by Lindsey Hart
“There. Problem solved.”
Trey looked like he really was going to be sick just looking at the tea. He picked up the mug though and downed it like he’d down the mint tea. It really wasn’t fair. He was too good at just opening his throat and pouring it down. He could shotgun a beer like that too, in under a minute.
He thunked the mug down on the table when he was done and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand again. A mouth she tried really hard not to look at because it reminded her of kissing him and thinking about kissing him made her uncomfortably warm and that made her want to do something crazy, like leap across the table and maybe try it again. It didn’t help that he drew the tip of his pink tongue over his bottom lip. His mouth was outright sexual. He stared at her with an if it’s war you want, it’s war you’ll get expression.
“You have to hear me out now,” he said, his voice uncharacteristically soft, not demanding at all. IT was almost more like a question.
She sighed like she was bored. She sipped at her tea like it was the last thing she wanted to do when really, she did want to hear what Trey had to say. She did and she hated that she did, so she kept her careful mask in place.
“I thought you’d wait,” he started, but it didn’t come out as terrible as before. “I thought that you wouldn’t move on with someone else. I knew how focused you were on starting your own business. When you want something, you throw your whole self into it. I didn’t think there’d be room for you for distractions.”
“Glad you clarified.” Unfortunately, even though her words dripped sarcasm, they’d lost most of their heat.
Trey continued on like she hadn’t said anything at all. “I didn’t choose money over you. I know that’s what you think, but you don’t know the half of it.”
“It is what I think because it’s true. You’re now rich. Your dad asked you to break up with me. He gave you an ultimatum. Pick me and kiss your inheritance goodbye or pick the company and him and a really good, cushy, padded life over me. It’s pretty obvious what choice you made. Explaining it five years after the fact is a little late.” Ambi’s foot started vibrating and she pressed down on her thigh to keep her leg from jumping nervously all over the place.
“It wasn’t just about the money.” Trey set his hands on the tabletop. Strong hands. Beautiful hands. With lean, strong fingers.
Ambi couldn’t look at his hands so she looked at hers, pressing down on her thighs, instead. She couldn’t think about what his hands had done to her. How at first, they’d twined through hers and she’d felt a flurry of butterflies just from that brief contact. How they’d rested on the small of her back, brushed her tears away, massaged her temples and her shoulders when she was stressed. How they’d brought her pleasure. So. Much. Pleasure.
“My dad- he…” Trey swiped at his wet hair again. He brushed the back of his hand over his forehead like he was sweating, even though when Ambi looked up, he wasn’t shiny and there wasn’t sweat beaded there. “He used my mom against me. Said she’d always wanted me to take over the family business. Focus on it. Grow it. Advance everything we have now. He said she would have wanted me to focus on that and keep my options open, not tie myself down young and regret it for the rest of my life.”
“Oh really? Tie yourself down and regret it? Give me a break. If your mom really thought that, then it was only because she married an asshole and she regretted the hell out of it.”
“My dad might be an asshole sometimes, but my parents had a happy marriage.”
“Right.” Ambi dropped her eyes at about the same time the bottom of her stomach dropped out. “I’m sorry. That was uncalled for.”
Trey sighed. Hard. “Look, Ambi. I’m sorry too. I loved my mom. You know that. You know that her death when I was sixteen fucked me up. She didn’t get to see me graduate high school. She didn’t get to see me go to college. I knew the company was her and my dad’s life. They built it from scratch. They were happily married. No one expected her to have a fucking brain aneurysm and die. My dad is an asshole partly because he still doesn’t know how to deal with that, even though it’s been a really long fucking time.”
“What did he have against me?” Ambi folded her arms over her chest again. She felt safer that way. “Why did he tell you that you had to pick?”
“He wanted me to be focused. He wanted me to work hard, to earn everything. He wanted me to be hungry and want it. It’s why he paid for me to go into business and nothing else. I could have gone to school for something of my choice, but he wouldn’t have footed the bill. I- he- the company really is his life. It’s all he has left of my mom other than me. In a way, and it might be a fucked-up way, I think he needs to control both because he’s grasping at straws. He didn’t want to lose me. He wanted to see the company go to me and the only way to ensure that was to threaten to disinherit me if I didn’t choose that path.”
“That’s a really shitty way. Almost a sure way to make you hate all of it.”
“Yeah,” Trey agreed readily. “It really was. Is. I hate working there. It took me a few years to finally admit that to myself. If it was up to me, I’d see it go in a different direction completely. This Christmas party was my idea. We’ve never had one. I wanted it to be good as a thank you to everyone who puts in long hours for us. I had to fight my dad tooth and nail to get it to happen.”
“And of course, you chose me. As a big fuck you to him.”
“Actually, I chose you because I thought you’d do a good job and I figured that if I was going to give the money to anyone, it should be you. My dad doesn’t know anything about it. I said I’d take it on. He doesn’t care. He doesn’t want to know.”
“Yes, well, here we are.” Ambi couldn’t keep the bitterness from leaching into her voice. “No matter what reason you did it, you still didn’t stand up to him. You could have proven to him that you could do both. Be with me and be a part of the company.”
Trey laughed, but it wasn’t happy sounding. It was sad and lost and pathetic, and it made her want to look up at him, but she refused. She couldn’t. It would be dangerous. She might crumple under the weight of the pain swimming in his jade eyes.
“That’s the thing. My dad was perfectly right. If I’d have been with you, I wouldn’t have worked for the company. I would not have spent years doing things that made me unhappy. I wouldn’t live in a soulless shell of a house that doesn’t feel like home at all. I wouldn’t go on the road half a year to business meetings I don’t believe in. I wouldn’t have thrown away the last five years of my life. I wouldn’t have a big house or the fancy cars or any of it, because I wouldn’t have tried to make myself feel whole.”
“Please-”
Trey wouldn’t let her interrupt him though. “He saw you as a threat and he was right because you never would have let me do something that made me so unhappy. You would have got me to see reason and then we would have been poor, living together, but we would have been happy. You would have built up your business and I would have done everything I could to support you. We’d be regular people working at regular jobs. The only thing that stayed the same about me was that I never moved on. It was always you, Ambi. Always. That’s why there are all those magazines, billboards and fucking eligible bachelor lists. My father thinks I do it to rub it in his face because he never made marriage a stipulation of my inheritance and now, I’m so invested in the company and I have my own money and my own life. I’m powerful enough now that he can’t threaten me again.”
“So, you took a chance. You found out I was still single. You’re single. You thought that if we reconnected, that there’d still be this fire. That you’d tell me you were sorry and that you made a mistake and we could just pick up where we left off?”
Trey cleared his throat loudly. “Yeah,” he admitted.
Her head cranked up so hard that her neck actually cracked audibly when he didn’t say anything else. “Yeah?” Her mouth dropped. “Yeah? Just like that?”
Trey’s jade green ga
ze held hers. She couldn’t tear her eyes away if she tried. Not that she wanted to. There he was, the Trey she used to know and love, on display in all his beautiful, broken, battle-scarred glory. It hurt. It hurt her in every single place a person could hurt, but still, she couldn’t stop looking at him. He was letting down his guard, letting her peek inside, letting her see how absolutely genuine he was.
“If there’s one thing I learned, it’s that you can’t keep living in the past.” Trey’s voice was hoarse. The shadows shifted in his gaze like clouds peeling away from the sun.
“That’s very inspirational of you.” Ambi laid the sarcasm on thick. “Put that on a billboard.” She stamped her foot since it was vibrating again. She hated nervous ticks. She didn’t want to be nervous. She wanted to be sure of herself. “You’re very full of yourself. None of what you said matters. I don’t need you to apologize. I’m not living in the past. I’ve moved on. I didn’t need someone else to do that with. I did it by myself and I’m happy being single. I like my life. I have my business, my friends, my family. It’s not complicated, and I like it that way. I don’t have any feelings for you, Trey. Not like that. I’m happy with my life how it is and that’s not going to change no matter what you say or how you try and tempt me.”
If there was one thing she should have remembered about Trey, it was that he loved a challenge. He lived for the thrill of it. Which meant that maybe he’d had a game plan all along. Or maybe, people really did fuck up and make shitty mistakes and spend years trying to fix it. Maybe dumping her was his lowest point and he’d spent years building up after that, waiting for the time he could make things right because he knew her. He freaking knew her.
He knew.
Trey shoved his chair back in one fluid motion and stood slowly. His eyes never broke from hers. “Tempt you? I haven’t done anything to tempt you. If you’re so sure, though… I’ll just get my clothes on and leave.”
She was about to mutter something about then not being dry yet, but then Trey lifted his arms and the edges of the quilt that were safely tucked up under them fell away. Right along with the rest of it.
Suddenly Trey didn’t look like the world’s sexiest burrito. Nope. Suddenly he was absolutely. Freaking. Nude.
CHAPTER 11
Trey
Pulling the whole naked thing probably wasn’t fair. Okay, it wasn’t fair, and he knew it, but he was desperate. He could tell that Ambi was sitting there lying through her teeth about that last bit. About not having feelings. About being happy by herself. He could see it in her eyes. The truth. She still wanted him. She still had some kind of feelings for him, even if they weren’t exactly love. The spark of desire was still there.
He had to take the chance. Either he was going to get the cops phoned on his ass or something else would happen. Either way, Ambi would be forced to tip her hand. Either way, she’d be forced to stop lying to herself.
“Argh!” She screamed and slapped her hands over her eyes. “You asshole! Put that quilt back on right now! I’ll get your clothes. They’re not dry, but you can go out and catch your death. Freeze your dick off. I don’t care. It would serve you right.”
Ambi shoved back her chair and took off down the hall. Trey knew he might have made the biggest mistake of his life, pushing her like that, like the worst kind of perverted douchebag. Dropping that quilt was a real dick move, no pun intended. What was he thinking? He might have been desperate but stunning her wasn’t appropriate. Not that her eyes went there. She’d kept them trained, like a true professional, above his waist.
“Ambi wait!” Trey turned, ready to grab up the quilt and chase after her. He was going to apologize to her, get his clothes on, and leave. He’d keep it strictly professional from here on out. He’d even let his secretary, Sarah, deal with Ambi from now on just to assure her that the truce he was going to put out there was real.
He had good intentions. Honestly, he did. And then his foot caught in the puddle of the quilt on the floor and instead of some glorious chance at redemption and a white flag between them, he ended up flat on his face. Literally. His cheek hit the hardwood floor and his teeth cracked together so hard that if his tongue had been between them, he might have bitten it right off.
“Trey? Oh my god, are you okay?”
Ambi was back. God, she was back, and her hand was on his shoulder. Her touch was delicate, light, burning into him.
He groaned, but the groan turned into a chuckle and that turned into a full belly laugh. He knew what he looked like. How absolutely ridiculous he was. To his surprise, Ambi laughed too. She laughed a real laugh, that gorgeous, light, summery, sunny sound that he loved so much. He’d forgotten just how beautiful it was because memory wasn’t adequate to contain something that amazing.
He planted his palms on the floor and shoved himself into a sitting position. Ambi’s hand never left his shoulder. Not until he curled into her. He shouldn’t have done it, but he swiveled and pulled her into him. He gave her a chance to get away. To punch him in the dick or the jaw or the nose. To call him an asshole and hurl other insults that were generally true.
Instead, she set her warm palms on either side of his jaw and melted against him. This time, when their lips met, she was the one who kissed him. It wasn’t just kissing. They were drowning in each other. Trey had a hell of a lot of lost time to make up for. He might be a Turdmaster, but he didn’t kiss like one.
He swept his tongue along Ambi’s lower lip, sucking it into his mouth before he bit down gently. She moaned and writhed against him. Her lips parted and he swept his tongue inside, finding hers and warring with it. He’d never kissed her like that when they were dating. He’d never kissed her with enough determination and desperation to slay an entire army and win the battle. That’s what he was doing. He was fighting for her. Fighting for her silently, since his words had failed. Fighting with all that he had left. Eating her whimpers, stealing her breath, breathing for her, stroking her tongue, nibbling and sucking her lips.
Ambi’s still clothed hips rocked into him and he knew it wasn’t enough. She needed more. They both needed more. Trey thrust his knee between her legs, parting them easily. Ambi mewled and ground down against him. God. He was naked and she was fully clothed and somehow this was just about the hottest thing they’d done. Ever.
While he plundered her mouth, Trey’s hands flew to Ambi’s jeans. He undid the button with ease and slid the zipper down. She didn’t stop him. She didn’t tear her lips from his and tell him that he was the last person on earth she’d do this with, even if they were the last people on earth. She didn’t tell him that she looked like turds, smelled like turds, and tasted like turds.
She kept kissing him, desperately, her hands clawing at his naked shoulders until her nails sunk into the skin and muscle. She bit his lip right after and swiped her tongue over the wound, flooding both their mouths with hot copper. It was like someone had replaced all the blood in his veins with violent lightning.
Trey couldn’t stop. He shifted, lowering Ambi to the floor where he stripped away her jeans and her socks. He left her panties on since he didn’t just want to assume that she was up for this. For all of it. He was, though. Obviously. His cock kicked straight up and throbbed.
Ambi was breathing heavy, her shoulders heaving. She stared at him with wonderment in her eyes. It was a heady feeling, watching her lids lower and seeing her pupils blown with desire. Those passion drenched eyes raked over his body in frank appreciation, which made every single second he’d ever set foot in a gym worth it. They dipped below his waist, and the tempo of her breathing increased before they flew back to his face.
Trey’s hand slid up Ambi’s creamy white thigh, so smooth, like silk, that his fingertips felt rough against her skin. He’d touched her like this before. Years ago. Why did it seem like it was the first time? His cock ached and throbbed. He wanted to take himself in his hand and stroke himself at the same time, but when Ambi’s head lolled back against the floor and her eyes sla
mmed shut, he was done.
She was giving him permission. Silent permission to keep going.
Trey knelt between her gorgeous legs, staring at her yellow cotton panties. There was a dark stain in the center, where her arousal had leaked out, staining them. His mouth flooded with saliva and his hands ached just about as badly as his cock. He remembered how sweet Ambi tasted. He remembered everything about her, but he had to taste her. He had to taste her like it was the first time. He was so desperate to get to her that he had to take a steadying breath just to slow himself the fuck down.
Instead of splitting Ambi’s legs and ripping her panties clean off, Trey forced himself to go slow. To part her legs gently, to trail hot kisses over her delicate satin skin, up her calf, over her knee, up her trembling thighs. He kissed his way to his prize before he hesitated.
Ambi’s hands tangled in his hair, tugging him into her so that his hot, rapid breaths exploded all over her panty covered sex.
“It’s been five years, Trey. What the hell are you waiting for?” Her hips jacked up into his face, a not so subtle suggestion.
He nearly laughed and wept at the same time. He bit the inside of his cheek to keep from doing either. It was a very good possibility that all he was going to be able to do was this since he was two seconds away from coming all over Ambi’s creamy thighs, but yeah. He wasn’t about to tell her that and not just because it wasn’t sexy. It was also too fast. That’s not what she had in mind when she told him to hurry it the hell up.
“I want to take my time with you,” he groaned. “Savor you. Make this special. It’s been a long time, Ambi. Too long.”
“I don’t want you to go slow. Just… just get your mouth on me already.”
It was a good thing Ambi’s eyes were closed because he was grinning like a fool. He ducked his head, running his hand along the seam of her panties, his thumb dancing between cotton and her overheated skin. She whimpered and tried to turn into his touch, tried to position his hand right where she needed it most, but he wasn’t going to give in to her. Yet.