When I woke up, I should have jumped from the bed and questioned what the hell did I do? I’d slept in, left my phone in my office, and had a dark-haired beauty draped around my body. Our bodies were still molded together where we’d both finally fell asleep after being fully satiated with fucking each other. Instead of fleeing from the bed in a panic, I did the opposite.
I shifted to where she rested her cheek against my shoulder so I could pull her in closer. After more rounds of sex than I deemed possible, and for the first time in too long, my mind was at rest. I shrugged off the immediate concern that was threatening to creep into my peaceful, rousing mind and thought only of this woman who made the impossible happen for me.
Last night was one for the books. She was a wildcat all night, and for the first time since renovating the manor, I put some of these museum-like rooms to good use. Aside from fantastic sex, the woman had a spark of energy that I didn’t think anything could put out. This is what I needed in life, I suppose—a fun, wild, adventurous, and fearless woman.
Don’t go down this road, Jim, I thought, but perhaps I could try to keep this going if she was interested. A relationship? I felt my stomach churn at the idea of letting her down. I pulled her in closer and kissed her forehead. I honestly didn’t know if I could handle the commitment. I didn’t know if I wouldn’t hurt her, and needless to say, her daughter. Don’t think for a second I’d forgotten she had a child while I lay here, contemplating if this could actually work between us.
I would never shy away from a single mom; in fact, I wanted to meet her daughter. That little girl was filled with so much life, and it made me smile when I saw her in the swimming video. She and her mother deserved so much more than a manipulative druggie in their lives.
I was going too fast and too far with all of this. It was how my mind worked, though. I had to consider everything before I took a risk on anything. With my company, it’s who I was. I weighed everything before I allowed an acquisition to play out. It wasn’t Mitchell and Associates first, though. A lot of CEOs wouldn’t see it that way, but I did. I didn’t run this business based solely on what was in it for us, but what was in it for the other company. Would Mitchell and Associates carry them into success or let them down? If the chances were that the business would fail, even with my company at the helm, I wouldn’t allow the contract to take place.
So, shit. Here I was, weighing my new-found feelings like a business transaction. What was I going to do next, call up my risk assessment team, and ask them if the relationship would work? I had to get up and get my day started.
I slid my arm out from underneath Avery and watched her pull the covers up to her face and smile behind closed lids. She was gorgeous, even while she slept. I wanted to stay in bed with her all day. It was still raining outside, and I had plenty of other rooms to explore sexually and honor her request of fucking in every last room of this place before we left. Who knows; maybe that could be done. That was the easiest request out of all of them to honor.
After a vigorous run in the rain, a hot shower, and plenty of time to reset my mind while baking a quiche for breakfast, I was determined to enjoy my time here and ignore the bullshit that awaited me when I got back to the office next week.
“Hey, handsome,” I heard the voice I’d been waiting for since waking at six this morning. “You let me sleep in.”
I had just finished eating my breakfast and was working on a fruit dish I’d put together while heading toward my office. “I figured you’d need the energy for taking on the rest of the rooms in the house,” I said with a wink.
She took the plate of food on the counter that I’d made for her. “I was going to wake you with that in bed.” I shrugged. “So much for that one; I completely forgot, having too much shit on my mind this morning.”
“So much for the breakfast in bed kind of guy I built you up to be,” she said, smiling, her eyes still sleepy, yet more beautiful every time I stared into them.
“No shit. It looks like the honeymoon’s over, gorgeous.”
She covered her mouth as she took another bite and swallowed. “Last night told me the honeymoon better not be over. This quiche tells me we need to renew our vows too.”
“But we were only just married, darling,” I teased.
“Yeah, I think we should remarry, and this time, no annulment.”
“You’re still after ninety percent of my business, eh?”
“I might relax and just take the whole company like I took its owner last night,” she teased with an arch of her brow.
“It’s a double-edged sword, sweetheart,” I said. “The money isn’t worth selling your soul, and you might have had your way with me last night, but this company would definitely have its way with you.”
“Goddamn,” she said. “Maybe I’ll stick to divorcing you, taking all the money, and leaving your butt to run the place.”
“So long as I still had your sexy ass to fuck?”
She shrugged. “I guess. The sex could stay too. You’re pretty good in bed.”
“Well, now that all of the legal issues are out of the way, perhaps we will remarry.” My phone rang, and it was Alex. Poor asshole tried calling me ten times, and I still hadn’t gotten back to him.
“Better get that.” She pointed at my phone with her fork. “I need a reason to divorce your ass, taking the money, and keeping the sex.”
I grinned as I left the room and called Alex back.
“All right, did you handle the shit with Brad and Mark?” he asked, breathing heavily, and I could tell he wasn’t taking things well.
I couldn’t blame him; I usually shouldered all of this bullshit, leaving Alex to hunt down and maneuver his skill toward advancing business deals. Handling dumb, random shit like sudden pullouts and our top investor backing out because of fucking Julia wasn’t in his wheelhouse. It was in mine.
“Alex,” I said steadily, “take a breath. You sound like you’re having a panic attack.”
“What the fuck do you expect me to say? I’m not comfortable sleeping one more night with Knights Aware and Dunlap going to hell on us, and for no good reason.”
“Calm the hell down. I’ll handle it. Jesus, Alex, you act like this is the first time someone’s tried playing games with us. We’re not responding to this until I get back.”
“Have you lost your goddamn mind, Mitchell?”
“No,” I said in a lower voice. “But I will lose my goddamn mind if you keep this shit going. Calm the fuck down. If you want to keep them on the line and dangle the fucking carrot of wealth in front of their faces until I get back, then go for it. Until then, go to bed.”
“This is not the James Mitchell that I know. You’d normally be ending your trip to London immediately and sit these people on their asses to fix this.”
“I’m not taking that route with either of them. You and I both know there is no better company than ours for either of them. They’re playing games, but I’m not playing along. I’m getting off this phone, and unless you have a fucking medical emergency or the building burns down, I want you to relax and not call me.”
The other end of the phone was silent.
“Are you still with me, Alex?”
“I’m wondering if you are still with me.”
“Can you just trust me on this? I’m not allowing anything to harm the company. If I felt concerned that everything was going to hell, you know I’d be on this.”
“Right.” He exhaled.
“Go to bed. I’ll check in later and stay up to date with any bullshit they try and come at us with.”
“All right. Then I’m going to get off the phone and do something I’ve never done before in my life—not give a fuck.”
“You do your job, and I’ll do mine. Right now, these fuckers can wait for my intervention on this bullshit when I get back. The ball is in our court.”
“You’re right. All right. I’ll call if anything comes up.”
“I’m checking emails, and then I’m out. Get some rest, man, because when I get home, we’ll be going at this hard until it’s resolved.”
“Got it. Later.”
Alex was pissed, and I knew precisely why—I wasn’t acting like myself. As the words left my mouth, though, they made sense. If we reacted to this like we were desperate, it would only make us look like the fools these dicks believed us to be. They weren’t getting responses until next week when I had them in my office to figure out what the fuck they were trying to pull on us.
I finished up as Avery walked out of her room, dressed in jeans and a sweater. “You up for a little tourist day in Gloucestershire today?” I asked.
She eyed me. “A tourist day? I think the question is, are you up for a little tourist day today?” She pulled her hair into a ponytail, “Last time we tried to go out, we almost got fake divorced.”
“I have a driver waiting,” I said with a smile. “I think you’ll like this tour. It’s about an hour away.”
“Don’t you have a car of your own?” she asked. “I mean, the whole driver thing seems a little over the top for us newlyweds.”
My lips twisted. “I use my driver so I can handle business on the road,” I answered honestly.
“Then I’ll be the driver,” she said.
“Avery.” I smiled. “Are you forgetting that they don’t drive on the same side of the road as Americans? The steering wheel is on the right side, not the left side of the vehicle. Your instincts will be completely turned around.”
She met me with that challenge I saw all night last night. “I think if I can handle you and that long ass dick of yours after three years of not having sex, I can handle a drive. Do you have anything other than the Rolls that brought us here?”
“You want to go without a driver that badly?” I asked.
“I want it to be just you and me,” she said with a smile. “It sounds fun, and your driver needs a vacation too. Why does he have to wait in the car while you and I go play?”
“He does whatever he wants after driving me—” I stopped myself, seeing her roll her eyes at my excuse. “All right. I have a few cars to choose from. I never drive the damn things, so maybe they could use some attention.”
“Do they just sit out here?” she asked with a laugh. “Will they even start?”
I smiled. “My driver lives on the property. He handles all the maintenance on my vehicles while I’m in the states. They work. I’ll even let you take your pick.”
“I’ll grab my purse, and we can get out of here. Damn,” she said. “I should have taken a run before this.”
I looked at her in confusion. She seemed to have a look of panic flash across her face. “It’s raining. Would you rather go for a run first? I can join you.”
“I’m good, taking off for a drive sounds like fun.” She smiled. “I need to take the edge off somehow.”
“Edge? Forgive me, I’m a bit confused.” I could tell something was on her mind and didn’t want to add to whatever it was.
“Yeah, it’s the fun life of dealing with shit.” She grinned. “I talked to Addy this morning, and it was lovely, but my ex was on one again last night. Long story. While I usually run this shit out of my system, a drive through the countryside sounds like it’ll do my wound-up nerves some good.”
“Perhaps we should get you behind a little horsepower? I was planning on taking you to Thornbury Castle.”
Her blue eyes widened and her smile radiated excitement. “Shut the hell up,” she said. “I saw that place in a brochure. It’s a Tudor Castle.”
“And supposedly haunted,” I teased.
“Show me the way to our car, and let’s go see a place that doesn’t require my time-traveling binoculars.”
“Oh,” I said, stopping her, “if you can pack an overnight bag, do so. Or perhaps I might rephrase that. Would you care to stay the evening there with me?”
She narrowed her eyes. “Will there be sex?”
I smiled and slipped my hands into my pockets. “I believe I might continue our evening, minus you screaming out my name through the castle corridors, of course.”
She looked at me in a way that I couldn’t discern. Her eyes seemed to gloss over as she bit down on her bottom lip. She sucked in a breath, smiled, and walked away in what I assumed was happiness that we were taking this last-minute trip.
