AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Agreed. It won’t happen again,” I say quickly. “And I won’t hold what happened back at the hotel against you anymore.”
“Good God, finally.” Ryan muses, “Remind me never to get on your bad side ever again.”
His teasing smile is infectious and I find myself smiling at him too. Then he looks away and back to the road. “So,” he continues, “are you going to tell me why you were crying earlier?”
“Okay, don’t push your luck here. I agreed to let that night go, not that we’d be best buddies. And, I want nothing to do with your proposal. I’m not interested in hearing it, Ryan.”
With his talk of control and submissives, I can’t help thinking his plan must be something kinky. A fetish of some sort.
He takes a parking spot, and I’m surprised to see we’re already at the City Memorial.
“You’re not even the least bit curious about what I want from you?”
I consider that. “You promise it has nothing to do with sex?”
“Not precisely, no.”
“Hmm,” I throw him a skeptical look. “Anyway, we’re here.” I’m about to leave the car when something occurs to me. “Listen, let me go in first. Give me ten minutes before you follow so they don’t think we came here together, okay?”
I push the door open and climb out but then lean back in. “Actually, make that twenty because I need to swing by the ground floor shop to get some balloons, okay?”
His brows furrow in displeasure, and he seems about to argue. But I shut the door, and I’m already striding across the lot before he can get a word out.
I buy a stuffed teddy and vinyl balloons from the shop. I feel a tad guilty about getting Lily Rose her first gift from the hospital shop rather than a proper toy store. There’ll be plenty more opportunities for that, I tell myself as I hurry through the hospital corridors to Brooke’s private maternity suite.
I breeze into the room, delighted to see that Bonnie and Sabrina are already here. So are Xavier’s parents, his grandmother, and his friends.
“Congratulations!” I beam, dragging the vinyl balloons into the room. “Brooke, sweetheart, I’ve heard how amazing—”
The door opens behind me, and I freeze mid-sentence. Ryan comes in and stands next to me. “Sorry we’re late, guys. We were held up by…” He pauses and throws me a suggestive look “traffic.”
Is he fucking kidding me right now? He agreed to wait! I shoot him a death glare, to which he responds with a self-satisfied smirk.
I grit my teeth into a smile then return my attention to the room which has suddenly grown silent. Xavier throws a meaningful glance at Brooke. Bonnie and Sabrina grin like a couple of cats that just gobbled up all the canaries in Manhattan.
And just like that, I know all our friends suspect that something went down. The one thing I asked him not to do.
Well, there goes your truce, jackass.
Chapter Six
Ryan
Two Weeks Later
Richard Fairchild levels me with his pale blue stare, his face a stern mask of composure and authority. My father is thought to be a hard but fair man, but for me, he’s always been a few laughs short of being normal.
“I know all about your deal with Marine Safe, son. You already sent me the report last week. That you still felt the need to lead with that begs the question of why you’re avoiding the real reason why you’re here.”
I drop my glass of scotch on the coffee table and lean back on the plush leather seat.
The library in the west wing of the Fairchild mansion is where my father calls his office. It looks more like a museum though, with its high arched ceilings and walls lined with thousands of books.
I’d finally flown into Seattle this morning, after weeks of my father’s repeated summons.
“Since you didn’t specify the reason, Pop, I can only imagine you needed me to explain in person how those deals came by. You’re coming to the end of your term, you might be getting cold feet, thinking I’ll tear the company apart.”
He doesn’t like to be called Pop, but, seeing as Mom calls him DILF, he can’t complain too much.
