Chapter Twenty-Five
Alfie
I felt like shit over the way the night ended with Molly, but I couldn’t help it. I felt so horrible for not giving her credit, but I was stuck. It was a place I hated to be both in my personal life and in my business. Now, thanks to the situation, the two overlapped, leaving me feeling like an unethical asshole.
There’s no way in the world I should have shut down like I did at our dinner. She’d taken me somewhere special and brought a few of her favorite treats to share with me. I didn’t deserve it. None of it. And I sure as fuck didn’t deserve her. My nefarious thoughts kept me up late into the night, but just before four, I finally passed out.
Something cold nudged me in the cheek the following morning. Half asleep, I grabbed a hold of the cold object that was nudging me in the cheek. It tried to tug away from my grasp.
“Let go,” Logan said. “These golf clubs are expensive, man. I don’t want your dirty fingerprints all over them.”
I opened my eyes to glare up at him. “You should’ve thought about that before putting the club in my face.” I took in his neatly pressed clothes—a polo shirt and pressed khakis—with an arched eyebrow. “I take it we are going to go golfing while I have some time off?”
“You guessed correctly.” Logan grinned excitedly, and he poked me in the side with his golf club. “I have to take advantage of your day off somehow. When is the last time we spent some time on the green together?”
I couldn’t even remember the last time I had picked up a golf club. It’d been at least a couple of years since I had enjoyed a day to myself without having to worry about some sort of meeting to get to.
“I can’t even remember,” I said. “Give me a few minutes to get showered and dressed.”
Logan nodded as he retreated from the side of my bed. “Hurry though. I don’t plan on waiting all day long for you.”
“Just a couple of minutes,” I promised.
I waited until Logan closed the bedroom door before I shoved the blankets back from my body. I glanced down at my phone to check for messages, but there was nothing. My fingers lingered over my phone as I debated on calling Molly to just hear her voice. She had taken me to a very personal spot of hers in the city, so personal that not even Harry had been there, and I’d ruined it in some ways.
I needed to forgive myself for fucking up and get over it. She hadn’t asked for credit, and I couldn’t let this thing eat me alive. It would jack up the beautiful relationship we had. Fuck it. I was done worrying about it unless she brought it up again. Period. I’d spend the day enjoying some much needed R&R with Logan and then tomorrow night I’d make love to her until she couldn’t stand up straight.
Friday night. I couldn’t wait until Friday night. It’d been over a week now since I had felt Molly’s slender legs wrapped about my waist, or her body squirming beneath mine in pleasure.
Twisting the shower faucet on, I glanced down at my hardened erection straining against the fabric of my underwear. I sighed inwardly. It was going to take a few long minutes in the shower to be able to concentrate throughout the day with Logan on the golf course.
Pleasure radiated up my spine when I let my fingers brush against myself at the thought of Molly arching up against me. I released a few minutes later with a groan of relief with the spray of hot water hitting me squarely in the chest. At least I would be able to concentrate throughout tomorrow morning as well without feeling my body ache in anticipation for the night with Molly.
Logan was standing impatiently in the kitchen when I walked in a few minutes later. He handed a cup of coffee over to me wordlessly.
“You take forever,” he said, shaking his head. “I don’t want to know what you were doing in the shower.”
“None of your business,” I said, and grabbed a cup of coffee to fight off the headache throbbing in my temples. “What’s on the agenda today besides me kicking your ass?”
“As if.” He snorted. “Let’s play a round of golf, and then we can go to a nice dinner in Manhattan tonight if you like. Just a bottle of wine and some barely cooked red meat?”
“Sounds like a blissful day.” I took a few swallows of the coffee and put the cup in the sink. “Let’s stop by that bakery you’re always talking about taking me to.”
“Hruska’s? Oh, hell yes. You are in for a serious treat.” He grabbed his keys. “All right. I’m laying a bet down on the table now. I smack your ass by more than 10 strokes on the green.”
“That’s a bet.” I stuck out my hand and shook his. “Loser buys dinner.”
“Deal.”
*
I pulled out my company card and waved it around in front of Logan later that evening while we sat at a table in the middle of our favorite steak house. “Good thing I have a company card.”
He laughed. “Agreed, but don’t tell them that you lost at a round of golf as badly as you did. It would be embarrassing for us both!”
“How so?” I lifted my glass as the waiter silently poured me a glass of red wine.
“Because you suck so bad at it, and unfortunately I know you.” He lifted his glass and gave me a cocky grin. “You know what it is, right?”
“No. Please do share your genius on whatever you’re talking about.” I took a sip of my wine and leaned back, my body sore from swinging the golf club.
“You suck at it because you work too much, Alfie. Your whole life has become about that business. You gotta start living a little. You’re going to look up from your desk and be sixty. God rest your father’s soul, but he did just that.” He gave me a knowing look. “You know after all that shit happened with your mom that he turned to you, and once you were grown, he turned to the business. I love that old man, but you’re going to become him if you’re not careful.”
There was no threat in his word. He loved me like a brother.
I lifted my wine glass and smiled. “Worse things have happened.”
He tapped his against mine and shook his head. “Tell me what else you do in Devon. Are you thinking about seeing Molly from afar? I think it would be good start thinking about dating again. You’ve been sleeping around and acting like a playboy forever.”
“Wait a second.” I lifted a hand, and he paled a little, as if I’d confront him in anger or angst. “Are you charging me for a therapy session? Cause if you are, I want to make sure we dig into the real shit in my life.”
He snorted. “Tell me about Molly.”
That was easy enough. “I’m falling in love with her. I’d hit my knee and offer her a ring if I thought she would take it.”
“It’s too soon for that.” He gave me a scalding look. “She just broke up with Harry.”
“Exactly.” I took a long drink from my glass of wine and let out a breath. “And yet, when you know, you simply know.”
“You think she’s the one?”
I nodded. “I have no doubt about it.”
“Shit, man. That’s big.”
“Yes, it is, mate.” I set my glass down. “I’ve been thinking about offering her a spot on my marketing team seeing that she’s not gotten a job yet, or I assume she hasn’t.”
“I think that’s a fine idea. It was her idea that you used to wow your investors. Bring her on and give her credit?” He watched me as if studying a new species. It was almost comical. Almost.
Not this again though.
“I think bringing her back to England to work in the company is the first step in my diabolic plan to win the woman’s loyalty for a lifetime.”
“And then?” He smiled and crossed his free arm over his chest.
“And then I’ll try and woo her into my web.” I shrugged. “She’s stayed with me before. I’ll get her to stay with me again.”
“Maybe,” he stated with such finality that I had to question it.
“Maybe?” I asked.
“Yeah. I’d love to be closer to you too, but I’m not uprooting my life here in the U.S. to do it. I love New York and my job too much.” He pushed his plate away, the damn thing near empty. I’d had the waiter wrap up mine. There was no way I was eating another bite.
“Damn.” I smiled. “I was going to work on you next.”
“Sorry, pal. My days of love, lass, and mate are long over.” He reached for the bill when it came, but I snatched it. “Alfie. Let me get it. You’re my guest.”
“No, I’m the loser of one exhausting round of golf.” I slipped my company card into the bill sleeve and handed it to the server.
“Well, if you spent more time outside of the office,” he started again, but I cut him off.
“I will.” I nodded as he clamped his mouth shut. We sat in a comfortable silence for a few seconds.
“What? Really? It was that easy?” he snorted.
“Yep. I need to start feeding into other parts of my life if I want memories that are worth remembering when I get older. The first is Molly, and then after that, I’ll hire a few more people to help steer the company and alleviate me from working so much. That’ll free up time to golf, travel and even better yet—start a family.”
“Wow. That’s more like it.” He picked up his glass and threw the rest of the dark liquid inside of it back.
“All right. My session is up.” I gave him a knowing look. “Your turn. Where’s your woman, your retirement, and your plan for having a gaggle of kids?”
His eyes widened, and he stood. “Oh, hell no. We’re not going there tonight. Planning out your life was exhausting enough.”
“What?” I signed the check and stood as well. “I already had ninety percent of it done for you.”
“Yes, but the last ten percent…now, that was painful!”
We laughed as we walked out of the restaurant into the pleasant evening air. The day had been rejuvenating, but nothing compared to what tomorrow night held.
Pleasure. Release. Love.