Chase Me
Book Four in the Holmes Brothers Series
Farrah Rochon
Contents
Chase Me
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Epilogue
Also by Farrah Rochon
Deliver Me
About the Author
Copyright © 2017 by Farrah Roybiskie
All rights reserved.
Cover by Mae Phillips of CoverFreshDesigns.com
ISBN: 978-1-938125-36-2
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
ISBN: 978-1-938125-36-2
Chase Me
What was she thinking?
The last thing Indina Holmes needs in her life is three days on the open seas with her loving but nosy family. But that’s exactly what she’s in store for her when her brother guilts her into joining the Holmes family reunion cruise. When she needs a cabin mate at the last minute, her only option is the co-worker she’s been sleeping with for the past year. Now, she just has to keep her family from trying to play matchmaker.
What was he thinking?
For the past eight months, Griffin Sims has pretended to be okay with the co-worker-with-benefits arrangement he’s had going with Indina, but he wants more than just her body. He wants a real relationship. Indina’s invitation to join her on a cruise is exactly the opportunity Griffin has been looking for to prove to the woman who has been sharing his bed that it’s time for her to share her heart.
Chapter 1
Squinting against the sun’s vibrant rays peeking annoyingly through the mahogany custom-made blinds, Indina Holmes executed a full body stretch across the silky 1000 thread count sheets. Her previously tense muscles were now loose and languid after the early morning workout she’d just been subjected to in this bed. Thank God for that particular kind of workout. She’d needed it like a man roaming the desert needed water.
It had been dark when she’d arrived nearly an hour ago, but judging by the dawn’s insistent intrusion on her postcoital relaxation, it was past time for her to go.
“I don’t want to,” Indina half groaned, half whined as her eyes focused on the ceiling fan twirling lazily above her.
You can’t stay in this bed all day.
Especially not today, when the culmination of countless meetings, hours of field research, and more time at her design desk than Indina wanted to think about, would finally be put forth before the executive committee responsible for several new federal and state buildings that would be built in the city of New Orleans. Her team’s performance today would determine if they landed a billion-dollar contract.
And just like that, the tension was back. Too bad she didn’t have time to go for another round between the sheets.
Indina sucked in an uneasy breath as she glanced over at the digital clock on the nightstand.
Shit.
If she didn’t get out of here soon she would be late for work. She cursed herself for not bringing her work clothes with her when she left her house earlier this morning.
With one last stretch across the king-size bed, Indina pushed herself up into a sitting position. She could hear the shower’s powerful jets coming from just beyond the bathroom door, and cursed herself again. Five minutes in that shower would get rid of the lingering tension in her muscles, with or without the water.
Tossing her legs over the edge of the bed, she walked over to the sitting area and picked up her bra and panties from the chair where she normally dropped them whenever she was here, which had been more often than usual in the past month. Between work and family, her stress levels were at an all-time high. Thank the ever-loving Lord she had a reliable outlet to expend the nervous energy constantly flowing through her bloodstream these days.
Indina slipped her panties on and threaded her arms through the bra’s straps, clasping it in the back. Just as she reached for the cotton shirtdress she’d thrown on before coming over, her cell phone rang. She walked back over to where she’d left it on the nightstand, and rolled her eyes when she noticed her brother’s name on the screen.
With a sigh, Indina sat on the edge of the bed and swept her thumb across the green button.
“Is there a reason you’re calling me before eight a.m.?” she spoke into the phone.
“Good morning to you too,” her older brother replied.
She ignored the reprimand in his voice.
“What do you need, Harrison? And there had better be a good reason for you calling me at this time of the morning.”
“I need the final head count for the Holmes family reunion cruise. Are you in or are you out? And before you answer that, I want you to think about your newly widowed father and how heartbroken he would be if his only daughter did not participate in this reunion.”
She released a disgusted breath. “I hate you so much.”
“That was very convincing. It’s a good thing I know you don’t mean it.”
“I mean it,” she said.
“Would you just give me the go-ahead to mark you down on the list so I can send the names to the travel agent?” Her brother’s harassed voice made her feel marginally better. But only marginally.
Indina massaged the bridge of her nose. She loved her family, but these days she could only take them in small doses. She visited her dad at least once during the week—even more if she could—and tried to make as many Sunday dinners as possible, but that was only a few hours out of her day, and once her brothers started eating, there was very little talking. Could she survive being stuck on a cruise ship with them for three days without going straight-up insane?
And it wasn’t limited to her pesky brothers this time around. The entire Holmes clan would be there. Her late Uncle Wesley’s three sons, Alexander, Elijah and Tobias, along with their wives and their ever-growing brood of children were all going. And if her boys would be there, Indina knew her Aunt Margo would be there too, along with her husband, Gerald Mitchell.
There would be Holmeses galore. That poor cruise ship had no idea what it was in store for.
“Indina!” Harrison’s voice startled her. “Are you coming on the cruise or not? Wait, let me rephrase that. Are you going to break your father’s heart or not?”
“Stop it with the guilt trip.”
“I’m just saying.”
“I’ve never been on a cruise before,” she pointed out. “What if I get seasick?”
“You can wear one of those patches behind your ear. And if that doesn’t work there’s medicine you can take,” Harrison said. “I’ll tell Eli to bring you some.”
Great. That’s what she got for having a cousin who was a doctor, and who also happened to be married to a doctor.
“You got any more excuses you need me to shoot down before I head to my office?” her brother asked.
“I really do hate you right now,” Indina said. She rubbed her temple as she came to terms with the fact that there was no way out of this. “Fine, I’ll come on the damn cruise.”
“I’d already marked you down as a yes,” Harrison replied. “I just called to make sure you knew that you were going.”
“Asshole,” she said.
“I love you too. By the way, I put you in the cabin with Lily and Jasmine.”
“Lily and Jasmine?” Indina sat up straight. “You do realize I’m forty-two years old, don’t you? Why would I want to room with a couple of teenagers?”
No, make that a teenager and a pre-teen. Her cousin Alex’s daughter, Jasmine, was onl
y twelve.
“Because everyone else is paired up and the cabin rates are based on double occupancy,” he explained. “If I didn’t put you in the girls’ room you’d have to pay an upcharge because you’re a single.”
A single. As if it was some kind of diseased designation she wore on her chest.
“And just why would you think I would be alone?” Indina asked.
“Why wouldn’t I?” The incredulousness in his voice made her want to slap him through the phone. “When was the last time you brought anyone around?”
Indina ignored that question. It had been nearly two years since she’d been in a bring-him-over-to-meet-the-family kind of relationship. That didn’t mean her brother had to throw it in her face. Just for that, she would pluck his insensitive ass right between the eyebrows next time she saw him.
“I won’t have the cabin for myself,” Indina said. “I’m bringing someone.”
“Who?” Harrison asked.
“None of your business.”
“I need the name for the travel agent.”
“I’ll text you the name later. Now leave me alone. I need to get going.”
The shower stopped the minute she disconnected the call. Moments later, the bathroom door opened and Griffin Sims walked out, wiping his face with a plush cranberry-colored towel. There was another towel wrapped around his waist, hanging low on his hips. His chiseled dark brown chest glistened with specks of moisture. Indina tracked a water droplet that traveled down his torso to the smattering of curly hair that trailed from his belly button to below the towel.
She pulled her bottom lip between her teeth and damn near whimpered.
Griffin stopped short when he spotted her.
“You’re still here?”
“I’m sorry,” Indina said, rising from where she’d sat on the edge of his bed. “I got a phone call that I had to take just as I started getting dressed.”
“No need to apologize. It’s just that you’re usually gone by the time I get out of the shower.”
Her eyes roamed over his muscular back and shoulders as he walked over to the dresser. She didn’t know where he found the time to go to the gym, but she appreciated the way he took care of his body.
“Are you still nervous about today?” Griffin asked.
He turned to her, holding the pair of heather gray boxer briefs he’d retrieved from the dresser. He dropped the towel and Indina couldn’t hold back the whimper this time.
She had explored the heavy weight between his legs with her tongue just an hour ago, yet her mouth still watered at the sight of it. She just stood there and marveled at his beauty as he pulled the briefs up his well-toned legs.
“Indina,” Griffin called.
She blinked several times. “Wait. What?”
A knowing grin curled up the side of his mouth. “I asked if you were still nervous about today?”
“A little, but at least I’m no longer tense.”
“Happy I could help with that,” he said. His deep chuckle reverberated along her nerve endings, straight down to that spot between her legs he’d pleasured this morning.
Over the last eight months, she’d relied on Griffin for that particular kind of pleasurable help on a regular basis. They’d met a little over a year ago, when Indina decided to move away from residential interior design and concentrate on the more lucrative industrial sector. She began freelancing with the structural engineering firm where Griffin worked after one of the owners sought her out.
Griffin was the lead engineer on the very first project she worked on with Sykes-Wilcox. The physical attraction had been there from the moment she walked into a conference room and saw him braced over a set of blueprints, his shirtsleeves rolled up on his strong arms. Indina decided not to act on that attraction until several months later, after she learned through the office grapevine that Griffin was divorced and not necessarily looking for a relationship.
She knew all about that. Not the being divorced part, but being burnt out on relationships?
Hell yes, she knew about that.
But there were only so many Top Ten Self-Pleasuring Tips articles a girl could be expected to read. And she’d read them. All of them. She needed the real deal. The way Indina saw it she and Griffin were in the perfect position to provide each other with some much needed sexual relief.
She could still remember how her fingers had trembled as she’d typed the text, asking Griffin if he was up for a little casual, no-strings-attached sex. She wasn’t sure how she would have handled working with him if he had turned down her bold invitation to meet her at the Bourbon Orleans Hotel in the French Quarter.
He’d arrived at the hotel even before she did, and with that one afternoon, they’d embarked upon a coworkers with benefits arrangement that never failed to leave her body satisfied and her mind free of relationship drama.
Her phone beeped. It was a text from Harrison with the travel agent’s name and phone number, and a reminder to send the name of the person who would be sharing her cabin.
Indina looked over at Griffin. He’d just put on a gingham blue dress shirt, but hadn’t bothered to button it up yet. Her mouth watered again at the expanse of exposed skin.
He looked up from the neckties he’d been contemplating.
“Everything okay?” he asked.
Indina nodded and decided not to ask the question that had been on the tip of her tongue. Hadn’t she just acknowledged that what she and Griffin had going was perfect? Why would she jeopardize it by asking him to come with her on this damn cruise?
She slipped her dress over her head, then picked up her wristlet and keys from where she’d dropped them on the dresser.
In a real relationship this is where they would kiss each other goodbye. But this wasn’t a real relationship. It wasn’t how she and Griffin rolled.
And that was just fine with her.
“See you in a few hours,” Indina said, gripping the handle on the bedroom door. “I’ll lock the front door on my way out.”
“As you can see, ladies and gentlemen, our design balances both style and efficiency, all within the small footprint available for the new office complex,” the lead architect, Jason Leblanc, said as he rounded the table. He gestured to Griffin. “Next.”
Griffin pointed the remote at the miniature display model in the center of the conference room table and pressed the button. Images of people sitting in a glass-enclosed lobby projected onto the display’s stark white walls. It had been Indina’s idea to incorporate the projected images into the presentation, giving the officials from the city planning commission, along with the executives from his engineering firm, a virtual tour of the new state office building they were bidding on.
Months of work had gone into this project. If they landed it, it would be the largest contract Sykes-Wilcox Engineering had ever scored. Not only did it include building new government buildings in the city of New Orleans, but because it was in conjunction with the state, there would be projects all over south Louisiana.
Knowing that everything came down to this presentation should have been enough to force him to concentrate on what was being discussed around the table. Yet, Griffin’s mind continued to wander to the woman sitting at the far end of the conference room.
Indina sat with her hands folded on the table, her expression cool and collected. If she was still nervous, she was doing a kickass job hiding it. Not that Griffin expected anything different from her. When it came to her job, Indina’s mantra was never let them see you sweat. She was the consummate professional. It was sexy as hell.
As Jason finished up his portion of the presentation, he said, “I will now turn things over to my colleague, Indina Holmes, who will go into further detail about how we’ve incorporated sustainable environmentally-friendly interior design into the structure.”
As Indina rose from her seat, it took all Griffin had within him to focus on the words she was saying instead of that ridiculously gorgeous mouth. That mouth was more
of a mystery to him than anything else. He’d only kissed it twice, and never for more than a couple of seconds. Yet he’d kissed other parts of her body untold times over the past eight months. In fact, just this morning her soft thighs had cushioned his head as he’d explored between her legs with his tongue.
Shit!
Griffin surreptitiously sucked in a swift breath. How in the hell was he supposed to think about anything else now?
“A key directive we received when we were presented with this project was to go green, and I’m proud to say that, once completed, this entire structure will not only reach current LEED gold-certified standards, but will surpass the code required by the Department of Energy. In fact, it will be one of the greenest buildings in the southeastern quadrant,” Indina said.
She nodded at him and Griffin clicked the remote again, illuminating another room on the 3-D model.
“One of the most ingenious aspects of the design is the on-site fitness center.”
“Wait a minute,” the commission member with the snowy Santa Claus beard interrupted. “An on-site fitness center? That’s a job perk that goes above and beyond what the city can or even should provide, don’t you think?”
“Not when you consider the number of days of lost productivity due to illnesses associated with obesity, diabetes and other diseases,” Indina said. “This on-site gym encourages a healthy lifestyle for government employees.
“But this is so much more than just a fitness center, ladies and gentlemen. The recumbent bikes, treadmills and elliptical machines all feed into the main power system. As employees exercise, they will also help to generate electricity for the building, thus saving the state money in the long run.”
That got everyone’s attention. Several of the people around the table sat up in their chairs and peered closer at the design.
“That’s genius,” the head of the city planning commission said.
“Thank our lead structural engineer. It was his idea.” Indina smiled at Griffin. “It’s all yours.”
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