did to be inside me, and I grasped his cock and pressed the head against my opening. Sitting back, I slid him inside me in one thrust. I sat there for a moment, the pain of my pussy stretching to accommodate his thickness making me hold my breath while I spiraled through the pleasure of him inside me. His cock brushed across sensitive areas inside me that had never been touched, and my walls molded themselves around him.
Millionaire Hero (Freeman Brothers Book 4) Page 20