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“I know,” she said. He looked like he was going to kiss her. She salivated. Not every part of her could be schooled. “I just thought we’d get more time with each other. I’m used to having someone around. Johnny and I were together morning, noon and—”
“Don’t.” Beau pinned her with a look and dropped his hand. He inhaled through his nose. “Get mad at me if you want, but don’t bring him up. That’s the last fucking thing I want to hear after a long day.”
“You’re right. I’m sorry.” Johnny was a weapon that never lost its potency. It had as much effect on Beau now as it had their first night together when he’d lost his cool and fucked her up against the hotel window. Lola shivered at the memory and slid her arms up around his neck. “Ready for that kiss?”
He hummed a noise of approval. She rose onto the balls of her feet, threading her fingers in his hair, bringing his lips down to hers.
“This right here,” he said, “may be the greatest threat to my work. How am I supposed to focus knowing you’re here waiting for me each night?”
“That’s all I want,” she whispered. She rested her forehead against his and opened a vein. It was necessary, sometimes, to tell the truth in order to draw him in. To feel the things she tried not to. “To be enough for you to leave work early.”
“You are. I’m not the kind of man who leaves work early, though, and you knew that. I love what I do, even more so now, because it enables me to give you what you want.”
“But…you’re what I want. Not clothing or parties or cars. I want time, and I want it with you.”
He pulled her closer by the small of her back so they were flush against each other. “You make an excellent case,” he whispered in her ear, as if someone might hear. “Let me make it up to you.”
She shook her head. “Not yet.”
“That’s not what I’m getting at. Tonight, I’m all yours. I’ll shut off my phone, and we can talk and catch up. All night long, if that’s what it takes.”
Lola pulled back a little. “But you have to work in the morning.”
“Don’t worry about that. I’ve done it before, if you recall.”
Lola narrowed her eyes. The corner of her lip twitched. “Aren’t you getting a little old to pull so many all-nighters?”
He laughed, slapping her rear end lightly. “Sounds like you don’t think I can do it. Is that a challenge, Miss Winters?” He released her and walked away, disappearing into the pantry.
She gave in to her smile. “Does that always work on you?”
“What?” he called.
“Well, for example—if I were to tell you I don’t believe you can do laundry, would you do it just to prove me wrong?”
“I do laundry just fine.” Beau came out with a bag of ground beans. “I’m going to put a pot on. Let’s move this to the couch.”
Lola took the coffee from him. “I’ll make this. I’m sure you’re dying to get out of your suit.”
He kissed her quickly on the lips and brushed a lock of her hair from her forehead. “Have I said how much I love having you around to take care of me?”
Lola caught herself grinning after he’d left the kitchen and quickly wiped the smile from her face. She had an entire, uninterrupted night to worm her way into his heart. And he wasn’t going to lay a hand on her. For as obstinate as he could be, Beau wasn’t as difficult to move around the playing board as she would’ve thought.
Once the coffee was ready, she poured two mugs and met Beau in his den. It was the only room besides his that was remotely comfortable, and while he rarely spent any time in there, she frequently did.
Lola sat beside him on the couch and handed him his drink. He clinked his mug with hers. “To keeping my dick in my pants another night—Lord knows it isn’t easy.”
She laughed and pushed his shoulder. “I’m not drinking to that.”
“All right.” He winked. “To quality time.”
They both took a sip, and she set her cup on the coffee table. She scooted closer to him and ran her fingers over his hairline, just above his ear. “So, why was it such a long day?”
“I don’t want to talk about work.” He readjusted to face her better. “What’d you do today?”
“Slept in.”
He raised his eyebrows at her. “You don’t say. Then what?”
“I read the newspaper. Looked up some stuff online. Before I knew it, it was almost time to start dinner, so I went grocery shopping.”
“Sounds nice.” He cleared his throat and rubbed her knee. “It makes me happy that you don’t have to work. But have you thought about doing something more…um—doing something else with your free time?”
Lola rolled her lips together. Of course she’d thought about it. She was bored all the fucking time wandering around this shell he called a home or going shopping for things she knew she’d have to leave behind. She wanted a job, and not just because she knew a million dollars wouldn’t last forever. But there was no point in getting one when she was leaving soon.
“I’ve thought about it a little,” Lola said. “It’s just so nice not to have to bust my ass cleaning up after drunk idiots anymore.”
“You were wasting your potential at Hey Joe. I knew it the minute I walked into that dump.”
She cocked her head. “But I have no other skills.”
“Go back to school.” His eyes lit up, and he shifted his body even more toward her. “I have connections at UCLA and USC. It wouldn’t be a problem to set you up there.”
Lola felt a little like moving away from him, but she stayed where she was. It was Beau’s kneejerk response to any problem—how could his money and status solve it so he didn’t have to?
“I suppose you’d also be willing to pay my way,” she said.
“Why wouldn’t I?” He shrugged. “Look, I’d have absolutely no problem with you staying home every day and doing nothing if I thought it’d make you happy. Plenty of guys I know have wives who do that and go to expensive luncheons every month so they can call themselves philanthropists.” He sipped his coffee. “That’s not you, though. You can do whatever you want now. You never let yourself have dreams and aspirations before, but there’s nothing holding you back anymore.”
Lola also picked up her mug and took a drink, hiding her face for a moment. If he kept pushing her, everything she’d been thinking lately might come pouring out. There were lots of things she wanted to do, and going back to school was one of them. She’d been debating between majoring in graphic design or business. Maybe both. She wasn’t limited—she could be a goddamn mechanic i
f she wanted. But she wasn’t focusing on herself yet. It was Beau’s time in the spotlight.
She changed the subject. “What if there’re other things I want to do first?”
Beau settled back, crossing his arms. “Such as?”
“I want to travel. I’ve never been past Vegas.”
Beau nodded approvingly. “Where should we go? Paris? Bali? New York City?”
She hadn’t lied earlier—she really had spent a good portion of her day kicking back, researching things to do around the country. “That’s a little ambitious. Did you know the world’s largest ball of twine is right here in the United States?”
“It’s nothing to write home about.”
She smirked. “You haven’t seen it.”
“You’re right, I haven’t. Big balls don’t do anything for me. But if they impress you, I can show you a couple—”
“Don’t even.” Lola rolled her eyes, grinning.
“You have the whole world to choose from, and you pick—where’d you say this ball was?”
“Kansas. Where would you go if you were me?”
“I’ve been a lot of places. For me, it’s less about what I’m seeing than how it makes me feel.”
“So what’s made you feel?”
“Hard to say. There’s so much to choose from.” Beau blinked away, drank a little coffee. He looked into his mug.
Lola studied him. He seemed to forget she was there for a moment. “What are you thinking about?” she asked.
He glanced up. “The last trip we took as a family before my dad died was the Grand Canyon. Standing there, the world seemed so big. So many possibilities. It was the first time I started to think I could do something with my life. If there were things out there like the Grand Canyon I still didn’t know existed, then there must be a way for me to find them.”
“Always so serious,” Lola murmured. She laced her fingers with his. If she ever came across a little boy like the one Beau had been, she vowed to buy him an ice cream or tell him a dirty joke. There were consequences to taking oneself so seriously. “Have you been back?”
