Any Way You Want It : An Upper Crust Series Novel (The Upper Crust Series Book 5)

by Monique McDonell

  “Tom, look.” She pointed at the glass. “We have to stop.”

  “No, we don’t. I own the gondola. If I want to steam it up, then steam it up I will.”

  “It’s embarrassing. I can’t get out the other end if people think . . .”

  He lifted her off his lap and studied her face. “What’s embarrassing is what you do to me. I’m like a horny teenager.”

  “Sorry,” she mumbled, although she wasn’t exactly sorry. She was kind of flattered and surprised by his comments.

  “It’s okay. I’ll just sit here and cool off.”

  She looked down at the bulge in his pants. “Does that hurt?”

  His eyes followed hers and he gave his head a shake. “Teenager. No, it doesn’t hurt exactly, uncomfortable, is the word. I’m a grown man. I can get a grip.”

  She felt bad for stopping him. She was pretty sure the hotel alone was half full of women who’d be more than happy to steam up a window or two with Tom and here she was, as usual, putting the brakes on. She hated her inexperience and anxiety.

  “Hey, it’s no big deal. I should have thought of that, Chloe.”

  She plopped down in the seat opposite him. Her voice came out in a groan. “I’m sorry I’m so . . . reticent.”

  “You have nothing to be sorry for. And you’re not reticent. So you don’t want to flaunt your sex life to the world, that’s no shame.”

  Sex life. Oh, so this is what this was. She’d never had a sex life to worry about before. A few kisses with Viper as he’d apparently been trying to seduce her for dubious reasons. She knew Tom was nothing like that, but she was also well aware that the situation she and Tom were in wasn’t exactly simple either.

  “I just . . . you know, sometimes I wish I was like everyone else.”

  “Want to know a secret?” She nodded. “Everyone feels that way. We all want to fit in and belong just like everyone else. Everyone feels unsure, especially in matters of the heart. It’s scary stuff.”

  “You don’t seem scared.”

  He let out a low laugh. “Oh really? So you don’t think I was scared when I showed up with the coffee machine? Or that I’m scared that Viper might hurt you? You don’t think I’m scared I might push too hard and send you running? Or scared I might not do enough and you might hightail it back home, leaving a trail of dust, or possibly snow, in your wake?”

  She felt herself blinking at him. She felt like Bambi in the headlights. “I guess you just look so confident . . . “

  “That’s how I cope.” He leaned forward so his elbows rested on his knees. “None of this is easy but that doesn’t mean it isn’t worth it.”

  “I just feel like my inexperience kind of ruins all the special stuff you try and do. I hate that.”

  “Chloe, you haven’t ruined anything. I promise you that. We’re getting to know each other and not every day is going to go exactly as planned . . .”

  She couldn’t help but laugh. “That’s an understatement. I feel like every day has been totally out of control. If there are plans, I haven’t seen them.”

  “It won’t always be like that. We’ll find our way to our version of normal soon.”

  That, of course, was another problem. Chloe could not imagine what that might look like. She couldn’t fathom how this was going to work.

  “Come on, beautiful.” Tom stood and extended his hand to Chloe as they exited the gondola. “Let’s go have some fun.”

  She took his hand and he held on tight. He understood she was just a little freaked out, not probably by him but by the enormity of her own feelings and total lack of preparedness for feeling that way. He led her across the foyer to the small nightclub that was on-site at the lodge. Nightclub was the wrong word; it was more of a bar where music played but he happened to know it was ’80s night, and though she was a young woman, he had heard her playlist and for her the eighties seemed to rule.

  It was reasonable to assume that there with all the other things on the long list of things she’d never done dancing was probably present. Heck, he’d seen Footloose and knew that music was the work of the devil for some. He pushed open the door to the bar and a wall of Madonna music hit them.

  “Let’s dance.”

  Tom was not known for being a great dancer. Well, he could tango and waltz like a pro thanks to his mother’s overenthusiastic tutelage as a child, but on a modern dance floor his large body seemed to betray him. However, he loved to dance and he was nothing if not an enthusiast. In this case, he wanted Chloe to have fun, and that he could provide in spades.

  “I don’t know.” The small floor was crowded.

  “No one will be watching you, Chloe, I can guarantee it.”

  “How?”

  “Wait till you’ve seen me dance.”

  He dragged her onto the dance floor and on came Cyndi Lauper’s anthem to women everywhere about their need for fun. Tom began to use his exuberant dance moves, and while she stood there slack-jawed for a few beats, she began to move. And she smiled.

  “I’ve never been dancing before,” she yelled into his ear over the music.

  “I figured as much. It’s fun.”

  She grinned up at him. “It is.”

  An hour later, they were laughing their heads off like lunatics. When he pulled her over to get a drink, she had a slight sheen of sweat on her upper lip and a smile that reached from ear to ear. She was happy. Not faking it, not for anyone else, but deep inside happy. The kind of happy that oozes out your pores and regenerates your cells. And he did that. He wanted the chance to make her feel that way every day. He wasn’t sure he’d get it but he would never forget the way she looked right now.

  “That was so fun!” she said, taking the glass of wine from him.

  “Can’t believe you’ve been missing out all this time, right?”

  “Exactly.” She put her small hand on his arm. “Thank you for taking me dancing.”

  “My absolute pleasure. Now drink up. This place shuts in another hour and we need to make the most of it.”

  “Yes, sir,” she said, downing the drink and giving him a mock salute. Yes, she was definitely having fun.

  Chapter 15

  Chloe was hot, sweaty, and laughing as she collapsed onto the sofa in Tom’s suite.

  “That was honestly the best night I’ve ever had, Tom. Ever. I mean, it was so much fun. What about that guy doing the Elvis knee-drops?”

  “You like him, huh? Should I be jealous?” He flopped down on the other end of the sofa.

  “Definitely. It’s hard not to admire a man who falls at your feet.”

  He swatted her knee. “His girlfriend looked less admiring. In fact, she looked horrified.”

  “He did nearly take out the entire dance floor more than once. He made even you look sane.”

  “Even me? Excuse me, I am an excellent dancer.”

  “I don’t have all that much comparison but I thought you were pretty good, and who cares anyway, we had fun, right?”

  “Exactly right.” He gave her a grin.

  She really had just had the best night of her life. The amazing dinner followed by the fun dancing and she’d spent it all with Tom. She knew full well he was a very large part of why her face actually hurt from smiling.

  She rubbed her cheeks. It was a very positive kind of pain.

  “You must be exhausted,” he said.

  “Why me and not you?”

  “Because I’m used to functioning on a lot less sleep than you are, honey. It’s been a pretty big few days.”

  She looked down at the ring that sparkled on her finger. It certainly had. She knew he’d taken her dancing tonight not just because he knew she would have fun but also because he wanted her to get out of her head for a bit and relax. He was right about that, because for the last couple of hours, all the things she’d been anxious about had been the furthest things from her thoughts.

  Now with Tom at the other end of the sofa, she wished he was closer. When she looked at him she saw
this amazing, fun, generous, oh yeah, and more than a little bit sexy man who had the unique ability to read her needs and put her first. Wasn’t that what love looked like? She had to think that was exactly what it looked like.

  “I’m not that tired, but I could use a shower I guess.”

  “Come on.” He stood and reached out his hand to her and she took it. It felt right placing her smaller hand in his and it looked right, the ring shining there and their fingers entwined.

  He led her down the hall to the guest bathroom. He let go of her hands to show her how the shower worked and where the towels were. “Got it?”

  “I do,” she said, smiling up at him, admiring how kind and thoughtful he was, and how good he looked bending over to grab the towels from a low shelf. She was awash with hormones and love.

  “Cool.” He gave her a sweet kiss on the top of her head before leaving and closing the door behind her. And just like that she was alone for the first time in what felt like eons but was probably only a day. As she turned up the steam and peeled off her clothes, she thought if asked that she would have said yes, she did want a moment alone, but now, she wasn’t sure. She stood naked but for the antique ring. This bathroom had a lot of mirrors. She generally didn’t spend a lot of time with mirrors, in fact, her own bathroom at home only showed her from the head up. She did a twirl and took in the site of herself.

  Not bad, not perfect. Her legs were slim and firm, as was her butt. Her breasts were average but perky, and her skin was milky white. What stood out was the happy flush she seemed to have. A glow she knew she wore only because of Tom.

  The ring sparkled on her hand. It was as big a setting as she’d ever seen up close and it was beautiful. She was touched that he’d given it to her but more so because it was a family ring and it meant something. She was pretty sure she hadn’t reacted quite right. In fact, she knew it for certain. She’d just been. Shocked.

  In fact, she’d probably been in shock since the day Tom turned up with that coffee machine and Viper reappeared in her life. How could it be that she had caught the attention of two such opposite men? Viper so nasty and vicious and Tom so big-hearted and kind.

  When she saw Viper again it was a shock to think she’d ever been so clueless as to think he was attractive. She suspected that it was only her abject loneliness at the time that allowed her to have made such a grave error. Of course, he’d played on that. She was embarrassed by the choices she’d made but also sad for herself. That naïve and terrified girl.

  Still, she wasn’t that girl anymore. She did have friends and people who cared about her. In fact, she almost believed what Tom told her, that the whole town was in her corner.

  But she still didn’t trust herself and that bothered her.

  She was pretty certain that if Viper hadn’t forced her hand she would have sent Tom away. She could see now that would have been a mistake. He probably would have come back, he was a fairly determined guy, but she would have sent him and his gift away. A gift that had helped turn her business around and fill the ice-cream parlor with people who kept her safe and made her laugh.

  She knew Tom was a good guy. She’d known that by the way he treated Marissa and kept up their friendship, even though she was in love with someone else. She could tell by the way he treated other people. She knew the real problem was her; she didn’t trust that she deserved a good guy.

  “Why not, Chloe?” she asked herself under the stream of the shower.

  She’d run away from her home and family so she could make her way in the world and find good people, maybe even a good husband. And yet when the opportunity to be loved presented itself, she held back. It was as if she still had one foot back in the old community and that was not a good thing at all.

  “It’s all up to you now.” She turned off the water and grabbed a towel. The fluffiest towel ever, as it turned out. She wiped the steam off the mirror and looked at herself again. “What do you want, Chloe?”

  And in that moment, she knew the answer. She wanted to be happy. And she wanted Tom.

  Tom should have been tired. He should have been exhausted after the last couple of days. And yet, he wasn’t. He could feel the adrenalin building up in his system. If it was summer, he would have gone for a run. If Chloe wasn’t here, he’d hit the hotel gym. Instead, he lay down on the floor in his room and started to do crunches.

  After all, the woman he was totally crazy about was naked in the next room. The woman he’d proposed to and then had to backpedal with. The woman who had him, instead, giving her a promise ring. Where had he even come up with that idea? He didn’t know. The woman who had then spent the evening dancing the night away with him, making him laugh and smile. Yep, that gorgeous woman was naked in the next room and here he was doing crunches like he was competing in Mr. America tomorrow. Did they still even have Mr. America? He had no idea.

  All he knew was he loved Chloe and he wanted her more than any woman he’d ever met.

  That was why he couldn’t screw this up. That didn’t make it easy for him, though. In fact, it made it painfully difficult. He understood that her life had been difficult and that Viper reappearing had brought up lots of her insecurities; on the other hand, the man had thrown them together. He was pretty sure Chloe trusted him now, but Tom was also reasonably certain that she didn’t trust herself. He didn’t really know how to turn that around for her. He was doing his best to just show up and be a good guy, beyond that he was going to have to let her find her way and that was going to take patience.

  He groaned and flipped over and began some push-ups.

  Tom was not known as a patient man. He knew that. He was a get in and get things done guy, but he would have to just take a breath and be for once. He wondered if this was some strange test from the universe. Have the impatient guy with too much energy fall for a reticent girl who wanted to move slowly. He let out a low laugh. If the universe was making a joke, he may as well laugh along.

  The truth was he could be patient and he would be. Every day he spent with Chloe was great, well not the moments he was worried about her safety, but all the rest, and if he had to walk softly to have many more of them, then so be it.

  Just then he heard a quiet knock on his door and the door creaked open.

  “Are you still awake?” Chloe’s pretty face peered around the corner.

  Tom balanced on one arm and looked back over his shoulder at her. “Of course.”

  “Exercising shirtless again I see.”

  “It’s tradition, babe, I wouldn’t want to let you down.”

  “Can I come in?” Her voice was tentative.

  “Always.” He jumped to his feet as she entered. She had one of the hotel’s fluffy robes on, which seemed to dwarf her tiny frame. She was biting her lip and twisting the cord of the robe. He didn’t know what but he could tell she was anxious about something. He didn’t like that. A few minutes ago, she’d been happy and laughing. “Are you okay?”

  “Uh, yeah, I just . . .” her voice trailed away. Then she seemed to take in a big breath, maybe for courage. “I thought maybe I might stay in here, with you. If you don’t mind.”

  It took him a moment for that to register. She was asking to stay with him. To be with him, maybe.

  Oh yeah. “Of course that’s okay. More than okay. Just give me a few minutes to clean up.”

  Tom hotfooted into the adjoining bathroom. He turned on the water while peeling off his shorts. He didn’t want to waste any time or give Chloe too much time to change her mind. He’d showered before dinner so he just needed to get rid of the sweat from his workout and the dancing.

  He didn’t know what her coming to him meant exactly, beyond the fact that she was taking a chance with him. She was instigating the next step and he didn’t think he’d been this excited since he was a kid at Christmas. Unlike that kid, he knew he needed to go carefully and not rip the paper off the present because that could end in tears. He soaped up and rinsed off in record time. Then he pulled on so
me boxers and headed back into the bedroom, a cloud of steam following him out.

  Chloe was glad he was quick, because the longer she sat there, in her robe, on top of his bed, the more nervous she became. It was silly, really, they’d been in the same bed before but things were different now. They’d fooled around today more than in the past, and she knew that would have escalated if his mother hadn’t barged in. The evening they’d spent together had been magical and they were now engaged in the eyes of the world and privately he’d made her a promise or two.

  He gave her a big smile as he landed on the bed next to her in a rather acrobatic maneuver. He was certainly a guy who was comfortable in his own skin. She wondered if she would ever be like that.

  “That was quick,” she said.

  “Yes, well, I didn’t want to keep you waiting.”

  “Oh.”

  He was in nothing but boxers. She had on her robe and it was wound tightly around her waist and overlapped up to her neck. Her ankles were showing she noticed. They certainly were opposites.

  “What’cha thinking, Chloe?” he asked, taking her hand in his.

  “Just how we’re kind of very different people.”

  “Well, that’s true but we have a lot in common, too.”

  “Oh yeah?”

  “Sure. We both like ice cream.”

  She laughed. “I’m not sure that’s a great basis for a relationship, Tom.”

  “We both like it when you laugh,” he said, lifting her hand up and kissing the back of it. “I like kissing you. You like being kissed.”

  “Well, that is true.” She turned her head to smile at him and he planted a soft kiss on her lips.

  He pulled back. “I like being shirtless, you like it when I am shirtless.”

  He placed her palm on his chest. He was certainly right about that. She could feel his heart beating beneath her hand. A steady rhythm in that solid chest. That’s what he was, solid. And decent and he definitely cared about her.

  Chloe wasn’t sure, but as he leaned in to kiss her again, his mouth claiming hers with tenderness and just a little bit of urgency, she thought about how right he felt. She couldn’t be sure if this was love or not, but it was the closest she’d ever come and maybe that was enough for now.