“I don’t know what we’d do without Billy. He’s the main reason most of our guys do things right.”
“What about the foremen? How many do you have now?”
“Five. And none of them are worth what we’re paying them. Most disappear the moment a space opens up at another company. They don’t like the paperwork.”
“Why don’t you use tablets?”
“Daddy’s old fashioned.”
He brushed the hair away from my face. “Berryman Construction would do much better if you modernized some of your operations.”
“Yeah, well, I’ve tried.” I rolled onto my back and looked up at him. “How do you know so much about us, anyway?”
“Billy,” he said, turning his face away as he said it.
“I guess Billy knows more about the company than I do.” I rolled onto my side again. “About you, too, I suppose.”
“I’m an open book, Addison. Ask me anything you want to know.”
I didn’t even stop to think about it. I didn’t even realize I was going to say it until the first few words were on the tip of my tongue.
“Where did you go when you left here?”
“California.”
“Why?”
He cleared his throat a little and I could feel him tense, feel the rigidity of his muscles as he pulled me closer against his chest.
“I had some family business I had to take care of.”
“Family? You told me your dad took off when you were five and your mom died right before you graduated high school.”
“All true.”
“So what family?”
When he didn’t immediately answer, I decided I was done. I didn’t want to play these games.
I climbed off the bed and walked around to the untidy pile where our clothes were laying.
“Don’t go.”
“I waited there for hours,” I said softly, my T-shirt pressed against my chest as I stared down at the floor. “I sat in that diner, sipping the same coke, for hours and hours, waiting for you to show up. The waitress felt so sorry for me that she brought me a slice of apple pie after three hours. I can still remember how the vanilla ice cream began to melt and slide off the side of the pie, how it looked like a sad little puddle of spilt milk after five hours. By then, I knew you weren’t coming. But I still sat there like a fool, waiting.”
“Addison…”
“Even after my dad showed up, after he dragged me home and told me to pack for New Haven, after I boarded that plane, a part of me believed you would show up. I believed you would come to me, tell me some crazy story about a car accident or an accident on the construction site. I thought there had to be some sort of explanation.” I laughed at myself as I stared down at my painted toes, realizing just how stupid I probably looked standing there stark naked, his scent all over my body, moaning like a child over a long-ago hurt. “The thing was, there was a simple explanation. I just didn’t want to admit it to myself.”
“It was a long time ago,” Grant said softly.
“You lied to me,” I said, finally lifting my eyes to his. “All those times when you stared at me like I was the only girl who’d ever mattered to you, all the times you told me you loved me, it was all a lie. All I was was a game. You were the big man on the site, the one who managed to bag the boss’s daughter, right?”
“It wasn’t a game,” he said, sliding off the bed and coming to me. “And I didn’t lie.”
He ran his hands over my upper arms, rubbing them like he was trying to warm me up.
“Can we start over? Can we leave the past in the past?”
I looked up at him. “Tell me how and I will.”
He brushed the hair out of my face and kissed me in that way he did that made all the hurt and the confusion seem like they no longer mattered. I was setting myself up for heartbreak and I knew it. But it was like speeding toward a fatal car crash. I saw it coming, but I couldn’t stop it.
Grant picked me up and took me back to bed. He leaned over me, but I pushed him back, pinning him against the mattress. I wanted to enjoy this man while I still could. Reality would eventually catch up with me and I would have to choose between my heart and my head. Until then, I wanted to create a memory that would keep me warm in the long, cold hours of the night.
I began with the soft space under his chin, that spot that made him groan as I worked my way slowly down his throat. I nibbled here, kissed there, never doing the same thing more than twice in a row. I wanted him to be surprised, wanted him to ache the way I’d ached last night. When I reached the center of his chest where a fine spattering of hair grew, I ran my hands over it, twirling it in my fingers until he grabbed my hand.
“Ow,” he said softly.
“Don’t you like pain, Grant?”
His eyebrows rose. “Depends on how it’s delivered.”
I just smiled as I bent to him again, teasing one nipple with the tip of my tongue. He groaned again, his hand sliding over the back of my head. He didn’t pull me closer, but he didn’t push me away, either. He simply rested his hand on the back of my head and waited as I continued to move lower over his body.
His abs tightened as I began to explore them. I could feel his muscles quivering as I approached his navel. The funny little pieces of skin that stuck out of that rounded space were soft, a little squishy. It was entertaining to press my tongue against them and feel his body respond. And below his navel, more hair grew. A friend in high school had called it a treasure map. I didn’t really care what it was called. I wanted to feel the pressure he placed on my head as he unintentionally pushed me farther down. I wanted to feel the excitement that I knew I was creating in him. I wanted to know that he liked my touch, that he craved it almost as much as I’d craved this these long seven years.
It was a little consolation, that idea. That I wasn’t the only one who’d been absolutely miserable all this time.
I moved to his thighs, forcing him to wait for satisfaction. I knew what he wanted. I remembered the discussion we’d had about it when we had only been dating a short time. I remembered blushing as I told him I’d done it once before, but I was afraid I’d made a huge mess out of it.
“You can never leave a man unsatisfied when you do something like that.”
“He didn’t seem pleased. He accused me of never having done it before, which was basically true.”
“Then he was an asshole.”
I laughed, remembering the boy in question. He was a member of the football team at my private school—a star jock that all the girls pinned after. I was on the track team that year and we used the field at the same time. He asked me out to a party, and afterward, things had gone quite badly when he drove me to the dead-end street the kids at school used as a make-out point.
“He was,” I said. “But most of the kids I went to school with—most of their parents are politicians or oil men. Their parents think they run the world, so their kids feel pretty much the same way.”
“What you need in your life is a real man who understands how incredible you really are. Someone who understands how rare it is to find such a sophisticated girl who’s really very innocent.”
“Is that what I am? Sophisticated and innocent?”
“You are so much more than that. But that’s part of it.”
It’d meant the world to me—those words. I was not popular at my school. I never really fit in with the super-rich kids, but I didn’t fit in with the children of my housekeeper who came to hang out with their mom in the afternoons, either. No one knew how to act around me, so I didn’t know how to act around them, either. Grant was the first person to look past my dad’s money and see me.
I took my time on his thighs, running my lips over them as I teased him. My fingers played in the soft hair around the base of his cock, teasing his shaft, teasing his balls, but never really touching, either. And then I gripped his balls, and I thought he was going to jump off the bed.
“Baby, please…”
/> I peeked at him, pleased with the agony on his gorgeous face. I took his shaft in my hand and began a slow, steady stroke. He closed his eyes and moaned, the sound like salve on a burn. Satisfying. I watched him for a long few moments, meeting his eye when he finally opened them, as he finally focused on me. There was such heat in his eyes. Need. I loved it.
When I finally gave him what he wanted, my tongue twirling and doing magical things he’d taught me all those years ago, he cried out with such pleasure that it made my heart pound. Such a big, beautiful man. Yet, I could bring him to his knees with a simple touch. That fact would never cease to amaze me.
And then his hands were tugging at me, pulling me up his body, his hands touching me everywhere at once. He lifted me, pressed me against the solid wood of the headboard, and slid inside of me from behind. His hand moved over my belly, sliding down until he was doing things to my clit that made the edges of my vision darken. Again we moved into a perfect rhythm, his hips pounding against me, my ass moving just right so that he was touching me in all the right places. I knew I was going to come again, and the idea seemed amazing to me. But I wanted it to continue, wanted to feel this way again and again. I wanted his touch, to feel connected until there was nothing else.
How could he walk away from me? How could he walk away from this? How could either of us let this come to an end?
Chapter 8
My phone buzzed, waking me from a little catnap. I opened my eyes and Grant was propped up on his elbow, watching me.
“What are you doing?”
“Nothing,” he said as he ran a finger between my breasts.
“How long have you been watching me?”
“Not long.”
“Liar.” I touched his face lightly, a slow smile touching my lips. “I can read you like a book.”
“Can you?”
He kissed me softly, but then my phone buzzed again. I sighed as I pulled away from him, reaching over the side of the bed to drag the phone out of my jeans pocket.
It was my dad.
I climbed out of bed, snagging his shirt with the tip of my finger as I headed for the door.
“Don’t leave me,” Grant called after me.
“Not going anywhere,” I said with a soft smile as I dragged the proper icon across the screen of my phone to answer the call.
“What’s going on, Daddy?”
“We need to talk about the sale.”
I closed my eyes, leaning against the wall just outside Grant’s bedroom door.
“What about it?”
“I’d rather talk in person.”
“Well, I’m out of the office for the rest of the day.”
“Where are you?”
“On site,” I said, lying to my dad for the first time in…I didn’t know how long. Maybe as far back as when Grant was last in my life.
Ironic.
“We’ll talk in the morning, then.”
“Are you close to making a deal?”
“We have three solid offers. But I think one is ideal. We’ll talk about it tomorrow.”
He disconnected as I snuggled in Grant’s shirt, pulling it tight around my shoulders. He smelled different, if that were possible. A different cologne, I think. But there was something familiar under the sandalwood and cedar scents. Something that made my senses stand up and take notice.
I glanced at the screen of my phone and realized I had an hour before I had to go meet Angela and her boyfriend. I wasn’t terribly excited about the prospect, but it might be good to get out and be social. Better than going to a bar and drinking far too much of a drink I wasn’t accustomed to. But there was a huge part of me that would rather stay here with Grant.
I went back into the room and he was sitting on the edge of the bed, his pants back on.
“What are you doing?”
“I didn’t realize how late it was. I have a meeting in twenty minutes.”
“Oh.” I slid out of his shirt and held it out to him, allowing it to dangle on the tip of my finger. “I guess you’ll need this.”
He looked at me, his eyes moving slowly over my nakedness. “You’re not making this easy.”
“Am I supposed to?”
He growled as he launched himself from the bed and tackled me, pushing me back against the wall, his hands moving over everything he could possibly reach. I slid a leg up over his hip, tugging him close as I pressed my nakedness against the rough fabric of his jeans. His mouth found mine and we might have devoured each other if it were at all possible.
“You drive me insane,” he whispered hoarsely against my ear.
“You make it so easy.”
He laughed as he pulled back so he could see my face. “Funny, too.”
I shrugged. “We aim to please.”
“That is not a problem.”
He bent and drew a nipple into his mouth. I ran my fingers through his hair, tugging him closer to me as a heavy sigh slipped from between my lips. But then I pushed him away and slipped out of his reach.
“Hey!”
I picked up my jeans and slipped them on, hopping a little as I tugged them up over my hips.
“You’re not the only one who has somewhere to go.”
“But you started this.”
“And I’m ending it.”
He leaned back against the wall, watching me through hooded eyes. “Cruel woman.”
“Always leave them wanting more. That’s what my daddy always says.”
He shook his head. “I doubt this was what he meant.”
“I don’t know about that.”
I slid my bra on and tugged my shirt over my head. “Now I know where you live, I might come around again.”
“Oh, you will.”
“So confident.”
“There’s no one like me out there, Addie. You won’t be able to resist.”
I sat on the edge of the bed to tug my boots on. Then I looked over at him, a soft smile slowly slipping over my lips. “Cocky much?”
He shrugged as he pushed away from the wall and came over to me, shoving me back against the mattress.
“You love it,” he said, his voice husky from need. “You want me more than you’ll ever admit.”
“What if I do?”
“Then you’ll be back. Every night.”
My eyebrows rose. “And what about you? What would you do if I didn’t come back?”
“You’ll come, baby. Over and over and over…”
He flicked his eyebrows and I saw the teasing light in his eyes. I slapped his shoulder, but he caught my wrists and pinned me to the mattress. His kiss was just as eager and demanding as it had ever been. Hot. I almost thought about staying. But then my phone buzzed again and reality began to creep in.
“I’ve got to go,” I said when he came up for air.
“I’ll see you,” he said softly, running his hand over my face before rolling away and allowing me my freedom. I didn’t look back because I didn’t want to see if he was watching me. I imagined he was. I imagined he was still lying on the bed, his eyes stuck on me. I didn’t want to believe he’d forgotten me the moment I was out of his reach. So I didn’t look.
***
I took the time to shower when I reached my condo, though I was a little saddened to have his scent washed free of my skin. Then I shimmied into a tight little black dress and twisted my hair into a casual knot at the back of my head to hide the fact that it was still fairly wet.
Angela waved enthusiastically as I walked into the restaurant. I walked over to her table and she practically bounced out of her seat, a huge smile on her face.
“I’m so glad you’re the first to arrive,” she said, throwing her arms around me. “I am so nervous.”
“Why?”
“His brother,” she said, looking at me like I should have put two and two together already. “He’s the only family Kevin has and he wants to introduce me.” She led the way to the table and gestured for me to sit. “What if he doesn’t like me?”<
br />
“I’m sure he will, Angela. Everyone loves you.”
She blushed, her blond hair falling forward in that way she had when she was truly embarrassed. “I hope so. But not everyone is as generous as you.”
I didn’t know what to say to that. I just took her hand and squeezed it.
I ordered a glass of white wine and talked Angela into having one of those fruity drinks with the umbrellas in them. But before she took a single sip, a young man with dark hair and startling blue eyes walked into the restaurant. There was something so familiar about him…and then his face lit up and he waved enthusiastically as he headed toward our table. For a brief second, I thought there was some mistake. But then Angela bounced out of her chair and rushed to him like they were lovers estranged by war.
This must be Kevin.
“Addison!”
His excitement was a little overwhelming. The way he stared at me was like we’d been good friends for years and had simply lost contact for some reason. I stood and he gave me a hug that only a little brother might offer.
“I feel like I know you, what with everything Angela’s told me about you.”
What do you say to that? I never knew what to say. I flashed a glance at Angela, but she was staring so hard at this young man that I don’t even think she remembered that I was there.
“Good things, I hope,” I said somewhat lamely.
“Of course, of course. Angela adores you.”
He gestured for me to sit. I moved over one spot, allowing him to take the chair beside Angela. They were almost sickening, the way he pulled out her chair for her, the way she stared up at him like he was the only man in the room. And then he sat and she immediately stole his hand and lay her head on his shoulder. I felt like an intruder just sitting at the same table with them.
“I have to apologize for my brother,” Kevin said. “He called and said an afternoon meeting ran late, so he’s going to be another twenty minutes or so.”
“Too bad,” Angela said, but I could see relief flash across her face.
I picked up my wine glass and took a sip. The waiter wandered by and took Kevin’s drink order. Silence settled heavy over the table.
LUCI (The Naughty Ones Book 2) Page 87
