“Yes, you do.” Gran took another sip of her tea. “It’s about time he let go of the past. You need to get him to open his eyes.”
Ella’s face heated. Had Gran guessed she and Alex had become more than friendly since the wedding? How could she know? Of course she doesn’t. But she will if you don’t get your shit together.
“I don’t know what you…I mean, I don’t see how I can…” Her guilty as fuck stuttering was interrupted by the front door. Relief caused her teacup to rattle in its saucer.
Gran went into the hall and Ella sagged against the back of the sofa. This time last week she would’ve laughed at Gran’s suggestion that she could get Alex to do anything, even if inside she’d been dying. But things were different now.
He had opened his eyes when it came to her. And she sure as hell had seen another side of him last night.
The dirty smile on her face froze as she heard his voice in the hall. What the…
“Thought you liked Paris,” he said, which didn’t make any sense. She put her cup on the table before she dropped the damn thing.
“I love Paris,” Gran said as she came back in the room and gave Ella a triumphant smile. Oh no. Gran was in matchmaker mode. She was notorious for it, but she’d never interfered in her grandsons’ love lives before. Why was she changing the habit of a lifetime now?
Alex came in the room and whatever answer he’d been about to give his gran appeared to vanish as he caught sight of her. She gave him an awkward smile and shrugged one shoulder. Hope he doesn’t think I planned this.
“Hey,” he said, strolling across the room toward her.
He’s going to sit next to me. Like, right next to me…
He sat as far away from her on the sofa as he could, just like he would’ve last week or last year. She let out ragged breath and wished she hadn’t put her tea down. It would’ve given her something to keep her hands occupied.
“Hey,” she responded, hiding behind her usual smile. It didn’t feel right though. “Your gran caught me just as I was leaving Mom’s.” That would tell him.
“Tea, Alex.” It wasn’t a question, as his gran opened her glass cabinet where she kept her best china. Alex caught her glance and grimaced, and she stifled a giggle.
“Sure, thanks,” he said, and they watched his gran pour the tea as though it was the most fascinating thing either of them had ever seen.
Is this how it’s going to be from now on? Did it matter, if she could look forward to mind-bending sex when they were alone together?
“When you called, you mentioned you wanted to talk about Cooper,” he said as he took the cup from his gran and then placed it on the table. “Guess you know he and Paris are engaged,” he added, looking at Ella.
“Oh, yeah. He called yesterday.”
A flicker of some strange emotion crossed his face. “Did he? You never said.”
She hadn’t mentioned it because quite honestly she’d had other things on her mind. “Well, you know. Uh, I guessed he’d want to tell you himself.”
That was the wrong thing to say. Because obviously Coop hadn’t told Alex until tonight—a whole day after he’d told her.
“They’re going to visit Cora tomorrow and tell her.” Gran looked as if she’d love to be a fly on the wall for the conversation when Paris’ mom found out. “Good to see my boys find themselves nice girls.”
“Make the most of it with Jackson and Cooper.” Alex looked completely relaxed. “There’s no way in hell I’ll ever settle down with a nice girl.”
Right. She kept her sardonic smile on her face but didn’t know how. Her whole damn face hurt with the effort. She really should bite her tongue but fuck that. “You going to settle down with a nasty girl then?”
He looked at her, and his lazy smile made her forget she was kind of mad at him. “I’m not the settling down kind.”
“You’ll change your mind once the right one comes along.” Gran sat there like a queen bee, and it was hard not to glare at her. Because something was seriously screwed up with that. Didn’t Gran think she was the right one for Alex? Obviously not. So she hadn’t arranged this meeting with Alex, then, and she wasn’t doing a bit of undercover matchmaking.
Well, shit.
She didn’t know why she was so pissed, seeing as she didn’t want Alex’s gran interfering anyway, but that wasn’t the point. She held her breath and took a long swallow of tea. Sooner she finished, the sooner she could leave.
“All we need to do now is find a nice boy for you, Ella.” Gran smiled as though she were just some sweet old lady and not someone who knew how to give a concussion with a well-placed frying pan.
“I don’t need any help with that, thanks very much.”
“Ella doesn’t date nice boys.” He sounded on the verge of laughing. She didn’t find any part of this conversation in the least bit funny, and had a hard time not slinging him a death stare.
“All the guys I date are nice.” Yeah, so that was an exaggeration. She’d dated some real losers in the past. “Some of them are so nice they come with public health warnings.”
Gran snorted into her teacup. Her face burned. She’d forgotten Gran was still in the room. And while normally that wouldn’t have bothered her too much, she had the terrible fear his gran might’ve guessed who she was talking about.
“Most of them didn’t deserve you.” Alex still had a faint smile on his face but he didn’t look as if he was joking anymore.
Whatever. She’d had enough for one night. “Well, I have to go. Widget and Wizard need their cuddles.”
“It’s not cats you need to cuddle at night. It’s a man.” Gran sounded as though she was making a revelation. Ella tried not to let the thought take hold, but couldn’t help herself.
If you only knew what I got up to last night.
“Yeah, well, animals are far more reliable than men.” Wasn’t that the truth. Even if she hadn’t lived through about twenty different “uncles” who’d shacked up with her mom while she’d been a kid, her own track record was proof enough.
When the going got tough, guys hit the road.
Alex didn’t make any response, and as his gran sailed out of the room, she shot him a glance. Before they’d slept together he’d definitely have made some mocking retort to her comment. He had an oddly brooding expression on his face, but it vanished the second he caught her looking at him.
Things have changed between us. Problem was, she didn’t know if it was a good or bad thing.
“See you tomorrow, Ella.” He might’ve been talking about work. But there was no mistaking the heat in his eyes or the sexy tone in his voice.
He was thinking about tomorrow night. And so am I.
Chapter Eight
The following afternoon Alex frowned at the email Ella had just sent him. It wasn’t the fact she’d emailed, when she was just the other side of the door. It was the fact she’d sent him a potential list of candidates for her job.
She hadn’t wasted any time.
He linked his hands behind his head and stretched back in his chair. With Jackson on his honeymoon and Cooper based on the East Coast, the office was strangely empty. Which didn’t make any sense. Even before Cooper had left, the brothers were hardly ever in the office at the same time, unless there was a meeting.
But one of them always had been. He eyed the door. It’d been an unspoken policy that Ella wouldn’t be left alone for hours on end. Sure, she knew the locals and could handle herself. But it was still a tough neighborhood. It worked out okay because a lot of their jobs involved nights or weekends.
When she left Grayson’s, half his reason for setting up the damn place would go with her.
It’s served its purpose. It gave both Jackson and Cooper a positive focus, when they’d been aiming straight for jail. Their dad might’ve been a bastard, but it was Alex’s fault the family had been ripped apart. Least he could do was try and mend it.
Guess he’d succeeded, as far as his brothers went.
No he wasn’t. What they had was under control. He’d never let it spill out from Excalibur and into their personal lives.
She rapped on his door and then strolled in, just like she always did. Her bright green sweater hugged her breasts and hips.
Take it off.
His fingers clenched behind his head, and it took him a second to wipe that visual from his mind.
On her knees while she took him into her mouth. Right here, right now.
Focus, goddamn it.
They weren’t in Excalibur. He shouldn’t even be thinking about sex and Ella in the same sentence while they were at work.
How many hours until they could leave?
“So, what do you think?” She folded her arms and gave him a challenging look.
What the hell was she talking about?
Her gaze flickered. “You got my email, right?”
He grunted and swung his chair forward, leaning his forearms on the desk. “Yeah.” He frowned at the laptop screen in the hope she wouldn’t guess where his mind had traveled. “You got any preferences?”
Spanking. Bondage…
He broke into a cold sweat. This wasn’t the time or the place.
“I made a note next to each applicant. You haven’t read it, have you?”
He frowned at the screen. This wasn’t his area of expertise. “I trust you to make a shortlist. And do the interviews.”
“Don’t think you’re getting out of it that easily. We’ll be conducting those interviews in this office, with you in that chair.”
It sounded like torture. “Are you going to talk to your new boss like this?”
Her smile wasn’t work safe. “Only if she’s very lucky.”
“It’s overdue, but congratulations, Ella. I know how much this job means to you.”
Her smile wavered. “Thanks. I know people think I’m mad taking a pay cut, but it’s going to be worth it.”
“You’re taking a pay cut?” How could she afford to do that? He knew she was always helping out her mom financially.
She shrugged and didn’t meet his eyes. “Yeah. Moving back with my mom. Can’t say she was thrilled by the news.”
Her mom was a piece of work. The way she treated Ella had always pissed him off. He could just imagine the mind games Patti Clark would play with her daughter once she had her back in that house.
I know all about mind games. His prick of a dad had been a master at them.
“If there’s any way I can help, let me know.” He guessed giving her mom a friendly talking to was out of the question, but he could at least help her move her stuff. “Are you keeping all your furniture?”
She sighed. “I haven’t really thought that far ahead.”
He thought of something else. “What about your cats? Is she okay about them?”
Her eyes narrowed. “I didn’t give her the choice. I’m not getting rid of them for anyone. She’s not allergic. If anything, they’ll probably do her good.”
He wasn’t sure what she meant. Cats, and especially kittens, had always kind of freaked him out. Those two little black and white fluff balls at Ella’s had looked as if they’d fall apart if he so much as looked at them wrong.
“Guess they’ll have more room to roam.” Better than a balcony, anyway.
“I need to ask Coop to make me a cat enclosure. I’m not letting my fur babies roam with so many assholes on the loose.”
“Right.” He frowned, not sure why he cared that she was going to ask his brother to help her make a cat enclosure. Cooper was great at making things. Besides which, he wouldn’t have a clue where to start with something like that.
In fact, he’d never even heard of anyone having a cat enclosure for their pets before now. He opened a new window on his laptop and Googled it. I’ll be damned. His mental image of a rabbit run shattered.
“I’ll leave you to it then.” There was a brittle note in her voice. He looked up at her. She gave him a tight smile, as though he’d pissed her off.
She was probably still thinking about her mom. “I’ll pick you up at nine.” He’d booked two hours in the private chamber. He knew he was asking for all kinds of questions from his partners, but he’d face that when he came to it. Ella wasn’t ready for any of the public areas. She might never be.
He didn’t care.
“You don’t want to go for something to eat first?”
“I need to work late tonight. I’ll pick something up on the way home. We can always grab a snack at the club if you need an energy boost.” He couldn’t help himself and gave her a mocking leer.
She didn’t return it. “Right. That’s fine.” She backed up to the door. “I’m off now. See you later.”
Ella looked gorgeous in a pale blue minidress when she opened the door to her apartment at exactly nine that night. It wasn’t even that revealing, with its high neck and long sleeves. Somehow that made her sexier than ever.
“Ready?” He had to stop himself from pulling her into his arms and kissing her. Not the time. Not the place.
“Sure.” She locked the door and sauntered toward the stairs. The dress hugged her ass like a second skin, and for a few seconds he just enjoyed the lust that burned through him at the sight.
He took a deep breath. Any crazy notion he’d had that his need for her would lessen now they’d had sex, was just that. Fucking crazy. If anything, he wanted her more than ever.
All the time.
Just as well she was leaving work in five weeks.
If she weren’t leaving I wouldn’t be taking her to Excalibur.
“I followed up the references on five of the applicants,” she said as they left the building. Since he was still admiring her butt, it took him a moment to figure out what she was talking about.
“Okay.” She must’ve done that after she went home, as she’d packed up as soon as she’d left his office earlier. “Any feedback yet?”
“Oh yeah. Three really great, one amazing, and one excellent. You’re going to have a tough job on your hands, picking between them. And I haven’t finished going through them all yet.”
“Sounds like a nightmare.” He opened the car door for her and watched her slide in. Was she wearing another sexy thong tonight?
“Needs to be done.” She gave him a smile he couldn’t figure out at all. It was almost as though she was pissed with him, but that didn’t make sense. Besides the fact he hadn’t done anything to annoy her, Ella never held back when she had something to say.
Do I just have a guilty conscience? He had nothing to feel guilty about when it came to her. He wasn’t going to rip her life apart.
“As long as the replacement knows what they’re doing and you can train them up before you leave, that’s all I care about.”
“Don’t worry. I’ve got it all planned.”
He got in beside her. There was something he wanted to ask her but he wasn’t sure he’d like the answer. “How long had you been looking for another job?”
“Not long. I first thought about it a couple of months ago. And then this one at Gaia came up, like it was fate or something.”
A couple of months. That wasn’t so bad. “Anything happen a couple of months ago to make you start looking around?”
“Well,” her voice was less sure now. “It seemed like the right time. Things were changing, what with Coop leaving and J engaged. And I guess I just felt…stuck in a rut.”
“You could’ve said something.” It burned that she hadn’t. Since when did she ever just suck it up when something wasn’t working for her?
“No, I couldn’t. You had enough to deal with.”
“And that’s the only reason you kept it to yourself?” She made him sound like he couldn’t deal with change. Okay, so having his younger brothers settle down within a month of each other had shocked the shit out of him, but only because it was all so sudden. It wasn’t as though he thought they were making a godawful
mistake or anything.
She patted his knee. And then left her hand there. She’d never done that before. He had a hard time concentrating on the road.
Tell her to take her hand away. If she’d been any other woman, he would. Except no other woman would touch him like that.
“People don’t usually tell their boss they’re looking for another job.” There was a hint of laughter in her voice now. “Get real.”
Truth was, he’d never really considered himself her boss. They’d all pulled together to make Grayson’s a success. “Guess you told Cooper already, huh.” Sure she had. She told his brother everything. He hadn’t even known she had cats until the weekend.
“Not yet. I wouldn’t tell him before I told you, would I?”
He squeezed her hand. It was only supposed to be a quick touch before he freed his knee, but somehow it was harder to push her away than he thought. “You having a leaving party?”
“Not if I have to organize it.”
With reluctance he untangled his fingers. It was either that, or risk mounting the sidewalk. “Scarlett’s good at things like that.” Weird to think she was his sister-in-law.
Ella snorted. “I’ll give her call while she’s on her honeymoon and ask her.”
They arrived at the club, and as they went inside Lisa, one of his partners, was at the front desk checking the laptop. Shit. He could’ve done without seeing her while he was with Ella. Not that he wanted to hide Ella. He just didn’t want to answer any questions about her.
“Hey.” Lisa raised one eyebrow as her shrewd glance ran over Ella and snagged on their joined hands. Lisa’s expression didn’t give anything away, but he knew what she was thinking.
Not your usual type, Alex.
He tightened his grip on Ella’s hand. It’d just seemed the right thing to do as they left the car. He liked holding her hand. He didn’t like the way Lisa bit back a smile, though.
“Hey,” he responded. “You heading home?”
“Yes. Pete’s babysitting and the kids are killing him.”
He glanced at Ella. Just do it. “Lisa’s one of my partners,” he told her before looking back at Lisa. “This is Ella. One of my oldest friends.”
Hold Me Until Forever Page 7
