AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I press my chest to hers, my thighs to hers, and finally, my lips to hers. “This is gonna be great.”
“Probably gonna hate each other by the end of the week.”
I smile and nibble on her lips. “But what if it goes the other way? What if we have the most amazing time and you agree to be mine forever?”
The beauty of being this close means I can feel when her heart gives a heavy thud. “I kinda already agreed to that.”
“Yeah?” I give one more nip of her lips as the elevator doors ding open in the dark parking garage. “Forever?”
“Despite my common sense and all the alarms ringing in my brain that you’re probably gonna be a terrible husband, it would seem I’m stuck.”
“Yourhusband?” I pull back with wide eyes. “Whoa, Elizabeth. We’ve onlyjustmet. You’re gonna scare me off with this commitment talk.”
“I hate you.” She shoves me off so hard that I drop my suitcase, then pushing out of the elevator, she stalks into the unknown and frowns at the fleet of cars awaiting us. “Which one is yours?”
“All of them.” I stop beside her and laugh when she looks up with a filthy glare. “Oh, you mean which one are we taking today?” Juggling my bags, I take a set of keys from my pocket and beep open the black Range Rover three along in the row. I don’t bother taking her hand or leading her there. She’s too independent for that, so I walk ahead and toss my things into the trunk.
Libby already packed her bags, so I jog to the car Olly drove us here in and take them from the trunk, then I toss them onto mine and laugh when, instead of sliding into the luxurious vehicle, Lib folds her arms and lifts a brow. “Do you wanna know what I think?”
“It’s a high possibility I don’t. No doubt you’re gonna tear me apart with your words.” I open her door, and grab her elbow when she refuses to move. I lead her in, help her climb up, and when she settles into the soft leather and makes a soft groan at the back of her throat, I laugh and jog around to my side. As soon as I climb in, I turn to her and lift a brow. “What, Libby? What do you think?”
“If you fired all of your servants, the cooks, the cleaners, the assistants, and if you drove one single regular car, instead of seventeen different luxury vehicles, you would never have to eat turkey again. You could afford the good stuff.”
I switch the engine on and smile when the dash lights up and Lib’s eyes, even against her wishes, widen with surprise. She’s impressed. And it bothers her that she’s impressed.
“Do you wanna know whatIthink?” I pull out of my parking space and head toward the garage door.
“Probably not. You’re gonna have a witty reply, which will annoy me, and when we have sex tonight, it’ll annoy me that I wasn’t able to hold out on my silent promise not to give it up.”
I stop at the garage doors, scan a card over the sensor outside, and turn to her as the doors slide open. “When did you make that promise to yourself? But also, sex tonight sounds perfect. Thanks.”
Her eyes narrow. “About three minutes from now when you say somethingelsethat annoys me.”
I chuckle and speed out of the garage and up the steep driveway to enter the street. “Well, I’ll do my best not to annoy you. I really want you tonight. You can come into it with whatever mood you want, but your body… that’s mine.”
“You’re a pig.”
I smile. “Do you wanna know why I have those people on my staff? Do you wanna know why my high-maintenance ass has to have a cook?”
Reaching into a small leather bag, Libby fishes around for a moment until she locates what she wants. Pulling out a pair of sunglasses, she slides them on and makes me smile when she turns to me and grins. “Sure, explain to me why youneedsomeone to cook and clean for you.”
“Because Marianne, the woman who stocks my house, is a single mom with three sons. One of those sons is immunosuppressed. He gets sick often and needs someone home with him all the time. Her second son has problems with crowds. He gets overwhelmed and lashes out if people are all up in his space.”
“Okay…”
“So I give her a job where she can be with her boys all the time. She’ll cook me a meal, but her sons are nearby all the time. She literally can’t put the youngest into school yet, because of his immune system. That also means no daycare and no preschool. The kid who doesn’t like crowds tried school, but it wasn’t working out for them. Now she and her boys have a full-time residence that is all theirs. They never have to worry about eviction or any of the bullshit. She cooks me a meal right alongside cooking her kids’. She washes my laundry, right alongside her kids’. She takes care of my needs so that I don’t have to waste time on it, and in exchange, I give her–”
“Stability.”
I smile. “Right. She’s already cooking and cleaning, so why not extend that out to me? She’s paid well, her home and food is taken care of, and her health insurance covers her and her kids’ needs. When she needs to take off because her youngest is in the hospital getting treatments, I cook my own turkey, and everyone is okay.”
“See, it really annoys me that your reasons are honorable and sweet as hell.”
I chuckle and slow at a set of lights. “Annaliese, my assistant–”
“Is really, horribly beautiful. I hate her, and I hate you, because I know you’ve gone there. I know your type, Gunner. And I know you’ve bumped uglies with that beautiful woman.”
“Well…” I push the car into gear when the lights turn green. We’re heading to the interstate, and in the small town closest to my cabin, we’ll stop for groceries. “Yes, we have.” I swing out and snatch her hand when she turns away. “Relax, Libby. It was a long time ago, but her work ethic is better than her performance in bed.”
She turns to me with a wrinkled nose. “Ew!”
“My point is, she’s worth more to me as an assistant than she was as a fuck buddy. So we severed those extra ties, and our professional relationship remains exactly that; professional. She’s good at what she does. In fact, without her, my company would suffer. Annaliese raised her little sister when their folks died in a car accident when she was seventeen. She never went to college, she never pursued her dreams of becoming an artist. But you can bet your ass she works herself to the bone for me in exchange for college tuition for her sister. I pay for the sister’s degree, Annaliese is thankful and would never jeopardize her position at my company, so you have nothing to worry about.”
“She’s so pretty.” Libby’s chin juts out with a pout. “It bothers me that she knows everything you need for her to be your most valuable employee. You don’t need me like you need her.”
“That’s a lie. Yes, I need her to run the company, but I need you to breathe. So without you, there is no company, there’s no Griffin. There’s nothing, which means Marianne’s world, and Annaliese’s sister’s degree, all of the other employees that have similar stories, they all depend on you. Without you, there’s no me.” I bring her hand up to my lips. “I need you, Lib. So don’t stay mad for long, okay?”
