High Reward

by Brenna Aubrey

  Despite the myriad of hands and overtures for his attention made after he concluded his speech, Ryan retreated not long after. Noah and Tolan were left to field the remaining questions about the change in the mission. Both Noah and Tolan gave Ryan their utmost support, but I only heard a fragment of it as I left. Using my pass to get back into the main building and my best hunch, I found Ryan quickly. He was sitting at his desk in the astronaut office.

  In the dark.

  “Hey,” I said, standing in the open doorway while waiting for my eyes to adjust. “Want company or would you prefer a little alone time?”

  There was a slight shift from his corner and I heard him get up from his chair, maneuver around the tables until stepping into the shaft of light from the doorway. He stopped there and looked at me. “Depends on the company.”

  I smiled and walked toward him. The door slowly slipped shut and by the time I reached him, it was dark again. He pulled me into his arms.

  “Is me, myself and I acceptable company?”

  His arms tightened, pulling me flush against him and he landed a hard kiss on my mouth, opening it in seconds. His tongue entered my mouth, dancing against mine, stoking those familiar, pleasant flames.

  When his head finally came up, he breathed against me. “It’s the best company.”

  My arms slid behind his neck, bringing my mouth to his ear to whisper, “Your speech was amazing. I’m so proud of you.”

  His mouth slid down to my neck, nibbling there. “I meant it, you know. About letting go. About trying to live a happy life.”

  My hands came up to his cheeks, framing his face. “Good. Because that’s what you deserve,” I said as I looked into his eyes. It was hard to read his exact expression in the dark. “You were right to say that’s what he’d want.”

  We kissed again and swayed against each other. “You know that means you’re stuck with me, right? Because I will never be happy without you.” I could hear the grin in his voice.

  “Really. Even though I break all your rules?”

  “Especially because you do.”

  He left my side to move to the door. I heard the bolt snap closed in the lock and he returned to me in moments.

  “Now, I feel like taking some risk.”

  “Right here?” I asked as he lifted me against him and I locked my legs around his waist.

  He walked us over to his desk in the back corner and set me on top of it. I leaned back and rested against my arms and raised my foot to trace his torso feeling simultaneously silly and sexy for posing this way.

  Ryan gently grasped my ankle then quickly slid his hand up my leg to palm my calf. Heat surged everywhere.

  “How glad am I that you wore a skirt today?”

  I smiled as I unbuckled his belt. “I have a feeling you’re about to show me.”

  His hands were on my panties, tugging them insistently. “I have a lot to show you.”

  I belted out laughter in the darkness, laying flat on my back.

  “What’s so funny?”

  “That’s another one of your cheesy one-liners, isn’t it?” I lowered my voice to mimic him. “I have a lot to show you.”

  He freed himself of his boxers and scooted me to the edge of his desk. “You already know by now that it’s not a one-liner, it’s a promise.”

  He moved to stand between my knees, his palm sliding up the back of my neck. Then he laced his fingers into my hair as our mouths reconnected, sucking breath from one another. His palm rubbed over and over my nipple until it ached.

  I was gasping when he pulled away. “The guys could come back at any moment.”

  He slid into me hot and firm, letting out a sigh of pleasure as he did so. “That’s a risk I’m willing to take.”

  Approximately One Year Later…

  I’d always loved Griffith Park Observatory. When I was young, my mom brought me here. She liked her long walks and we had the hills and the huge park behind our neighborhood to wander and explore. The world had seemed so huge to me then. And the observatory had expanded that understanding out into the vast universe.

  It was there that as a child, I’d fallen in love with the stars and dreamt of visiting strange planets. And it was here that, this night, I sat in the audience in the planetarium as the man I loved read an excerpt from his newly-published autobiography and answered questions from the crowd.

  He was stunning in his casual button down shirt, blazer and dress slacks. No flight suit tonight. None of the typical astronaut accoutrements aside from his ever-present gold astronaut badge, which winked under the lights whenever he moved.

  Pari sat on one side of me, Karen and AJ on the other, though we took turns having AJ sit in our lap so he could get a better view of Uncle Ty.

  Hand shot up, people calling out every few minutes as the moderator took new questions. A teenage girl stood up—as unlikely a space fanatic as I must have looked when I was her age, aside from all the nerdy shirts I wore.

  “Commander Ty. I really have to ask. Will there ever be any hope of you getting back together with Keely?”

  My gaze flicked to Karen’s and we shared a laugh. Ryan hid his inner cringe phenomenally well and only those of us who knew him well could have known he was mildly annoyed by the question.

  He moved the mic away from his mouth as he gave a small cough, then answered. “Well, I have a great deal of respect for Keely and we remain good friends. And I hate to disappoint you but there’s been someone else in my life now for some time. She makes me happy and she’s definitely the one. So I think my search is over.”

  My breath sucked out of me like I’d suffered a blow. Certainly, a blow of surprise. The most pleasant surprise I could possibly imagine. Blinking, I tried to absorb his words but there seemed to be this weird sort of static in my ears.

  “Well for the sake of all us girls who’ve been shipping a Tyley reunion, you should definitely put a ring on it.”

  The room erupted in laughter. Ryan shrugged and said. “You know, maybe I should.”

  Karen’s hand immediately landed on top of mine, squeezing it hard. She gave the tiniest little squeal that only I could hear. And from my other side came a knowing nudge in the ribs from Pari.

  “He loves you,” she muttered.

  And all I could do was sit there and feel all these weird sensations rush through me. Which was weird to my logical brain because I already knew he loved me. He had made good on his promise to tell me that almost every single day.

  And it wasn’t just with his words. He’d shown it in actions too. He’d encouraged me to reach out and try to repair the shredded relationship with my father. And after months of cold freeze, I had.

  And even recently, they’d spent an evening in the same room together without a single barbed remark exchanged. Ryan, for as much cause as he’d had to hate Conrad Barrett, had quickly allowed the détente. Because he loved me.

  And I sure loved him.

  Later we stood in little groups while Ryan signed books, sitting beside his assistant and co-author, Lee, and managed by the publicist in charge of the book tour. Hammer, Noah and Kirill soon joined us, all looking handsome and attracting the female gaze wherever they stood.

  Victoria approached with a stack of signed books hooked under her arm. She slid her free one around her girlfriend’s waist. Pari turned to her. “You could not possibly like the book so much that you had to buy five copies.”

  Victoria laughed. “These are going out as gifts to some of my peeps.”

  Pari grinned. “And here I thought you were just sucking up to Ty.” She leaned forward to land a kiss on Victoria’s mouth, but swerved at the last minute and kissed her cheek instead. “You’ve got lipstick on.”

  Kirill held his hands out to AJ who enthusiastically jumped forward for a ride on the cosmonaut’s shoulders. “I should have been up here when Ty was reading his book,” AJ said. “I can see everything from up here.”

  Hammer tugged on his foot playfully. “Ty’s book wasn
’t boring though? Not even a little?”

  AJ shrugged. “He needs more pictures in his book. There aren’t any pictures of me in it.”

  Karen and I looked at each other and smiled. There were, however, lots of pictures of his dad in the photos section.

  Karen and AJ had moved out to California this past summer and were now living near enough to us that we could call them neighbors. This happy circumstance had led to all of us spending time together regularly, and for Ryan to stay close with his “little buddy.”

  The group soon dissipated as we exited the building to wander the grounds while we waited for Ty to finish up. Hammer and Kirill were horsing around with AJ, doing some kind of weird tag game that I didn’t recognize. Pari and Victoria had gone to the car to stash her stack of books. Noah and Karen were walking to the lookout to watch the city lights.

  I waited by the open door, peeking in every so often and more than once snapping photos of him looking all scholarly while he signed books.

  All he needed was a tweed blazer with elbow-patches and he’d have that sexy professor thing going on. Rawr. Until that idea had popped into my head, I’d had no idea whatsoever that I might have such a fantasy.

  The publicist, Lee and Ryan emerged from the building not long after. Ryan’s head swiveled as he scanned his surroundings with purpose. When his eyes landed on me, his smiled widened. He excused himself to his companions and walked quickly to me.

  I tilted my head and gazed at him out of the corner of my eye. “Should I be seen with you? I mean, I heard you have a special someone now.”

  “Come with me, please,” he said, taking hold of my arm and heading out toward the lookout. There were people there, but he steered us to the side where we stood alone. Most of the book event people had left and it was mostly just our friends and family in the area.

  I turned to him, straightening his lapel. “Well, Commander Tyler, you certainly looked handsome tonight. And I have to warn you that I might attack you the minute we’re alone.”

  He dropped his arm from around my waist and looked oddly stiff for a moment, then gazed out at the lights as if trying to make some sort of decision, his brow furrowing.

  I frowned. “Are you okay?”

  He turned back to me and took my hand. “I’m more than okay. I’m in love with an amazing, incredible woman and am feeling a sudden urge to follow a teenager’s advice.”

  I blinked. “What?” You should definitely put a ring on it. Gulping, I opened my mouth to ask more when I noticed that he was taking a knee on the grass in front of me.

  What? Um. Was this real life? Was he playing some kind of joke on me?

  “Her advice was to put a ring on it, but I don’t have a ring to put on it right now. I think I have something almost as good…” He reached up to his lapel and unpinned his astronaut badge, fitting the clasp back on the pin before taking my hand again. He put the badge into my palm, cradling it with his other hand. “Angharad Grace Barrett, will you be my wife?”

  Breathe, Gray. Breathe. In with the good out with the bad…. Click click clickety click.

  My heart raced and he was well aware. I expected to see sardonic amusement at my reaction when I looked in his face. Instead, he looked pale and like he might fall over if I didn’t answer him soon.

  But in order to answer him, I needed to fucking remember how to breathe first.

  My fingers closed around the pin in the palm and I swallowed, finally sucking in some air. “I—I—”

  His brows went up and was now starting to look worried.

  “Yes,” I finally choked out. “Of course.”

  His shoulder slumped in relief.

  “But only if you never call me by those two names again.”

  He laughed and pushed to his feet, standing before me. “Well I’ll have to say them once more at the wedding, but after that, you’re on.”

  He leaned in for a lingering, affectionate kiss that was suddenly disrupted by cheers and applause. We broke away from each other and turned to stare. A group had formed and had been watching us from about fifty feet away. The astronauts, employees from XVenture, including Tolan. Even some stragglers from the book signing and other random visitors to the observatory.

  Karen had her phone up, snapping photos to document this milestone, no doubt.

  As they continued to whistle and applaud, Ryan pulled the pin out of my hand and pinned it to the bodice of my dress. “There,” he said, straightening it. “That looks perfect. Soon to be replaced by a proper engagement ring.”

  I raised my brows at him and put a hand over the pin on my dress. “Hell no. I’m not giving this back.”

  He slipped his arms around my waist and pulled me in for another hug as he laughed at me. Soon AJ had broke with the crowd and came running to us, ignoring his mom’s calls to stand back. He tugged on Ryan’s pant leg and Ryan obediently lifted him up to our level.

  “What just happened, Uncle Ty?”

  Ryan looked at me and smiled. “Gray is going to be your aunt.”

  AJ looked at me as if to confirm and when I nodded and smiled, he held up his fist toward me to exchange one of our customary fist bumps. “I totally knew that was going to happen,” he said with a solemn nod.

  “This calls for a group hug!” Hammer said with a laugh.

  Ryan jerked toward him. “Back off, jackass,” he grunted but they were already on him. The three guys surrounded him and Karen came up beside me and suddenly we all did this weird sort of huddle. Everyone reached for someone else and Ryan and I were buried somewhere in the middle of that tangle of arms and legs, being smooshed even closer together.

  “Group hug!” Everyone shouted and other friends and coworkers came and joined in the fun.

  I reached up, hooking my arms around my future husband’s neck and pulled even closer to him to say loudly into his ear, “Here’s to starting a brand new adventure. Together.”

  Afterword

  Thank you for reading. I hope you enjoyed High Reward. Please consider leaving a review at the site where you purchased it. I welcome all honest reviews.

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  Brenna’s books.

  The Point of No Return series

  High Risk (click to purchase)

  High Reward (this book)

  The Gaming The System series

  Girl Geek (prequel) (click to purchase)

  At Any Price (Adam & Mia part 1) (free download)

  At Any Turn (Adam & Mia part 2) (click to purchase)

  At Any Moment (Adam & Mia part 3) (click to purchase)

  For The Win (Jordan & April) (click to purchase)

  For The One (William & Jenna) (click to purchase)

  Worth Any Cost (Adam & Mia part 4) (click to purchase)

  Acknowledgements

  As always, thanks to my beta readers Kate McKinley and Sabrina Darby. Your long-suffering knows no bounds. Much thanks to Carey Baldwin for her expertise in the medical field and always kind willingness to share. Thank you to authors Lynn Raye Harris, Viv Arend, Natasha Boyd, Anna Zaires, and Cassia Leo for your enthusiastic and very vocal support of High Risk.

  HUGE SHOUT OUT to everyone who reads, supports, shares and blogs about my books. I couldn’t do this without you. If you liked the book the kindest things you can do are to review it and tell your friends.

  Th
anks to Sarah Hansen for the cover design and to Julianne Burke for the gorgeous promotional graphics.

  Love my family. I’m so grateful for all their support. When I’m having emotional breakdowns while trying to puzzle out stories inside my head and sort out random imaginary people, you love me even though you don’t understand. To my husband and our kids: You are my world I love you more than words can express. Always.

  Copyright

  Copyright ©2018 by Brenna Aubrey

  All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Trademarked names appear throughout this book. Rather than use a trademark symbol with every occurrence of a trademarked name, names are used in an editorial fashion, with no intention of infringement of the respective owner’s trademark.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

  Cover Art: ©Sarah Hansen, Okay Creations

  20181201

  ISBN 978-1-940951-62-1

  Silver Griffon Associates

  P.O. Box 7383

  Orange, CA 92863

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