CHAPTER 4
Zeke
“She didn’t believe me when I said I wanted her,” I muttered unhappily to my friend, billionaire tech mogul, Jett Lawson.
Jett’s fiancée, Ruby, had left his penthouse with Lia. The moment Lia had told Ruby that she needed to plan a second wedding in a hurry, the two of them had hightailed it out of the building to go arrange the event.
Ruby had met Lia first, and in addition to being friends, the two women saw each other almost every day since Ruby supplied the baked goods for Lia’s coffee shop, Indulgent Brews.
In spite of the fact that Jett Lawson was one of the richest men in the world, he was a nice guy, and we’d become friends, too.
Hell, maybe misery did love company. Jett was trying to give Ruby some time and space before their wedding took place because Ruby was only twenty-three, and she’d been through hell. But I knew it was killing him to wait.
“Then you’ll have to seduce her,” Jett answered. “Where is the honeymoon?”
“I haven’t really thought about that,” I said, annoyed with myself that the honeymoon had never entered my mind.
I’d been too damn focused on the fact that Lia was going to be mine. To hell with the “temporary” shit. I had to find a way to convince her that we belonged together.
“She trained up a manager for the store, and Ruby is there almost every day. We can watch the shop.”
Lia had only gotten a manager because she had planned on being on her honeymoon with Stuart. I grimaced as I informed him, “Stuart was taking her to Dubai.”
“On their honeymoon?” Jett questioned, his face incredulous. “She’d have to dress conservatively. No touching in public, either. What in the hell was he thinking? That’s not a romantic honeymoon.”
“He apparently has some business interests there, and wants to drum up a few more,” I grumbled.
“Asshole,” Jett said irritably.
I nodded. “Definitely.”
“You need to take her someplace warm and romantic. Hell, I’m no expert on women, but there are a lot more romantic places in the world to go,” Jett suggested.
“Bora Bora?” I considered aloud.
Jett shook his head. “Too far into fall. You’ll hit the rainy season.”
I shrugged. “So we’ll end up shacked up together in an overwater bungalow.”
There was nobody I’d rather be rained-in with than Lia.
“Stop thinking with your dick,” Jett insisted. “You can’t have sex every minute of your honeymoon.”
Considering how long I’d wanted Lia, I was pretty sure I could spend the entire time getting naked with her, but Jett was right. No matter how much I wanted to fuck her, I also wanted to see her smile. I probably wanted her to be happy more than I wanted to get her naked, and that was saying something.
“Hawaii?”
Jett shook his head. “Uninspired. Everybody goes there.”
“Bahamas?”
“Boring,” he replied.
“Cancun,” I growled, getting annoyed.
“I’d go for Playa del Carmen,” he countered.
I’d been to both Cancun and Playa. They were close to each other, but Jett was right. Playa was a little quieter, but didn’t lack for things to do.
“I’ll get the trip planned,” I agreed.
“She’ll love it,” Jett replied, like he hadn’t just told me that I was uninspired.
Hell, I was plenty inspired. I’d be on my honeymoon with the woman who had haunted my wet dreams for years.
“I want this trip to be special for her,” I shared. “Lia has never really traveled, and I know she wants to. I should have offered to take her on vacation a long time ago, but I guess it just never came up.”
Jett lifted a brow. “You were never planning to sleep in the same room before.”
I shrugged. “Still, she’s my friend, the best one I’ve got.”
“Ruby is my best friend,” Jett considered. “But that doesn’t mean I don’t want to touch her every time I see her. Honestly, I have no idea how you’ve managed to keep your hands off Lia if you have the same feelings for her that I do for Ruby.”
I heaved a sigh as I reached for the beer Jett had given me a little earlier. “I guess I didn’t always feel this way. Lia was fourteen when we met, too damn young for a guy who was almost eighteen. All I really wanted back then was to protect her.”
“But that changed when?” Jett questioned.
“I guess it was while I was going to college. But she was still pretty damn young, so I tried to tell myself that I was just in my sexual prime, and it would go away.”
“It didn’t,” Jett concluded.
“Hell, no. It just got worse.” I chugged some of my beer before I added, “But the timing was never right. One or both of us was always seeing somebody else.”
“You would have let her marry another guy?” Jett reached for his own drink as he sat across from me on the couch.
“No. I couldn’t. I guess I just snapped yesterday. I was on my way to tell her every reason why I didn’t think she should marry Stuart, but the bastard’s brother had already found Lia to call off the wedding because Stuart had met somebody else.”
“Ouch,” Jett said sympathetically. “Ruby told me what happened, and that’s pretty damn cold.”
“Exactly,” I agreed. “Can you imagine being dumped like that? And what in the hell was he thinking? Lia is the very best he could ever have, and the dumbass never even appreciated her.”
“I have a feeling you won’t make the same mistake,” Jett said drily.
I put my empty beer bottle on the side table. “I wouldn’t,” I confirmed. “But Lia isn’t taking any of this seriously. She thinks I’m doing some kind of noble sacrifice to help her get her inheritance.”
Jett nodded slowly. “Yeah, Ruby told me about the will requirements. It’s kind of strange. Was her grandmother in her right mind when she did it?”
I let out a bark of laughter. “You didn’t know Esther,” I informed him. “She was as sharp as a tack until the day she died. I don’t completely get it, either. She adored her granddaughter, and Lia took care of Esther when she was sick. I don’t understand why she made any rules for the inheritance. And there’s nothing that says that Lia has to stay married for any length of time. She just wanted her…married. Not like Esther at all.”
“So the terms are easy to fulfill?”
“Very,” I informed him. “Lia asked me to look over every document, and I have. I’m not an expert in wills and trusts, but it was pretty straightforward.”
“Do you think Lia was convinced that she had to marry Stuart because of the money?”
I frowned at Jett. “No. She had plenty of time to back out. And she didn’t exactly give a damn about the money other than the fact that she couldn’t pay me back. I think she convinced herself that she loved him, and that he was her perfect partner. I have no fucking idea why.”
“Is she okay?” he asked in a serious tone. “I mean, she didn’t really look terribly broken up earlier, but it could all be an act.”
“She’ll be fine,” I said. “I’ll make sure that she is.”
“You need to tell her how you feel,” Jett insisted. “Keeping your mouth shut hasn’t gotten you anywhere.”
“I tried. Like I said, she thinks I’m just making up a reason to help her.”
Jett rose from the couch and I followed him into the kitchen. I gratefully took the second bottle of beer from him as we both leaned against the counter.
He took a gulp from his own chilly bottle before he said, “Make her listen. Maybe you haven’t confronted how you felt until yesterday. But it’s pretty damn obvious that you care about her.”
I nodded, giving up all pretense. “I have for a long time. I can’t exactly pinpoint the moment that everything changed for me. Hell, I’ve been in major denial because I knew she was going to marry somebody else. But I’m over worrying about whether or not I’m going to lose Lia completely if I tell her.”
Lia Harper and I were never meant to be just friends. Not once we’d both become adults. Not in my mind, anyway. And ever since I’d really come to terms with the fact that I had to risk everything to get what I wanted, I’d been okay with that.
“At least you’ll be able to say you tried,” Jett agreed.
“Failure really is not an option,” I said gruffly.
“Then don’t fail,” he suggested.
“I don’t plan on it,” I confirmed in a tone that was almost a growl.
Lia didn’t know it yet, but she was going to be mine.
And I didn’t mind playing dirty to make sure it happened. In fact, I relished getting just as dirty as we could get.