1. take her to the beach
2. take her to my favorite restaurant
3. take her to night clubs
4. take her to amusement parks
5. show her my life at the hotel and my apartment.
She reads the list over and then starts typing, handing it back to me with a mischievous grin.
6. Sleep with Abby in my arms at night
“I like that one. Can we do that tonight and every night?” I ask her, a hint of excitement in my voice.
“How about tonight?” Abby whispers in my ear before we hear someone clearing their throat behind us.
ABBY
“Max! Are we ready?”
“Yes. I don’t like you sitting on some guy’s lap kissing him.” He mumbles the last part.
“I don’t think he likes me now.” Cash tells me in a low voice, kissing my neck. We start to stand up, and I kiss him one more time.
“He doesn’t like to see any man groping his sister. He still thinks I’m a virgin.”
“It’s a very good thing that he can’t read my mind.” Cash growls.
I smack his hand away from my ass before Max can see it. This is going to be quite interesting with Max and Cash around. He slaps my ass, and I squeal, calling over my shoulder that I’ll see him later. I run outside to meet up with the others.
“I don’t like seeing him with his hands all over you,” Max says as I got into the front seat with him. I roll my eyes as he puts the car in drive. Finally, we’re off to the beach. Excitement fills me, and I’m not sure if it’s because I’m finally going to dip my toes in the ocean, or because things with Cash are perfect beyond my wildest dreams.
“Can you do me a favor?” Max asks, giving me a sideways look. “Don’t let me see you two like that, okay? I can’t take it.”
“Why can’t you take it? I’ve had to live with seeing you with girl after girl.”
“That’s different, squirt, I’m the older brother,” he argues.
“You’re impossible. I don’t understand why you’re behaving like this.” All of a sudden the car comes to a stop. “Why are we stopping?” I’m growing more annoyed with him by the second.
“We’re here.” He starts to get out of the car, and I turn to look and see the beach. I get out and help unload the cooler and chairs that we brought. I’m quite surprised that the beach isn’t too packed. With it being Christmas Day, it seems we have the whole beach to ourselves.
“Abby, you need to take your shoes off now,” Sarah calls out as she takes off her sandals. I follow suit and take off my shirt as well since I’m wearing my bathing suit. I throw down my sandals and run to the beach. Aaron is standing there with his camera ready to snap pictures of me stepping foot on the beach. My feet touch the sand and its heaven. The sand feels weird at first, hot and then cold. I wiggle my toes, delighting in watching the tiny grains rush to engulf my feet, burying them. “Come on, let’s set up over here,” Rob calls over to us as he’s setting up the chairs. I join him and begin spreading out towels and dragging the coolers under the big umbrella we brought.
“I love the beach. I may never want to leave here.” I say with excitement as I lay in the sand. Aaron and Rob start laughing too.
“She says that now, but wait until she has sand in her ass crack.” Rob teases, winking at me.
“I don’t care about that. I’m enjoying my Christmas Day and you can’t stop me from doing it.” I reply as he snaps a picture with my phone.
“Sent. Loverboy should be enjoying this photo of you.”
“Rob! What did you do?” I snatch the phone from him.
“I sent Cash a picture of you.”
My phone immediately starts to ring. “Are you making sand angels?”
“Yes. I wanted to feel the sand all over me.”
“I wish I was the sand.”
“You will have tonight.” I whisper so Max doesn’t hear.
“Max near you?”
“He told me that he doesn’t like your hands all over me. “
“I figured that, and I’m sure I’m going to get the talk from him about my intentions with his sister.” He puts me on hold because someone is at the front desk. I tilt my head to hold my phone as I shimmied out of my jean shorts. “Sorry about that. Damn customers and their questions, where were we?”
“You telling me your intentions.”
“My intentions are to get you naked, hear you scream my name in pleasure, and explore every inch of your body.” Desire makes his voice thick as he explains what he wants to do. His words make me want to be with him at that moment. I can feel myself getting wet; a burn starts low in my belly spreading down lower and causing my pussy to ache. I need to feel him. Soon. I moan into the phone. “You can’t talk like this right now. Can we continue this conversation later?”
“Yeah, good idea. My jeans are getting too damn tight,” he complains as I hear him rustling papers. “I better go. Enjoy your day and just know that I can’t wait to spend some time together tonight. Have fun, baby.”
“Bye, Cash.” We hang up the phone, and I put it in my chair. I don’t like the look I’m getting from Max, who apparently overheard more of my conversation than I thought.
“I can’t handle this. This was a mistake coming here.” Max says as he starts to gather up our stuff. I walk over to him and take the chairs and towels from him.
“Stop acting like this. I’m twenty -five fucking years old. I can kiss a man, and if I want to talk to him about the things we want to do to each other, then I’ll do that. You’re not my father. You’re my brother.” My hands are twisting my beach towel into knots as I fire back at Max. I can feel everyone’s eyes on me, but I don’t care. This needed to be said; it’s time I start to stand up for myself.
“I’m your brother. I’m going to do what I can to protect you. Listening to some guy talk to you about sex is not something I want to hear. I don’t like this at all, Abby.”
“You don’t have to like it. But you will stay out of it and let me enjoy this. I’m just asking you to trust me.”
“I’ll try, but if it gets to be too bad, then we’re out of here.” Max is acting all caveman, and it’s pissing me off.
“Seriously? Are fucking kidding me?” My temper flares at his attitude. “Fine, pack up and leave now. I’ll fly home by myself.” I kick up sand at him as I stomp towards the ocean. I’m not going to let him ruin this for me. I wade out into the ocean. I’ve been waiting a year and a half to meet Cash, and now that it’s happened, he wants to tell me how I should act around him. I’m so sick of everyone in my life trying to control me. The waves are starting to pick up, and I dive into them. Gliding through the water is such a freeing feeling. I love the waves were crashing into me as if they are helping me forget about the fight I just had with Max. I basked in the water, the coolness. I don’t know how long I stayed in the ocean for, but after a while, my arms and legs start to get tired. I decide to go back and talk to Max now that I’ve calmed down a bit. When I get back to our spot, Max and Sarah aren’t there.
“Where did they go?” I ask Rob as I dry myself off.
“Max got pissed off and ranted about you acting like a child. He took off down the beach, and Sarah followed him.”
“I shouldn’t have acted the way I did. He just makes me so angry,” I admit.
“You had every right to say what you did. All of us need to stop babying you. We love you and don’t like to think of you as a grown woman that can take care of herself.” Rob lets me off the hook.
“I love you guys too, but this is the first guy that I like, and I want to see how it goes. I need to make mistakes and learn from them.”
“I agree with her. If we don’t make mistakes in our life, how do we learn? How do we grow up?” Aaron asks.
“I’m afraid, but I’m ready to take the risk. I want to believe in love; I want to have the chance to live my life.” I sniffle as the tears slide down my cheeks. “I just want to be happy. I want to fall i
n love, get married, and share my life with someone. Is that too much to ask for?”
“No, it isn’t too much. I love you, squirt.” Max is standing behind me.
“I’m sorry.” Max and I speak at the same time. I jump up and hug him. I hate fighting with him. He’s always had my back, and I’d never doubted his love for me. If I lost Max, I’d be devastated.
After that conversation, we decide to have some real fun at the beach together. We’re taking silly pictures, swimming and talking about what we’re going to plan.
“I’m starving all this arguing, and swimming has made me hungry,” I announce as I flop down into my chair.
“Since we only have a couple of hours left before Christmas dinner, I just made sandwiches and brought chips. I figured that we wouldn’t want to get a big lunch before dinner.” Sarah is pulling out the cooler and handing us lunch. I take in the scenery as we eat, my heart races and my palms sweat as I see beautiful women in barely their bikinis running around. How can I compete with this? What is Cash doing with me? I start to frown when my cell phone chimes taking me away from my thoughts.
Cash: You’re five minutes from me, and I can’t be there.
Ten minutes later, another message comes in.
Cash: I’m done with work, want me to meet up with you guys?
“Cash is done work and wants to know if he can meet up with us.” I look at Max, hoping he doesn’t cause a problem.
“I’m okay with it,” Max says after Sarah elbows him in the ribs. I text him back with yes.
CASH
I head up to my room to change, so I can meet up with Abby. I grab my phone and key card before going back down to the lobby. Getting off the elevator, I hear someone call my name. “Uncle Cash!” I look up from my phone and see Leah standing at the front desk. She looks beautiful in her Christmas dress.
“Hey, beautiful. Merry Christmas, sweetheart. Where’s your mom?”
“She had to run to her office to grab something for the dinner.”
“Oh well, you have a great dinner with your family, and I’ll see you later.” I give her kiss on top of her head and start to walk out the door.
“Wait, you aren’t coming to eat with us?”
“No, I’m eating with friends later on. In fact, I’m headed out to meet them now.”
“What friends?” Sally appears from thin air, and I groan inwardly.
“Just some friends who checked into the hotel. They’re at the beach.”
“Who? I didn’t know you had friends checking in.” Sally moves to stand in front of me. “Who are you hanging out with?”
“Sally, I don’t have to tell you who I’m spending time with.”
“I’m your older sister, and allowed to know what’s going on with you.”
“No, you don’t have to know.”
“Tell her who it is Cash.” Joan has joined us and is encouraging me to come clean with Sally.
“Joan, we had this discussion earlier.”
“She needs to know.” I sigh and look at my watch. I need to text Abby to let her know that I’m going to be late.
Me: Hey got caught up with a family thing, running slightly late.
Abby: Please hurry, I miss you.
Me: I miss you too, baby.
I smile as I put my phone away. “It’s a girl.” Leah chimes in when she sees my expression.
“What? No.”
“You’re lying. It’s a girl. So tell me, who she is?” Leah is hopping from foot to foot in excitement.
“Leah, honey this conversation is between your mom and uncle. Why don’t we head to the table and pick on your Uncle, Mark?” Leah agrees and hugs me before leaving. “I’ll be right there,” Sally says to Leah. “Now take Joan’s advice, and tell me what’s going on.”
“First of all, I’m only telling you so I can get it out and not have it weighing on me. Second of all, once you have the names of these friends, you will not cause them grief or butt into anything we’re doing.”
“You don’t need talk to me like a child,” Sally snaps at me.
“When you stop treating me like one, I’ll stop talking to you like one.”
“Joan, are you going to let him talk to me like this?” Sally brings Joan into the argument. I don’t like it, but she knows about Abby and supports me.
“Cash, tell your sister so you can get on with your plans.”
“Plans that don’t even involve family I might add.” Sally is getting pissed off.
“Abby.” I let her name roll off my tongue. I’m so pussy whipped, and I haven’t even been inside her yet. I know once that happens, I’m a goner.
“Abby is in town? Did she track you down? I knew it. I knew she was coming after your money.”
“I give up. You see everyone as someone after my money. Guess what, if I lose all my money, you’re not affected by it so stop worrying about it.” My voice raises as I get angry.
“But, Cash,” Sally starts to protest, but Joan cuts her off.
“Sally let him be. He needs to live his life.” She says ‘own’ louder to make a point. I kiss Joan on the cheek and walk out. I can hear them arguing, but I don’t turn back. I’d love to be a fly on that wall for that scene, but I need to get to Abby. I pull my car into the parking spot next to their SUV. I take off my shoes and jog towards to Abby. I see Sarah elbow her; she’s sitting there talking to Max. Abby’s eyes meet mine and light up. She stands and runs over to me, I pull her into my arms and kiss her. “I missed you. I love that I can touch you and kiss you.”
“Everything okay?” she inquires.
“Sally’s being her controlling self. I had to tell her you were in town. I’m sorry. She’s going to try to meet you and make our lives hell while you’re here.”
“She doesn’t like me? She doesn’t even know me.”
“Sally thinks every female that looks my way or talks to me is after my bank account.”
Abby giggles. “She thinks that of me? I have my money and don’t need yours.”
“I tried to tell her that even if you took all of my money and left me penniless, it didn’t affect her. She just needs to live her life and stop butting into mine.”
“I’m sorry, babe.” She kisses my cheek and puts her head on my shoulder. I move my arm so she can move closer and cuddle with me. She fits perfectly with me. They are such a close -knit group, and I’m lucky that they let me be a part of it. My phone rings and Shawn’s name pops up on the call display.
“Excuse me, I need to take this.” I stand and walk a few feet away. “What’s up, asshat?”
“Where the hell are you?”
“I’m out with Abby, what’s going on?”
“Sally fired my mom after they got into an argument. You need to get back here and fix this,” he orders and slams the phone down.
“I’m sorry, but I have to go. Apparently Sally decided to fire our head chef today. Text me when you get back to the hotel or I’ll just see you at the Christmas dinner.” I kiss Abby goodbye. I look back, and her eyes are filled with sadness, ripping my heart out. My sister is dead meat.
I arrive back at the hotel, and no one is at the front desk. I head straight to the kitchen, following the shouting and clanging of pots and pans. My blood pressure rises when I notice that guests are starting to stop and look around in bewilderment at all the ruckus.
“You had no right to do that! You’re not in charge of the kitchen staff, I am,” Shawn yells.
“I own this hotel and can do what the hell I please,” Sally spat.
“ENOUGH!” I yell. All eyes are now on me. “You need to keep your voices down because the guests are in the dining room can hear everything. Now what the fuck happened?”
Sally and Shawn both start talking at the same time. Losing my patience, I slam my hand down on the stainless steel counter. “I mean it. Knock it off,” I order. The door opens, and Joan comes in, causing Sally to turn bright red in anger.
“I fired her and told her to get off the
property. Apparently, she isn’t listening. I’m calling the cops.” Sally stalks off in the direction of her office. I step in front of the door, blocking her path. She raises glittering eyes to mine. “What are you doing, Cash?”
“I’m getting to the truth. We aren’t firing Joan. She helped build this hotel’s kitchen to what it is today.” I tell her in an exasperated tone. “I won’t have you making personnel decisions without me. Don’t forget, Sally—I own seventy-five percent of this hotel. If you keep playing this game, I’ll remind you of that little fact a hell of a lot more than I do now.”
“I’m your sister. Why are you treating me like this?” It saddens me to see her so upset, but she’s brought this all down on herself.
“You’re only mad at Joan because of Abby. She’s always supported me when it comes to you loosening the reigns. I’m sure that’s the cause of all of this.”
“She’s just going to break your heart, and I won’t be here to pick up the pieces,” she hisses and tries to push past me. A few feet away, she stops dead in her tracks. I can’t see what she’s looking at, but Joan waves at me to follow her into the hallway. I turn the corner, and Abby’s standing there face to face with my sister. “Is this her? The reason you’re treating your only family like this?”
“Sally, stop this nonsense now,” Joan says as she comes up behind me. I move to stand closer to Abby.
“Hi, I’m Abby. You must be Sally. Cash has told me a lot about you.” Abby holds out her hand for Sally to shake. “It feels like I already know you.”
“Well, I can’t say the same.” Sally barely shakes her hand. “What did he tell you?”
I try to intervene, but Abby pushes my hand away. “He told me how you were the strong one when your parents were killed. I’m sorry for your loss.” Tears glistened in her eyes. “He told me how much he loves your kids. They are what keeps him going, what keeps him wanting to make this hotel a success. He said that you won’t let him live his life, or make the mistakes that he needs to make.” I groan and wish Abby would just be quiet.
Love Me Like You Do (Love Me Book 1) Page 12
