“Of course. I can always have Jeannine bring more if you feel up to the challenge.”

He laughed and waved his hands in defeat. “No, no no. I couldn’t possibly.”

I chuckled and took a much needed pull from my ice water, letting the cool liquid quench a thirst only Rory managed to create. I casually glanced around the restaurant as the men chatted amongst themselves between bites of chocolate, hunting for a pair of blue eyes that had the ability to see into my soul.

I found him by the door, readying to leave. He winked at me as he pressed his fingers against his lips. The fingers that I knew were enveloped in the scent unique to the two of us together, and a warm chill raked over my skin. He’d said what we had was real. He’d felt what I did. Maybe not love, but he was with me. And he was mine.

Another moment and he turned out of the door, leaving me with a pleasant ache between my thighs and a raw craving for more.

 

I hit up the local boutiques after the luncheon. A celebration/distraction trip that doubled as a time-killer until Jeannine closed up. After she’d locked the doors well after midnight, she poured us both drinks, and we sat at the bar.

“You did what in my bathroom?” She nearly spit out her club soda after I’d quickly confessed my sin of the day. She wiped her mouth with the back of her hand.

“I’m sorry?” I downed a gulp of scotch and soda.

She waved me off. “It’s already cleaned up by now.”

I laughed. “God, Jeannine we didn’t make a mess.”

“Sure, sure. You know I spent over a hundred grand on those bathrooms and you go and get your ladybits all over—”

“Jeannine!” I held my side from laughing so hard, her joining in as she shook her head.

“It’s all right. That’s another one off the list right?”

I nodded, unable to contain my smile.

“You’ve got it bad.”

“I’m afraid I do.” I took another gulp and turned to face her. “Now, tell me all the consequences of giving my heart to a notorious bad boy Shark. Tell me the risk of loving someone who is capable of ruining my public persona. Tell me all of it, Nine, because I’ve kept the thoughts at bay all day and now they’re consuming me.”

“Whoa,” Jeannine said, pouring me another drink and sliding it in front of me. “First, drink some more. Then take a damn breath.”

I obeyed, drinking and breathing and trying to shove every reason I knew I shouldn’t be with Rory in a box labeled save for later.

Jeannine studied me with weary eyes. “You said love.”

I nodded. “I don’t know if he loves me. I know that we have something…maybe I’m crazy.” I pinched the bridge of my nose.

“Don’t belittle it,” she said. “You two have some serious chemistry working. Anyone can see it.”

“And that’s the problem, isn’t it? People who can see. Sure we’re doing okay in the media’s eyes now, but what if he slips? What if he gets arrested again? What if he goes back to bed-hopping and I’m left looking like the idiot girl who was swept away by a Shark?”

“He’s not stupid enough to do any of those things.”

“I hope you’re right, but my head…” I smacked my palm against my forehead. “My damn business head is telling me to run away now before I fall worse.”

“I know you’re required to think like that, but seriously? How can you turn your back on something like the two of you have? If I had a man who could distract me enough to make me forget I was in a restaurant bathroom, let alone a meeting? I’d put a death-grip and a ring on it.”

I laughed and finished the contents of my drink.

“What does your heart say?” Jeannine asked.

“That I’m in love with him.” I rested my forehead on the bar. “But he drives me insane.”

“I can see that.”

I tossed my head up. “No, you don’t get it. He makes me think terrible things.”

She arched an eyebrow at me. “Like what?”

I polished off my scotch. “Like maybe I don’t care what happens if I lose everything else, as long as I have him.”

She hissed and poured me another. “That’s the dirty-girl in you talking, and I’m beyond glad the list and Rory has brought her out in you, but you’ve got to find the balance between the brilliant woman you are—and all the responsibilities that go with her—and the girl who needs to cross off everything on that list.”

“I don’t care about the list anymore. I care about being out of control of my own choices.”

“You’re in control, Paige. You always are. You just need to figure out a way to manage both.” She placed her hand on my back.

“What if I can’t? What if the only thing I manage is to fuck everything up.”

Jeannine raised her glass to mine and clinked the rim. “You won’t.” After a good, long drink she set her glass on the bar and leaned on her elbows to get close to me. “But if you do I’m always hiring.”

I chuckled and rubbed my palms over my face. They still smelled like Rory’s skin and the ever-present craving for his presence wrenched in my core. I silenced it with a prayer that I could find the balance Jeannine spoke of. Find a way to be the woman the world and my company needed me to be, and the woman who loved Rory Jackson with her whole heart. Now I had to hope he wouldn’t crush it.

 

 

Chapter 13

 

 

Rory

 

 

“One more time, Uncle Rory!” Lettie squealed as I pushed her on the swing on the fort I’d help Gage build for her fourth birthday. I sucked in a deep breath, ignoring the stitch in my side. Forget grueling hockey practices, Lettie could outlast Coach and half the Sharks on the team.

I held up my finger, exaggerating my need for oxygen a little for theatrics. “One. More. Time.”

She giggled, her cute little smile stretching across her tiny face as she wiggled in the seat of the swing.

“Hang on tight,” I whispered as I pulled the swing back slowly, dragging out the anticipation before letting her fly.

Her delighted scream filled the backyard and was infectious enough to have me laughing too.

“Ready to crank out a kid?” Gage asked, handing me a beer as he returned from his trip to the cooler on the back patio.