“Please, always be honest with me, baby.” His lips touched mine again. Then he pulled them away, looking at me.
“I think it’s sweet that you feel that way, and frankly, it surprises me. You’re quite the romantic now, August. I like that.”
He moved me off his lap, fixing my dress as I ran my hands through his hair, putting it back in the style he’d had it in, slicked to one side, looking handsome as hell. The way he kept his beard meticulously groomed pleased me to no end, too.
My pussy still tingled from the way he had pleasured me. I figured it might tingle all night long. It would’ve been great to have August in my bed that night; there could be no denying that. But somehow, waiting made more sense this time.
Before there had been no chance of a relationship between us, and now there was. Rushing things wasn’t necessary. But I wanted some things to be rushed. I wanted to feel that powerful man between my legs.
August had been a young man when we’d first had sex. His body had been great back then. Now, he was all grown up, and his body was ripped beyond my wildest imagination: his thighs, thick as tree trunks; his biceps larger than before—and they’d been big before.
I’d matured, too. My breasts and hips had become round with my pregnancy, and they never went back to their previous state. My body wanted to know what his body felt like. But I’d let August take the lead. I’d let him go as slow as he wanted to.
Pleasing him made me happy—happier than I’d been in a long time.
August Harlow was back in my life, and my goal was to keep him there.
Chapter 9
August
The date had gone even better than I’d imagined—and I’d had high hopes to begin with—although it’d been hard as hell not to have sex with Tawny. But I wanted things to progress nice and slow. Sex right off the bat would feel too similar to the first time—like we were rushing out of desperation. I wanted things to be different this time around.
Sitting at home, I wasn’t doing a thing but looking out my bedroom window. The wildfires that burned around Southern California were always a concern to me. Thankfully, there was no threat to Hidden Hills, and the smoke steered clear of us.
My thoughts went to Tawny and Calum. The garage apartment she rented was in West Hollywood. She’d told me that a woman who worked in the human resources department at Cedars owned the home there. She’d offered Tawny the small two-bedroom, one bath for the low rate of fifteen hundred a month, and that included the utility bills, too. In West Hollywood, rent that low was unheard of. That told me Tawny was in high demand.
I had no right to feel pride in her accomplishments, but I did just the same. Tawny had made something of herself, despite having Calum at the young age of nineteen.
Thinking about Calum made me remember the ride from Leila’s to their place the night before. He’d been very talkative, chattering away about how much fun he’d had that night.
“I had so much fun, Momma,” he’d said as soon as he climbed into the car. “Aunt Leila is the funnest person ever!”
My sister could be pretty fun. Especially with little kids. She’d play chase with them, hide and seek—you name it, she’d play it.
“Tell me what you guys did, Calum,” Tawny told him, her face glowing with delight that he’d had such a good time.
“I played a game called hopscotch. It was real fun. And um, his name’s, um…”
“Gino,” I offered. Leila had a lot of kids; chances are Calum couldn’t remember every one of their names.
“No, not that man.” Calum tapped his finger to his chin as he thought.
The fact that he’d called Gino, a sixteen-year-old, a man had me laughing. “Raphael or Jacob,” I added to the list he could choose from.
“Yes!” he shouted as if he’d made a wonderful discovery. “Jacob! He taught me how to play that game. Then we went inside when it got dark, and I played checkers with Aunt Leila.” His hazel eyes went huge as he gasped. “And I won!”
“Great job, Calum,” Tawny congratulated him with a high five.
“I know, I’m very good at that game.” His grin made me chuckle again. He was adorable.
The way Calum had gone on and on reminded me of my nieces and nephews when they were little kids. They all had endless amounts of things to say.
An idea crept into my head. If Tawny had let me be around him last night, letting him know we’d gone out on a date, would she let him come along on a date?
I’d sent her flowers that morning, having them delivered along with a box of candy and a stuffed tiger for Calum. She’d yet to call or text me that she’d gotten them. I was sure she’d do that once she received them.
When she contacted me, I wanted to ask her out again and include Calum if she’d let me. The boy interested me—I couldn’t shake the feeling that he might be mine. I did know for certain that I wanted to spend more time with him, to try and find out—regardless of how long this thing between Tawny and I lasted.
If Calum was mine, why hadn’t Tawny told me as much? Why would she keep that a secret from me?
I shook my head. She’d never do that. He had to be some other man’s. Tawny would’ve told me by now if he was mine.
Wouldn’t she have?
More than once she’d said that I didn’t owe her anything. Tawny acted as if my being in the marines was all I ever needed to do for her. Like that act alone was enough to give me a free pass for anything.
I didn’t want her to sell herself short or, God forbid, a child that might be mine, just because I’d served our country for a while. Would she do that to her own son? Would she deny him his father only to keep that burden off my shoulders? And had my telling her that I had PTSD affected things?
Maybe she’d been planning to tell me about Calum, but then I’d told her about my condition, and she decided not to. Maybe she felt she needed to protect the boy from me. At least for a while, until she could see how my episodes went.
There were so many questions I wanted to ask her, but I didn’t know how to do so without being presumptuous. This thing between us was so new still, and I didn’t want to scare her off by prying or asking too much of her before she was ready to share. In my experience, women didn’t like it when men asked too many questions about the men they’d been with in the past, at least not so early on.
My phone dinged, telling me a text had come in. Tawny had gotten the flowers and wanted to know if I was too busy for her to call me. I called her right away, and her sweet voice answered, “Hello, August. What a sweet thing to do. The flowers are gorgeous. Peonies are my favorite. And the chocolates are to die for. Calum will love the stuffed tiger, too. Thank you so much.”
“It was nothing. I just wanted you to know that I had a good time.” I drummed my fingers on the dresser as I leaned against it, still looking out the window. “How’s West Hollywood looking today? Fires smoking you guys out yet?”
“No, it’s clear today. There’s a little breeze—I suppose it’s keeping the smoke away for now anyway.” I heard her walking around, her shoes clicking as she did.
The way I missed her didn’t make sense to me. She and I didn’t know each other well at all. I had no idea what kinds of things she liked or disliked, no idea what her favorite color was or what food she liked the best. “Wanna get some lunch?”
“I’d love to, but I’ve got to go to the hospital to fill out insurance papers today. They called me a little while ago and asked me to stop by around one.”
The real question I wanted to ask her kind of hung in my throat. But then I went for it. “What do you think about taking a trip to the San Diego Zoo tomorrow, since it’s Saturday and Calum won’t have school?”
“He’d love that!” she sounded excited.
But all I could think about was that she’d said she didn’t take him around men. So why was it okay for him to be around me?
“You sure about that, Tawny? I know he was with us last night for a little, but I don’t want you
to change all your rules if you don’t want to.” I crossed my bedroom to take a seat on the bed. Running my hand over the chocolate brown comforter, I made a mental note to get my housekeeper to put the emerald green one on. Tawny’s auburn hair would look fantastic splayed out against it. And I did mean to get the woman into my bed in the near future. I just wanted to lay the groundwork first.
“Well, you’re different,” she said, making me think she might be on the verge of a confession.
“How’s that?” I asked as I leaned back on the pillows, wondering how I’d respond if she told me I was his father. It was one thing to speculate about it, but the reality would be much different.
“Well, he likes you. And he adores your sister. All the way to school today he talked about her and her kids. He can hardly remember their names, but he definitely knows your name and your sister’s.”
“I’d like to get to know him, if that’s okay with you, baby. I want to get to know you, too. I mean, I know the basics, and I know the intimates, but the real you—well, I don’t know that woman yet. I’d like to get to that if that’s okay with you.” The soft blanket brought to mind how soft her hair was when I ran my hands through it.
“Let’s see…my favorite color is red like my hair. I know that sounds like I’m a little too into my own looks, but I just love the color. I’d wear it every day if I could, but it has to be the right shade to look good on me or else it clashes. I don’t even decorate with that color. I have to simply be satisfied to like it, but not use too much of it.”
“Mine’s green. Like the color or your eyes.” I closed mine to picture her eyes, how they’d shine for no reason at all. She was just that happy person who always had a sparkle in her eye—the kind of person that people liked to be around.
“Hmm, really? Or is that a line?” she asked with a knowing tone in her voice.
“No, it’s not a line. Green really is my favorite color. And I love Mexican food, how about you?” Taking about these small things was so much easier over the phone—when she was around all I wanted to do was kiss her and touch her. It’d take forever for us to get to these details about each other if we were face-to-face.
“Chinese is my favorite, but I like Mexican. But only authentic Mexican, not like Taco Hell,” she laughed lightly, and the sound captivated me.
“What made you become a nurse, Tawny?” I asked, as that seemed like a thing a boyfriend should know about his girlfriend.
Hold up! You’ve got to take things slow.
Between this thing with Tawny and me and my compulsive desire to spend more time with Calum, I knew I was getting wrapped up in this woman too quickly. Despite that, I knew one thing for sure—my therapist was right about me needing to take things slowly.
“I became a nurse after having my son. And I wanted to specialize in pediatrics. You see, Calum was born with a small hernia. It had to be operated on right away, it was that bad. The nurses helped me when I started crying and freaking out that my newborn had to go straight into surgery.”
My heart sped up. “God, Tawny. Were your parents there?” I felt terrible for her.
“No, they’d gone out of town. Calum came two weeks early. It wasn’t anyone’s fault that I had to go through that alone. It’s just the way it happened. Anyway, the nurses stepped up and helped me through everything. I had to stay a week in the hospital, and they taught me how to take care of Calum. So, it was a godsend that my parents weren’t around, because Calum and I bonded right away, thanks to the nurses who helped me.” Though the story was a sad and scary one, Tawny told it with an upbeat attitude.
The girl was amazing.
Despite her perseverance and easy reflection, I felt like a complete dick while listening to her story. Because I knew one person whose fault it was that she’d had to go through all that alone—the father’s.
Whoever that might be.
Chapter 10
Tawny
The sun warmed the cool early December air as we strolled through the zoo. Well, August and I strolled while Calum mostly ran, beating us to each exhibit.
Calum was about to careen around a corner out of our line of sight. August quickly called out, “Hey, buddy, stay where we can see ya’.”
To my surprise, Calum slammed on the brakes. “Yes, sir.” He was all smiles as he waited for us to catch up before turning the corner.
“Wow. If I’d said that, he’d have ignored me, and I’d be running after him.” I looped my arm through his, leaning my head on his shoulder. “And I’ve never heard him say ‘yes, sir,’ to anyone before.”
“He asked me a question earlier, and I said ‘yes, sir’ to him. I guess he picked it up.” August kissed the top of my head. “I can be a good influence when I try hard enough.”
“I like it when you’re a bad influence, too. Only on me, though.” August had been a perfect gentleman with me since the moment he’d picked us up. He drove himself in a new Mercedes, saying we might just stay the night in San Diego if it got too late.
I’d been about to run back inside to pack us an overnight bag just in case when he told me not to bother. He’d casually said that if we did end up staying, he’d buy us whatever we’d need—as if that was normal.
I hadn’t mustered up the courage to ask him just how much he was worth. I knew it had to be a lot. I didn’t know how he made his money either. There shouldn’t be anything wrong with wanting to know what he did to make a living. “Would it be rude of me to ask you what it is you do to earn this vast amount of money you seem to have, August?”
He stopped walking, looking into my eyes. “Can I tell you about that another time, Tawny? I will tell you, but now’s not a good time to do that.”
Clueless as to why he couldn’t talk about it at that moment, I wondered what the hell he did for a living that made him say such a thing. Was he a spy? Did he work for the CIA or the FBI? Did those people make as much money as it seemed he had? “’Kay.” My eyes turned away from his as my mind went crazy with all the questions.
August pointed out ahead of us, directing Calum’s attention to something he was sure to love. “Is that an arcade, Calum?”
My son shot toward the open area, which was covered by a red and white circus-like tent. “Oh, yeah!”
“He’s going to beggar us in there, August,” I warned him. “And getting him out of there won’t be easy either.”
“I can take it,” he said with a chuckle.
But as we entered the area, with games making loud sounds everywhere—including the sounds of gunfire and explosions—I grew worried. “August, are you sure you’re okay with this?”
He knew I referred to his PTSD and nodded. “It’s okay. I’ve conquered the loud noises triggering an episode.”
So, if those no longer set him off, what did?
Standing back, I watched as August and Calum climbed onto a couple of motorcycles to have a virtual race, August obviously letting Calum win. “Aw, man. You beat me,” August whined to Calum. Then he pointed to some fishing game across the room. “Hey, wanna see who can catch the biggest fish, Calum?”
“Yes, sir!” Calum was off the bike, running top speed, or as fast as one little boy can go through a crowd of kids. And August was hot on his heels, having just as much fun as my little boy.
As I watched them go from one game to another, my heart pounded in my chest. August and his sister were great with Calum. Maybe it was time I was more honest with all three of them.
Maybe I would be, but not at this moment. This wasn’t the time or the place, but soon. Maybe even later, after we left the zoo.
My mind grew more and more determined as the day went on. When August grabbed Calum up, putting him on his shoulders so he could see an elusive bear who’d hidden itself in its cave, I nearly cried.
They’d barely known each other from Adam when the day started, having only spent a spot of time together in the car on the way home the other night. But there they were, acting as if they’d always known one
another.
When we went to find something to eat, both of them ordered a cheeseburger, plain and dry with a side of onion rings and an orange soda. The way they laughed after saying the same thing had me tearing up.
“Jinx, you owe me a Coke,” August said after they’d said the same words at the same time.
“What does that mean?” Calum asked him with a crooked smile.
August wore a very similar smile as he explained the little saying, and then they both laughed. The sounds of August’s deep tones mixed with the high tones of my son sent chills through me.
The day hadn’t gotten away from us, and we left with plenty of time to get back home to Los Angeles. The car ride was quiet as Calum had fallen asleep, completely worn out.
August took hold of my hand, pulling it up to kiss as he drove along the highway. “Thanks for today. I’ve never had that much fun in my entire life.”
Raising one eyebrow, I gave him a questioning look. “Oh, really?”
“I mean, in that kind of way. Of course, I’ve had a few great times with you, baby.” He took my hand, resting it on top of his thigh.
“Thanks,” I said with sarcasm. “And thank you for taking us on this little outing. It did wonders for me as well,” I told him, referring in secret to my new thoughts on what I should do. I thought about when the time would be right for what I’d planned. “You should stay for dinner at my place tonight. I can whip up some pasta.”
“Or you two could come to my place, and I could have Tara whip us up something,” he said as his lips grazed the back of my hand, sending chills all through me.
His place?
It was very tempting to be able to see how the man lived—to learn that much more about him. “And Tara is your…”
“Chef.” He smiled at me with that crooked grin. “And Denise is the head housekeeper. Max is my driver, and Joel is the groundskeeper. There are a couple of younger girls who come in with Denise twice a week to do the deep cleaning. To be honest, I don’t know their names.”
Nightclub Sins: A Billionaire Romance Series Page 36
