Bliss Brothers: The Complete Series Boxed Set, page 26
“Call you?” I bend down and kiss the side of her neck, a freakishly potent excitement coursing through my veins. “Call you—I don’t want to call you. I want you by my side, always. Or at least as long as you’ll put up with me.”
Claire frowns. “But I can’t be by your side. I have to go back to work. I have to go back to my job, since I turned down the offer from Roman.”
I swear I hear a record scratch, and I’ve never owned a record in my life.
“What offer from Roman?”
She takes a deep breath, her eyes searching mine. “He emailed me this morning to come in early. And when I got there, he offered me your job. He said you...you quit, and there was no convincing you to come back.” A proud smile lights up her face. “But I knew I couldn’t do that to you. Take your job? You love creating those events for people. What kind of person would I be, to love you and take your job at the same time? So I turned down the longer contract. It’s going to mean a couple rocky months while I finish the repairs on my house, but—”
“Hold on. Repairs? I know about the house. I don’t know about the repairs.”
“Oh, yeah.” Claire brushes a loose strand of hair away from her face. “The pipes have to be completely replaced. It’s a big job, and super expensive, but I’ll just—I’ll forge ahead with finding new clients. I’d rather do that than take your job from you. You should go back, Beau. It’s where you belong.”
“No.” I take her hand in mine. “Here is where I belong.” A storm of emotions is threatening to burst out of my chest like a baby alien. “Claire—you didn’t need to do that. You should go back and tell Roman you’ll take the job. How long have you even been living at that hotel? You made it seem like it was a weekend or two.”
She bites her lip. “Three months.”
“What? You’ve been living in a roadside motel for three months?”
“It’s a cute motel,” she says. “It’s clean, and—”
“And you had a shot to repair your house and then some and you turned it down for me?”
“Yeah. I did.”
I sweep her up into my arms. “That is the best fucking thing anyone’s ever done for me.” I kiss her like I mean it, because I do. I mean it more than anything. “But it’s crazy. It’s crazy, Claire.”
“It’s only crazy because I’m crazy about you.” Her eyes trail down to my lips like she could spend the next eternity kissing me.
I know exactly how she feels.
“I mean, crazy, Beau. Crazy. It keeps me up at night. And I didn’t want anything to stand in the way of seeing where this goes.”
“Not even succeeding as a professional?”
“That’s the thing. Why did I ever think that? It’s so dumb. And even if I can’t, even if I can only be with you, then I know which thing is worth more.”
“Money,” I say. “Having money to do house repairs, and, you know, live—that’s more important than wasting your time on a guy like me.”
“A guy like you. Somebody sweet and funny and romantic. Somebody who didn’t give up on me because I was frozen inside a shell of ridiculous expectations. Someone who swam me to the shore when my legs cramped and then carried me to the house.” Tears, real tears, come to her eyes. “You’re everything, Beau.”
“You’re everything.”
Claire tilts her face up and kisses me again, and my whole body reacts—every muscle, every nerve, every emotion. When she draws away again it’s like she’s leaving town for good. A shudder moves down my spine. I pull her closer.
“There’s just one thing,” she whispers.
“What’s that?”
“I’m all wet. And I could really use some help getting out of these clothes.”
20
Claire
“You are so tense. Relax your shoulders before they get stuck up by your ears.” Beau kneads his fingers into my shoulders, and what do you know? It works. I don’t know if he’s an expert at massage or I’m just obsessed with his touch. Probably both.
“It would help if I didn’t have this blindfold on.”
“I don’t know. I think you should keep it on for the rest of the evening. And the night.”
I try to slap him playfully on the arm, but he’s behind me and I’m blindfolded.
“Swing and a miss, sweetheart.” He kisses the side of my neck and a trail of goosebumps runs down to my fingertips.
“How much longer are we going to stand out here?”
That’s all I know about our location—we’re outside. The summer breeze ruffles my hair and the hem of my dress, and Beau stands close behind me, his hands on my arms.
“Until you’re ready.”
I straighten my back, then realize I’ve overdone it and relax. “I’m ready now. Nothing could possibly scare me with you by my side.”
“Right,” Beau says with a laugh. “I believe that.”
One week. It’s been one week. I finished out my original contract with Roman, then signed on to a new one lasting one year. At the end of that year, all parties involved can renegotiate. I can’t see myself wanting to do anything else, but never say never. Now that I’ve vanquished the demons of perfection, the doors to the world are wide open.
Kind of. They might not be totally vanquished yet, but I’m making an effort. So is Beau. He dropped the facade of partying all day and night and started coordinating his efforts with Jenny to set up a regular cocktail hour. As of today, he’s closed for all-night business.
“I’m ready,” I say, more decisively this time.
“All right.” Beau guides me forward. “Okay, stop.” He comes around to my side and takes my hand. “There’s one step, then two, then three—and we’re on the porch. Shit. I mean—we’re on a level surface.”
Three steps up to a porch. It sounds familiar enough, but it could be any number of buildings in Ruby Bay. We didn’t drive far enough to get out of town.
I hear a door opening, and a gust of cool air greets us from inside. It’s a welcome sensation on a hot day like this. Also, I’m starting to sweat slightly, and the more A/C the better. “Come on in.”
Beau guides me by the hand into this mystery location, and we make a left turn. “Ready to see where we are?”
“Yes.” I’ll explode if I have to wait any longer.
“Okay. One. Two. Three.” On three, he pulls the blindfold from my eyes, and a thousand people shout surprise! at me, including Beau.
My natural instinct is to jump into the air, turn, and run, but in the process of doing that I run right into Beau, who turns me around to face the room full of people.
The room full of people.
The...office? Full of people?
They’re all still clapping, and I grab him by the shirt. He’s wearing pressed slacks and a blazer—a real special occasion outfit. I don’t think I’ll ever know a version of Beau who doesn’t subscribe to the shorts and button-down look for everyday living, but this? This is nice, too. Every part of him appeals to me. “What is this?”
“This is your house. Well—it’s not fully a house anymore. We converted the downstairs into an office space and the upstairs into an apartment. It’s small, but it has a full kitchen and an extra bathroom.”
I knew I recognized the stairs leading up to the house, but they didn’t creak. They didn’t make a sound. They were rock solid.
“You renovated my house?”
“Yep.” He sticks his hands into his pockets. “We had all the pipes replaced, and every loose board replaced and refinished. Everything’s been painted and sanded and...renovated. But don’t ask me for too many details. I don’t know that much about building houses.”
The crowd, I’m seeing now, is full of familiar faces. Roman Bliss. Charlie, Beau’s twin. Driver, who’s still in town against all odds, according to Beau. Roman’s girlfriend, Jenny, and—
“Britt!” She steps out from the center of the crowd and comes to give me a big hug. I squeeze the air out of her, then squeeze some more, until finally she unwraps my arms from her neck and steps back to look at me.
“You’ve grown so much,” she says, wiping a fake tear from her eye.
“Did you have something to do with this?”
“Uh, yeah...I definitely did. I used some vacation days and oversaw this project for the men. They needed the help.”
“But how did you—how did all of you know?”
“Every business needs an office,” Charlie says, as if this is patently obvious. “But I think Beau had more in mind.”
Beau clears his throat, and I turn back to face him. “I wanted you to have your own office for when you take on outside clients. That’s allowed in your contract, by the way. You’re still an independent business, just with one main client. Am I right on that, Charlie?”
“One hundred percent.” Charlie does the finances for the Bliss Resort. Now he’s also helping with mine. My teeny-tiny, barely there business.
“And the apartment?”
“An escape,” Beau says. “In case you wanted an in-town getaway. Or you can use it to host your clients. I thought—” He pulls something from his pocket. “I thought we could make our living arrangement a bit more permanent. If you wanted that.”
I’ve spent every night of the past week at his house. I never want to leave. I go forward and snatch the key from his hand, pressing it to my chest. “Yes. Yes, yes, yes. Yes.”
“She says yes!” Beau calls out, and everybody else cheers.
I blink back happy tears. “But—what are you all doing here? You’re so dressed up. I’m so dressed up. It’s almost like a—”
“Dinner party,” Driver announces. “And that’s where I step in.” I turn back to the group and Beau wraps around me from behind, easily, like he’s done it all his life. I hope he does it for the rest of his life. I’m sure he will. “This is a one-of-a-kind dinner party,” Driver says with a wink. “Because one of us...is a murderer. And one of us...is going to be murdered.”
“Not really,” Beau murmurs into my ear. “But get ready for the twist.”
“I’m ready,” I tell him. And I mean it.
Epilogue
Driver
The murder mystery party goes late into the night, eventually moving locations back to the main pool at the resort. Rob closed up the bar, brought out a bottle of wine, and joined us.
In the end, Claire was murdered by Charlie, and the big twist was a surprise chocolate cake that she and Beau cut into on one of the tables by a pool. “Renovation cake,” Beau said, and then they acted out a scene from a wedding, with Claire putting a too-big slice into Beau’s mouth and Beau pretending to have an orgasm from the goodness of the cake.
That’s my brother.
They’re canoodling together now in a set of matching pool chairs, and I’m almost out of wine.
I drain the rest of the glass and carry it over to the bar. It’s nothing to rinse it out and put it in the sanitizer, but once I’ve done that, I don’t know where else to go.
Rob and Charlie are deep in conversation about…something I stopped listening to a long time ago. Jenny and Roman disappeared at some point, and Claire and Beau are deeply attached to each other's faces.
I’m attached to no one.
I kick off my shoes by one of the other pool chairs and take the gate out to the beach. The moon is a sliver tonight, but it’s oddly bright. That, combined with the glow from the pool, makes it easy to see while I walk down to the water.
The lake is calm.
Waves lap softly at the shore, waiting for the sun to rise. It was a cloudless day and a cloudless night, a brilliant sunset, and….
And so what?
I can’t tell if it’s supposed to mean anything. The breeze rustles through my hair and I breathe it in. It’s like some supernatural shit. I feel that breeze, and something inside of me says go.
I could do it right now.
In fact, I might do it right now.
Or in a couple of hours, once I’ve had a chance to let the wine clear my system but before the sun rises. I could be out of New York by noon tomorrow. Not even—I’d be out of the state well before then.
There are some deals I could chase out west. I’ve had them in mind for a while now.
That’s the thing. Lately, when I’ve been out there, I get homesick for Bliss. It’s happened the last three trips, and it doesn’t seem to matter which direction I go. East. West. North. South. The homesickness follows, and it doesn’t make any sense because there’s nothing I love more than pushing the speed limit on a dark road. There’s nothing I love more than the feeling of leaving.
Why would I want to stay?
I don’t.
“Hey.”
The voice is soft, about ten feet off to my left.
“I didn’t want to freak you out. But don’t mind me.”
A girl. A woman, walking in the sand, barefoot. I can only see her outlines—petite, with curves that call to that same place inside of me that loves the open road. Long hair, loose around her face. A little turned-up nose. A pilot light pings to life deep in my chest.
“You’re out late,” I say, then wonder if it was the creepiest possible decision.
“Yeah.” She comes to a stop next to me and turns so we’re both facing out over the lake. “It’s nice, this time of night. Quiet. Though this place isn’t always very…uh, serene.”
“I know all about that. I’m one of the Bliss Brothers.”
She wrinkles her nose. “I didn’t know.”
“It’s okay. In the summer, the parties can get a little loud.”
“I’ve been to a few. Is that your brother, who hosts them? Beau?”
“Sure is.”
“He seems nice. Not that we’ve ever…spoken. But he seems nice.”
“He is.” I feel a pang. Beau is nice, but nobody has ever looked at me the way that Claire looks at Beau.
Go, the voice says again—but this time it’s focused on her. Go toward her. Step a little closer.
“Were you coming to see if there was a party?”
“No. I couldn’t sleep,” she says, and I hear the honesty ringing in her voice. “I live a few properties down.”
Not houses—properties. Who is this woman?
Do I even want to know?
Yes. Yes, I do.
There’s a long silence. We listen to the waves. I listen to the wind in her hair, and the cadence of her breath.
“This might be weird,” she says, after a while. “But I don’t normally meet anyone out here that I want to spend time with.”
“Are you looking for somebody to spend time with?”
She turns to face me, her skin silvery in the moonlight. “Tonight I am.”
Go.
“I can stay one more night.”
“Your place or mine?”
A fire roars to life in the center of my chest and burns through every one of my veins. It’s so bright and hot I half expect to see it reflected in the water. Four simple words. That’s all it took.
“Mine’s closer,” I say.
“Let’s go.”
If you have to know what happens with Driver, read HOOKED ON YOU now!
It has everything:
✓ a hot one-night stand
✓ a pregnancy test
✓ a homebody and a man who needs the road
Turn the page and keep reading!
Hooked on You
1
Driver
The most gorgeous girl in the world is in my bed.
In my bed, in this instance, is a technicality. We’re not in it. We’ve destroyed it. At this moment, it’s a mattress with a fitted sheet surrounded by an explosion of cotton in a thread count of Who the Hell Cares.
I don’t care about anything, except the way she’s straddling me.
When I tell this story later, it’ll be simple: I met her on the beach, and I took her to bed.
It’s past late, edging into early, and everything about this moment is simultaneously hazy and oversharp, the details burning themselves into my brain.
My hands on the curves of her hips. My fingers pressing into the delicate bone there. The way it feels when I move one of them to brush the pad of my thumb over the soft, trimmed hair at the apex of her legs.
The way those legs are spread, one knee on either side, and the way I’ve taken her to the hilt.
No. She’s taken me.
She purses her rosy lips and braces her hands against my chest. “I’m going to do it again,” she murmurs.
“You’re going to kill me.”
She leans down, her hair falling in a curtain on either side of my face, and nips my bottom lip between her teeth. “I’m going to do it again,” she whispers.
“Don’t make promises you can’t keep.” I pulse inside her. My cock is an impatient bastard, and he wants her to move and move now, but my mind is half-drowned by the ridiculous pleasure of holding her hips in place.
Right until she rolls them.
Another burst of pleasure thunders on the heel of the movement. It curls my toes. It tenses my calves. Even my abs respond, tightening hard. “Not fair.” I can barely grunt out the words.
“What are you going to do about it?”
I answer by stroking a thumb against her clit, my other hand bracing her in place, and she drags her fingertips down my abs as she straightens her back. One circle and her head falls back, exposing her throat. Another circle and she clenches around me. Three, four, five—her hips dance to the rhythm of those tiny circles. She needs a tighter grip. I give it to her.
“Oh, you can’t—you can’t—”
“I can stop any time.”
