Wright with Benefits, page 14
I met his gaze. My cousin and the only person who had ever felt like an older brother to me. “You’re right.”
I passed him my beer and left.
Annie still wasn’t back. It had been long enough. She wasn’t going to like me stepping in, but she was going to have to deal with that. I tried to tamp down on the anger. I didn’t want to blow up on her and lose all the ground that we’d gained. But it was hard to temper my rising fears and redirect them to something manageable.
I wrenched open the front door, prepared to head out into the darkened exterior and find Annie. But before I took the first step out, Annie stumbled forward, her hand on the doorknob.
“Oh,” she gasped with a laugh. Her eyes lifted to mine. “Jordan, hey!”
“Sorry,” I said automatically. “I didn’t know you were there.”
Obviously.
“No problem,” she said, straightening. “It got dark really fast. We didn’t realize how late it was.”
I stepped back to let her inside.
Chase followed behind her. He shot me a smug smirk. “You must be the boyfriend.”
The boyfriend? The boyfriend? Was I the boyfriend? Had she told him that? Or was he fucking with me? From the look on his face, I was a hundred percent certain that he was fucking with me.
“Be nice,” Annie said with another carefree laugh. “Jordan, this is Chase. Chase, Jordan.”
I closed the door behind them and turned to face Chase Sinclair. He held his hand out, and I put mine in his. We both squeezed harder than necessary. Until my hand was cramping and I could see the wince in his eyes before he abruptly let go. I tried not to look self-satisfied, but I’d clearly failed because Annie sighed in frustration.
“Chase and I grew up together,” Annie explained. “He’s in town to buying a house.”
“You’re moving here?” I asked, sizing him up.
He was such a fucking pretty boy. I couldn’t believe that Annie had ever been into this guy. She didn’t seem the type to want a guy who spent more time getting ready than she did. I was being petty and didn’t fucking care.
“Yeah. Next week,” Chase said smoothly. “We’ll be seeing a lot more of each other.”
I could hear the threat in his voice and wanted to punch him in the face. I clenched my hands into fists. Tried to remember all the reasons not to deck this guy as he’d all but said he was gunning for Annie.
“Jordan, let’s go get a drink,” Annie said. She stepped between us, putting her hand on my arm, as if she could tell that I was about to blow my top. She smiled at Chase. “Need anything? We can get it.”
“I’m good,” Chase said and then left for the living room.
Annie dragged me into the kitchen and away from the rest of the party. Thankfully, the kitchen had cleared out. The game was about to start, and everyone wanted to watch kickoff. I had a ticket for how far kickoff went, but I couldn’t seem to care.
“All right,” she said, opening the fridge and looking through the choices. “What are you drinking? Shiner Bock? I don’t know if I’m up for beer.”
“Annie,” I said carefully.
She pulled out a wine cooler with a shrug and then smiled up at me. “You look mad,” she said, deflating.
“I’m not mad.” Yes, I was. “I’m trying to figure out what happened.”
“Chase is a really old friend.”
“Ashleigh mentioned a pact?”
She sighed. “Ashleigh should mind her own business.”
“Is she wrong?”
“No,” Annie said as she popped the top on her drink. “But Chase and I aren’t like that anymore. We’re just friends.”
“We’ve been telling everyone that we’re just friends, too, Annie.”
She cringed. “That’s not what I meant. We dated in high school. That pact was just…” She trailed off and waved her hand. “Anyway, he only wanted to talk because he’s dating someone serious. He wanted to tell me in person and show me the ring.”
I released a breath, unclenching my hands. “You could have led with that.”
She laughed and leaned into me. “And miss watching you sweat?”
“Cruel and unusual punishment, love.”
“Even if he wasn’t, you don’t have anything to worry about, Jordan. Didn’t you hear what he said when he came in?”
“What was that?”
“That you’re my…boyfriend,” she said the last word softly, looking down.
I paused. “I thought he was fucking with me.”
She met my gaze. “He wasn’t.”
“Am I…your boyfriend?”
She bit her lip. “Do you want to be?”
“I don’t want to be if you’re only doing it because your ex showed up.”
“That’s not why,” she said in exasperation.
“You drew the line in the sand.”
“And I’m the one crossing it,” she said and then pressed her lips to mine.
I pulled her tight against me. She tasted like home, and I didn’t want to fucking let her go. If seeing her ex was the way that she’d realized we were finally dating, I guessed I’d take that.
My hand slipped lower to the hem of her skirt and then ran up her leg. I pressed her back into the kitchen counter. She made a breathy sound of protest but kept kissing me. I wanted to go further, heft her up onto the granite countertop, hike her skirt up, and take her right here.
Just as I considered how to do that fast enough so we wouldn’t be interrupted, a throat cleared behind us. We pulled apart, and I found Emery standing in the entrance.
“The game started,” she said with a gleam in her eye.
“Thanks,” Annie said breathlessly. “We’ll be right there.”
Emery nodded, grabbing a water out of the fridge and disappearing again.
Annie tilted her head back and laughed. “Whoops.”
“I have no regrets.”
“Me either,” she said, pressing a kiss to my lips again. “But we should probably go.”
“Yeah, I need to see if I won any of these.” I dug the tickets out of my pocket.
Annie laughed and grabbed a few of them, reading them to herself. “Oh, perfect! I want the jackpot!”
I grinned at her as she headed back toward the living room. But then I snagged her before she walked through the doorway.
“What?” she asked, looking up from the tickets.
“If I’m your boyfriend now,” I said carefully, “can I make a request of you?”
She arched an eyebrow. “What do you have in mind?”
“I want to go to Seattle with you.”
She startled. “For my interview?”
“Yeah. A lot of my friends live in Seattle, and I haven’t seen most of them in a few years. Plus, I wouldn’t mind getting away with my girl.”
She melted. “With your girl?”
“Yeah. What do you think? We could go early and see the city.”
“Well, I already have my ticket and room. I don’t think that I could get it moved,” she said, worry coming to her voice.
“Why don’t you let me take care of all of that?”
She narrowed her eyes. “Why does that concern me?”
“Come on. You’ve always wanted to see Seattle. Let me show you.”
She wavered for a second before nodding. “I’d love that.”
Part IV
The Boyfriend
24
Annie
Jordan had promised to “take care” of everything for this trip to Seattle. In fact, he’d told me to cancel my flight and the hotel I’d booked near Harborview Medical Center. The hospital was near downtown Seattle and the site of the University of Washington’s emergency medicine residency program. I wasn’t exactly sad about the hotel. It was the cheapest option that I could find in the area that wasn’t a total dump. But still, I’d chosen it, and I didn’t know what Jordan would choose.
We were in his truck at some ungodly hour. I held my coffee mug tight to my body, promising to never forsake it. We took the turnoff for the airport, and my knee jiggled nervously. I twirled my claddagh ring around and around and around in between sips of coffee.
Jordan just smiled at me. He could tell that I was nervous, but it wasn’t about us. I actually felt pretty great about us at this point. I’d been avoiding it for so long, but now that we were dating, we fit together perfectly. Like we were always meant to do this.
It was more that I liked being in control. I’d been one of those weirdos who hated surprises and snuck in to find out what my Christmas presents were so that I didn’t have to wait. And now, I wanted to know all the secrets he held up his sleeve.
Instead of heading into the regular airport, Jordan directed me to another entrance.
“What’s this?”
“You’ll see,” he said.
I could do nothing but follow. We walked through a small security area that I’d never seen before and then directly onto the tarmac.
I froze in place.
“Jordan,” I whispered.
He smiled brilliantly, that blinding smile. “Come on, Annie.”
“What are you doing?”
“Flying you to Seattle.”
“Yourself?” I squeaked.
He laughed. “No, I’m not flying the plane, but we are taking the Wright jet.”
“We’re flying private?”
He walked back to me and put an arm around my waist. “I told you that I’d take care of it.”
“I’ve never flown private. This is…too much.”
“It’s really nothing. Jensen uses it primarily to see Colton. He wasn’t flying this weekend, so he said it was free.”
“Jordan,” I groaned again.
It was one thing to know that your boyfriend was a billionaire with a private jet. It was another thing to see it in person.
He smiled and moved me forward to the awaiting plane. A man approached and took our luggage to be stored below. Then I was climbing the stairs and into the private jet.
It was everything I’d expected and more. Plush leather seats with plenty of open room to walk around. A full-service bar with dining seating.
“There’s a bedroom in the back, too,” Jordan said as I marveled at the expensive interior.
“You’re joking.”
He laughed. “Go check it out.”
I rushed like a kid in a candy store straight to the back of the private plane. I passed the flight attendant, who chuckled as I opened a door that led into a small bedroom. It was mostly a bed, but who the fuck cared? It was a bedroom in a plane, and I was flying on it. What even?
I darted back out to the cabin and found Jordan sliding a computer out of his bag. “There’s a bedroom.”
He nodded. “There is.”
“Are you going to work?”
“I have some things to catch up on, but I don’t plan to work the whole time.”
“Oh good. There’s a bedroom,” I repeated.
He grinned. “Yes.”
I was definitely planning to join the Mile-High Club later, and was reconsidering my thoughts about surprises. Maybe Jordan could surprise me if this was his idea of a surprise.
The benefit of a bed on the plane was that after we joined the Mile-High Club, I could sleep a few extra hours. So, when we finally touched down in Seattle, I was rested. It was hard, switching my schedule around for the interview. This would help me adjust back to daytime.
A black Mercedes waited to pick us up at the airport. I shouldn’t have been surprised, but somehow, I was. I peered out the window of the car as we drove toward downtown.
It was a typical Seattle day—foggy, overcast, and rainy. So, I couldn’t see much of anything. Just hazy buildings and people walking the streets, huddled over in rain jackets.
“There aren’t that many people with umbrellas,” I mentioned.
Jordan glanced out my window. “Yeah, you get used to the rain. It’s like this in Vancouver.”
“Huh. I guess that makes sense.”
We were in his territory now. I was out of my depth, and I loved it. I just wanted to dive out into the rain and explore.
The Mercedes parked out in front of the Four Seasons. I managed to keep my jaw from dropping as we were whisked inside the hotel with soaring ceilings and marble everything. Jordan checked us in, and we took an elevator up to the very tip-top floor.
“What did you do?” I asked again as I stepped into the penthouse suite.
It was enormous. Way, way too big and too fancy for two people. It should have housed celebrities…not me.
“Jordan,” I whispered.
“You let me take you away,” he said, as if that were answer enough.
I plastered myself to the full glass windows overlooking Pike Place Market and the bay beyond. It was still cloudy, but enough light peeked through to give me an uninterrupted view of Seattle. I was already in love.
Jordan moved to stand next to me. When I glanced at him, it looked as if he were seeing something other than Seattle from the window. He almost looked sad.
“Does it rain like this in Vancouver?”
“Yeah. Just like this.”
“It’s not far from here, right?”
“No, it isn’t.”
I saw the nostalgia in his eyes. “Do you miss it?”
“Sometimes,” he said, pushing away from the window. “I miss all the luxuries of living in a big city and my friends, of course. But I’ve learned to like the sunshine.”
“And you have family in Lubbock.”
“Yeah. I wouldn’t say I’m used to that yet. It’s growing on me that I don’t only have Julian to rely on.”
I reached out and threaded our fingers together. “They like having you there, too.”
“I’m glad. It wasn’t an easy decision to make.”
“Why did you end up making it?”
He shrugged out of his jacket and tossed it onto an armchair before running his hand down his face and sinking into it. “I don’t know. Part of me still thinks it was because of you.”
“What?” I asked in confusion. “But…I don’t understand.”
“I’d been thinking about it for a long time. I couldn’t reconcile how I could leave the company I was running in Vancouver, but I wanted to go with my mom and Julian. Jensen tried to convince me, but I turned him down. So, I think it was because when I was with you, you made me feel like I was finally free.”
I stared at him in shock. “But…we didn’t date.”
“No, you hated me for so long because of Missy, which was definitely a mistake on my part. I didn’t know that before I moved there. I was just chasing that feeling.” He shrugged. “I wanted to be there for my family anyway. So, it worked out.”
“Did you want to date me all this time?” I asked softly. A thought I had never considered.
My heart was pounding. This was revelatory. Surely, Jordan Wright hadn’t been…waiting for me.
“Yes.”
I sank into the chair across from him, my hand going to my mouth. “Why didn’t you…do anything before this?”
He chuckled derisively and held his hand out. “I did. Multiple times. You turned me down, and then you started avoiding me.”
I flashed back to when he’d first moved to town. How he tried to put the whole bringing his girlfriend to the wedding thing behind us. He did try to ask me out, and I laughed in his face. He did it again, and I was sure he was being an ass. Making fun of me or something. That he was purposefully cruel. And then I had started avoiding him. It had been easier.
“Wait…you were for real when you first moved here? I thought you were joking!”
He shook his head. “I was serious. I was interested in you.”
“Wow.”
I was still processing when he came to stand before me. He held his hand out, pulling me up.
“The past is the past. We can’t make up for the last three years when we were both technically too busy to be dating anyway. So, why don’t we go out and enjoy the rainy day while we can?”
I nodded. “I’d like that.”
We set out from the Four Seasons and straight to Pike Place Market. I convinced someone to take a picture of us posed in front of the famous red sign. Then we wandered through the market stalls. We watched people throwing fish at the Fish Market and drank coffee at a local spot.
By the time we got back that night, I was exhausted, brimming with excitement and freezing from the perpetual rain. Jordan stripped my clothes off and tugged me into the shower as soon as we got back.
From there, we tumbled straight into the enormous bed, and I lost myself in this amazing guy. The one who had wanted me from the beginning. Who had put up with the friends with benefits scenario. And who had done all of this as soon as I was finally his.
On our one-night stand, I’d fallen for Jordan Wright. And now, I was pretty sure I was in love with him.
25
Jordan
When Annie got ready to go to the hospital for her tour and interview, I was still in bed. We’d been up way too long. Probably later than we should have been, all things considered. Even though I should have gone for a run and checked in at work, I lounged lazily in bed.
“Jordan!” Annie called from the bathroom.
I leaned up on my elbows at the concern in her voice. “Yeah?”
She ran back inside. “Have you seen my claddagh ring?”
“Uh, no. Where did you last have it?”
She shook her head. “I don’t know. I had it in the car on the way here because I was playing with it. I don’t remember after that.”
“I’m sure it’s here.”
I hopped out of bed and started a meticulous search of the suite. It was large enough that it could be anywhere. But it could be on the plane or at the market or the coffee shop, too. She was already panicking though, so I didn’t say any of that.
“Any luck?” she asked, her voice laced with hysteria.
“No.”
“I think I had it before the shower. I remember taking it off and leaving it by the sink.” Tears welled in her eyes as she looked at the sink. “What if it fell down the drain? I’ve had that since I was eighteen.”
