“We will,” Gabe and I say at the same time.
Royce studies us both and then shoves off the table. “More soon,” he says before he turns and leaves. Gabe leans in close. “You think he’s going to make a play against Carrie at the meeting?”
“I wouldn’t be surprised by anything at this point, but he will be. Carrie wants to merge the companies. It’s a good move for us and her. How do you feel about it?”
“I’ve seen the numbers. I feel fucking amazing about it, but does she really want to give up part of her company?”
“She brought it up to me. She wants to do this.”
“Dad is going to lose it if we merge.”
“I’m going to need you at the meeting,” I say. “Most likely ready to fight.”
He holds up his hands. “MMA, baby. Let’s do it.” He laughs but sobers quickly. “Friday is a little fast coming. We need to crunch the numbers and put together a presentation for the board. I need to talk to the partners. We need to talk to the partners. Push it back.”
“That gives dad time to position himself. We need to move on this Friday and fuck the partners. This is making everyone money.”
We go back and forth for a good hour on what has to be done, and then I cut us off. “We need to include Carrie in this and right now, she’s waiting on me. We’re going to get a Christmas tree.”
Gabe arches a brow. “You’re getting a tree?”
“I am, indeed, getting a tree, and looking forward to it, in fact. I’m a changed man, brother. Wait until it happens to you.”
“Never,” Gabe says. “Never happening.”
I laugh and get up. “You won’t know it’s happening until it’s too late.”
I head for the door, eager to get home to my woman and put this crap with my father aside for now. Carrie and I have a tree to buy and lots of fucking to do underneath it, which I plan to enjoy. My father, on the other hand, will not enjoy being fucked the way we’re about to fuck him. I will though, completely and thoroughly and with a smile on my face.
CHAPTER TWELVE
Reid
I walk into the apartment only to have Carrie rush to the door. “What happened?”
I curl my arm around her neck and pull her close. “Everything is copacetic, baby. Gabe is all in on the merger. Royce has a plan to deal with my father, which I’ll share in detail, and we have a tree to go pick out.”
“I’m pretty sure I made your father hate me even more,” she says. “As I’ve sat here, waiting on you, I’ve questioned how smart it was for me to act like a fearless bitch to him.”
“Oh shit,” I laugh, “you gave him the Reid treatment?”
“It’s not funny, Reid. I told him he should look up my mother because they deserve each other, and I took the whiskey and told him he owed it to you because he’s such a shitty father.”
I roar with laughter. “Priceless. He came to taunt you, and you taunted him.” I release her and take her hand to kiss it. “That’s going to be a story that goes down in family history.”
“Reid, damn it. Tell me what happened.”
My hands come down on her shoulders. “Relax, sweetheart. You know me. If I didn’t feel like I had it under control, I wouldn’t be laughing. We’re going to work with someone in law enforcement that Royce knows to put a plea deal on the table for me and Gabe and—”
Carrie gasps. “A plea deal. What? Why? What is happening?”
“A plea deal that never sees the light of day except to make sure my father knows it’s on file. If he comes at us again, we use it.”
“What if he thinks you’re bluffing?”
“This is me we’re talking about. Do you really think he’ll think I’m bluffing?”
Her hand flattens on my chest. “Maybe we should elope.”
“Elope? Where the hell did that come from?”
“Can you imagine the war of two fathers at our wedding? And who do I even have to invite?”
“Baby.” My hands go to her face. “We’re getting married for us. If you want to elope, or get married right now, we’ll do it. I’ll—we’ll, because what’s mine is now yours—pay what it takes to get us into Rockefeller center and we’ll be married by Christmas. But don’t make this decision over my father. Make it for you and for us.”
“That’s just it. I want it to be for us. I’m afraid it becomes about them like our engagement has already.”
“We’re handling them. Our wedding will not be about them. And don’t little girls dream of picking out the perfect dress and flowers and all that stuff?”
“I think I would like to just do something really small for us. Maybe just your siblings or whoever you want at the wedding.”
I kiss her. “Right now, you’re feeling the punch of things out of our control but we’re taking control. It’s raw because my father showed up here. Let’s go get our tree and enjoy doing this together. We can talk about the wedding in the process or not, but let’s just enjoy this.”
“Yes,” she says. “Yes, I’d like that.”
“Good. Because I haven’t picked out a tree since I was a kid and I’m going to remember this holiday and tree as our first, and as a part of our engagement.”
A smile slides onto her face. “My cold-hearted asshole of a man is looking forward to the tree.”
“Yes, baby, I am.” I turn her toward the room and lean in close. “Go get your purse, and it’s pretty cold outside, get a coat.” I smack her backside. She yelps and tries to dart away but I hold onto her and say, “I’ll spank you properly after we decorate the tree.”
She laughs and glances over her shoulder hurrying toward the table, and I swear, I fight the need to go to my father’s place and punch him in the face, and that’s not me. I don’t lose control or act out, but he made Carrie want to skip over the celebration of our wedding. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. I really want to hurt him and I’ve never really wanted to hurt my father. I just wanted him to go the fuck away.
Carrie returns with a jacket on, her purse over her shoulder, and my black leather jacket in her hand because that’s Carrie. She thinks of me. She sees me. She’s fucking perfect. “You have on a T-shirt. You need a coat, too.”
“Thanks, baby.” I shrug into the jacket.
She laughs. “You and all those manners.”
I drag her to me. “I didn’t think I’d ever get married, woman. I swore I didn’t want to get married. Then you came into my life and rocked my world so here is what’s going to happen. We are going to have one hell of a perfect wedding and it’s going to be the wedding we choose for us and no one else. I am going to marry the love of my life and I don’t plan on doing this again. This is forever. Do you understand?”
“Yes,” she says, her hands pressed to my face. “I understand because I’m going to marry the love of my life, once, and only once.”
I cover her hands with mine and kiss one before settling them on my chest. “Then stop making decisions based on my bastard of a father. Deal?”
“Yes. Deal. But did you even consider that maybe I might be impatient to just be your wife?”
“Is that right?”
“Yes, it is. I’m impatient but you’re worth whatever wait we decide on. Let’s go get our tree. What color bulbs do you like?”
“Bulbs? Color?”
She laughs. “Yes. You know those decorations that go on the tree.”
“Whatever gets us under the tree fastest,” I tease, and then add. “We’ll figure it out together.”
“Yes. We’ll figure it out together.”
She smiles, and that beautiful smile lights up the room and my heart. I pull open the door and a few minutes later we’re in the back of a hired car on our way to pick out a tree. We’ve just arrived at Rockefeller Center when Carrie spies a coffee shop. “We have to have coffee while we shop for trees. It’s an unwritten rule.”
“Is that right?”
“Yes. It is.”
“Well then, by all means, let’s get coffee.”
>
We’re about to head inside when she grabs my arm and turns me to face her. “Reid.” There’s this vulnerable quality to her voice that has me caressing her cheek.
“What is it, baby?”
“I haven’t put up a tree in years. It felt weird because I was alone but I missed it. I really love that I have you to do this with.”
“And I love that you woke me up and made me live again, Carrie. I love that we’re doing this.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah, I do.” I kiss her temple. “Let’s get that coffee.”
She nods. “Yes, please.”
“So many manners,” I tease. “Just remember that word for later.”
“Yes or please?”
“Both actually,” I say, laughing and opening the door for her.
We head inside and order our coffees when my cellphone rings. I pull it from my pocket to find my father’s number. “Give me a minute,” I say, and I don’t wait for Carrie to ask who it is. I don’t need my father destroying yet another moment.
I head for the door and step outside, answering the line. “Father.”
“You got the whiskey, I assume? I expected a thank you call.”
“You mean you expected me to call and defend my woman, but as you probably figured out, she can take care of herself.”
“She’s interesting, and thanks to you, West Enterprises is worth a lot of money. I hope you plan to absorb the company.”
Holy fuck. He’s going to twist this. He’s going to make it seem like I was after her money.
“I think I’ll let you keep her,” he says. “It was a savvy move, son. Drink that scotch and celebrate how damn good you are. I am.” He hangs up.
“Fuck you, father,” I growl, shoving my phone in my pocket.
Carrie walks out of the door and steps in front of me, two coffees in her hands. “I heard that. What happened?”
I don’t want to tell her, but I’m not giving my father a chance to turn this on me. “He thinks I’m marrying you to absorb your company into ours.”
She hands me my coffee. “Well, at least he approves of me now. I’m thinking of red and silver bulbs.”
“Red and silver bulbs. That’s all you have to say?”
“The longer we stand here, the longer it is until we’re under the tree.”
I laugh and slide my arm around her. “Then let’s get to shopping, baby. Because I really need to fuck you sooner than later.”
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Carrie
“It’s tilted to the left,” I say to Reid, who is on top of a ladder adjusting our gorgeous silver angel topper on our giant tree, decorated in red and silver. “Now it’s too far right,” I amend.
“Again?” he asks, over his shoulder, while I’m looking at how perfect his backside is in the sweats he put on when we got home earlier. All those squats I now know he does in the mornings have worked out quite nicely for me.
“Yes,” I say, biting my lip because no, not really. The topper is fine. “A little left.” He moves the angel. “Now right.”
“That’s it,” Reid says. “I’m done. Let the leaning angel just be happy.” He climbs down the ladder and I’m laughing when he turns to face me.
He frowns and pulls me in front of him. “What’s so funny?”
“The topper was fine a long time ago. I was just enjoying the view.”
His eyes light. “Is that right?”
“Yes. That’s right.”
“All right then,” he says, cupping my breasts, his thumbs stroking my bare nipples beneath the barely-there tank top I changed into earlier, sans the bra. “Show me yours,” and he tugs down the tank, his gaze raking over my exposed nipples, the air cold and his gaze hot.
“Your perfect ass and all that decorating you did with me did, in fact, make me very appreciative.” I stroke my hand down his sweats, the thick ridge of his erection expanding under my touch.
“How appreciative?” he asks, his hands palming my breasts, his lips finding that hot breath right before mine.
“I’d rather show you,” I say, but before I can act on that statement, he’s kissing me, a hot, melt-me-right-here-in-front-of-the-tree kiss, and when his lips part mine, he’s already pulling my tank over my head. It hits the floor, and his gaze rakes hotly over my naked breasts again and before I can take control, which is my intent, he’s turned me, my back to his front, and pulled my leggings down. He then lifts me and drags them away, leaving me naked, my backside pressed to his thick cock and of course, he is in control. Not that I have anything to complain about, considering his hands are now back on my breasts, tugging on my nipples, sensations rippling through me and clenching my sex.
He rotates me to face the opposite direction, pressing me forward, into the chair by the tree. I’m now on my knees with that man’s hand smacking me on the backside and it’s not a small or gentle hand. I yelp and look over my shoulder but whatever I was going to say is gone when I watch him strip away his tee, all that damn perfect muscle rippling and flexing. He smacks my backside again and my sex clenches, but I am not totally lost, my plan still in my mind. When he steps back to pull down his sweats, I flip around and watch him.
“Turn back around, baby, or I’m just going to spank you harder when I make you.”
His sweats are now gone, his cock thrusting forward, thick and pulsing, and I go down on my knees in front of him, my hand on his thigh. I look up at him. “You sure about that?” My hand closes around his shaft and I lick the salty dampness at the soft tip of his rock hard erection.
He sucks in a breath and his hand goes to my hair, tangling into it. “I could be convinced to go easy on you.”
I laugh and give him a coy look. “Oh, really? How exactly can I convince you?”
“Suck me, baby, sooner rather than later.”
“I’d rather lick you first,” I say, giving him a lick that earns me a deep, guttural groan that he follows by clenching his fist around my hair.
“Don’t tease me, Carrie.”
I smile because my man can’t stand to feel out of control. He needs it. He can’t help it but we both know that right now I’m in control. I let him have his way though. I give him more which is what he wants and needs, because he gives me plenty. I swirl my tongue around the tip of him and then suckle. He arches into the sensation and I’m inspired. I want him doing a whole lot more than just arching but I’m going to make him really want it.
I lick him up and down, and repeat until he’s growling my name.
Now, I give him what he really wants. I draw him back into my mouth, one hand on that crazy perfect ass, while the other tightens my grip on his shaft and I begin to suck and pump at the same time. Reid arches into the sensations and I have what I want. He needs and wants, and he’s thrusting into my mouth, his hand tight on my hair, his powerful body under my control even as that hand on my head tries to pretend otherwise. He’s been controlling everything. He’s been fighting to keep his father in check, my father in check. He never let’s go. He feels like he can’t and that goes so much deeper than the present day. I want to be his escape and I suck harder, deeper. I am aroused by the idea of being that for him. I need it. He needs it. And just watching the way he tilts his head back, losing himself in the moment, is a success, it’s me giving to him like he does to me. My asshole of a man is not an asshole at all, but actually all about my pleasure, and now, I’m all about his.
He pumps harder and groans, a deep, hard groan before he’s shuddering and the salty taste of his release fills my taste buds. I don’t even think about pulling back. I take him all the way and slowly ease him into that perfect place that we all crave, and then back down to the sweet bliss of sated satisfaction. When he’s there, all the way there, I pull back and look at him. “The tree is beautiful, right?”
He laughs, a low raspy laugh and pulls me to my feet. “Yes, baby, it’s beautiful just like you. Let’s me show you how beautiful.” I twist away from him, aware that he wants to
return the pleasure, but I’m not having it. “Not tonight,” I say. “Tonight was about you. Just you.” I dart away, and into our bedroom.
But I don’t make it far. Reid is right behind me and pulling me to him, our naked bodies melding together as he strokes a strand of hair from my face. “You know you rock my world in every way, right?” he asks, backing me up until my body hits the mattress.
“I hope so,” I say. “You’re marrying me, remember?”
“You hope so?” he asks. “Obviously, I need to take away the question.”
“I don’t want you to do anything for me tonight, Reid. For once, let it be just about you.”
“Every moment I’m with you is for me, and I hope you. Every moment, Carrie, and I’m not just talking about sex. But right now, I want you on my tongue.” He kisses me, stroking into my mouth and when his fingers press between my legs, that wet heat between my legs defies my declaration that tonight is all about him.
I moan into his mouth and he presses me back on the bed, and I can’t fight it. This man is just too good at making me want and need for me to resist. Not that I could. In about two seconds, he’s on his knees and my legs are spread, knees bent, and he licks my clit. A few more licks in and I decide that a man with this kind of skill should be a part of every girl’s happily ever after.
It sure is mine.
And so, he gives me my escape, licking, suckling and taking even as he’s giving, and when we finally settle into bed, me in his arms, our tree alight in the other room, I feel like we’re there in that perfect place where no one can take this from us. Not even his father.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Reid
Early Friday morning before the board meeting, Carrie, Gabe, and I meet Royce and an assistant DA named Marcus Roman at the coffee shop by our house. Marcus is thirty-five with curling black hair and a scar on his jawline that Royce told me in advance came from a few years in the army. Royce is trying to hire him. He’s resisting, declaring himself done with the kind of war that spills blood. Marcus slides a folder in front of me and another in front of Gabe.
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