Three Months Later

I slapped the lid of my laptop down, too tired to focus on the small print I’d been trying to read for the last hour. It was Friday. Time to put work aside and go hang out with the people who made life worth living.

I turned to shove the bit of paperwork that would need my attention before Monday into my bag, cursing when a permit application refused to go in without bending. I really needed a proper briefcase, but I hated the idea of carrying around a box-like contraption. That was too much like being an adult and I wasn’t quite ready to be that adult.

I couldn’t believe how much had happened these last few months. It all seemed to be happening too fast and I just wanted to push the pause button and make it slow down.

Vincent West was arrested. So was half the city council, the mayor, and more than a dozen prominent business men from downtown. It turned out that the money laundering business had been much more extensive than even I had guessed from the snapshot Violet had been able to steal from his office with those papers.

West made threats against everyone at Stone Security the day they arrested him. But three days later he was found hanging in his cell. Someone had left his belt among his personal items when it should have been confiscated. There were rumors that it was murder disguised as suicide, but there was no proof. If it was murder, the crime would go unpunished.

Violet had family in Georgia. I flew with her to meet her aunt, holding her hand through the flight as she kept reminding herself that it was okay to go home, that she was okay now. Her aunt told me about the first time she’d suffered a breakdown, about how it had taken her nearly a year to recover. The doctors were optimistic that it wouldn’t take quite that long this time, but I’d heard that she had to be placed in an in-patient facility just a week after she arrived in Georgia. I had high hopes that she’d make it through. I wanted West’s last victim to be himself, not her.

There was a tap on the door and Rae stuck her head inside. She’d applied for a job with the secretarial pool three weeks ago, hoping to get a job on her own with Jack or Brent or even Bo putting in a good word for her. When I saw her name on the list of new hires, I had to bring her up to my office. I needed a secretary who knew something about the legal system and the rumor was that Rae had enough experience with it—from the wrong side, of course, but any experience was experience—that she might be of help until a proper legal secretary could be hired. But it turned out that Rae was exactly what I needed, fulfilling needs for me that I didn’t even realize I had.

“Jack called down. He’s ready to head out. Is it okay if I go?”

“Of course.”

She smiled, still a little ill at ease when it came to blurring the line between professional and personal. Things had changed in the two months that Rae had been in Jackson and she was well aware of it. But she was good for Jack and she was the best secretary I could ever have asked for in my new role as head of legal. I was hoping the awkwardness between us would eventually disappear.

“I’m just about to head out, too. I guess I’ll see you there?”

Rae smiled. “It should be interesting. Jack tells me the family throws some pretty wild parties.”

“You should have seen Jack’s twenty-first birthday. Dad rented skywriters and acrobats.”

She laughed. “I would have loved to have seen that.”

“There’s pictures. Remind me and I’ll show them to you sometime.”

“I’ll do that.”

She offered a little wave and disappeared, the door closing silently behind her. I turned back to the task at hand, gathering the last of my things. I debated over taking my laptop home, too, but decided that would be too tempting. I didn’t want to work this weekend.

I went down to the second floor and crossed through the gym, slipping out the back door that led to the steps down to the obstacle course and the marked area where the training facility would be breaking ground in a month or so. Right on schedule, amazingly enough. Jack hadn’t been kidding when he said we were having to jump through hoops to get all the permits necessary to build it. That was the first thing my office tackled and we were still working on it. But we were on schedule now and I anticipated we would stay on schedule.

Bo was standing just to the side of the flags that marked the edge of the proposed facility, talking with the architect. Jack had put him in charge of the project despite his desire to see Gentry run it when he got back from Germany. I think Jack was having second thoughts on that, concerned that Gentry might not be prepared to jump right in on such an important project. And Bo was more than qualified to run it himself.

I lifted my hand when he spotted me, touching my wrist to remind him that the party was due to start in less than an hour. He gave me a nod to indicate he understood, but it was another half hour before he finally came up and joined me on the steps.

“Sorry. He wanted to make a few adjustments to the plans and I had to convince him it wasn’t necessary.”

“Sounds complicated.”

“No, just time consuming.” He kissed me on the tip of my nose, running his lips along the side of my nose and over to the corner of my jaw to wipe away the annoyed expression that was probably living there. “I’m all yours now.”

I slid my arms around his neck and held him close to me. “I thought you were already mine.”

“I’m forever yours, babe. Tied down and whipped.”

I grunted softly, more than a little turned on by the image that suddenly burst over my mind’s eye. “Can we try that?”

He smacked my ass. Hard. “You know I’m open to just about anything.”

“Maybe a trip to an adult store is in order.”

“That’s always a possibility.”

He kissed me. I melted into him, more in love with his kisses than I was three months ago when they were brand new. I could hardly get enough of them. It was a blessing and a distraction that we worked in the same building, able to slip away at any point during the day to steal a few kisses in a dark hallway or behind a closed office door. I wasn’t sure I’d ever get enough of them.

“We should go,” he whispered, drawing my hip close to his, revealing an erection that was impressive. “Would be embarrassing to run into a new recruit in this state.”

I giggled softly. “Or it might be fun.”

“No. Not that willing to try something new.”

I laughed harder, ducking out of his arms before he could swat my ass again. He followed me into the gym, pinching my butt just as one of the trainers turned a corner and nearly ran headlong into me. I squealed and the guy jumped back, both of us startled.

“Sorry, Jace,” Bo said, resting his hand on the small of my back and directing me to the elevator. We both dissolved into a gale of giggles once the elevator doors closed.

We couldn’t keep our hands to ourselves on the drive home and once we were behind the closed door of our little house…I knew we were going to be dreadfully late for the party. But Brent would understand. After all, he was the one who’d recently gotten engaged to a girl he’d known just over three months.

Bo pressed me back against the door, his hands finding their way expertly under my skirt. I didn’t bother with his shirt anymore. I knew the magic was in his pants and that’s where my hands went, tugging at the slim little belt I’d bought him because it was easier to work than the thick, heavy belt he’d had before. There were a lot of things I’d changed about his wardrobe, mostly adding things that were easy to remove, but enjoying the suits and tight pants that showed off his excellent physique, too.

Of all the things that had changed these past few months, this wasn’t one of them. It was still the same, the feelings of extreme pleasure that soared through my body whenever he touched me. I changed his wardrobe, he’d made suggestions—most that I ignored—on mine. I changed jobs, he had more responsibility in his. I gave up my apartment, he sold his condo, and we bought this little house in a new neighborhood just ten miles from Stone Security, deciding if we were going to live together we wanted to do it in a place that was neutral, where neither of us had a history. And it’d worked well so far.

There was another change coming on the horizon, too, but it was so new I hadn’t yet wrapped my mind around it. And I hadn’t told Bo. It was a secret I wanted to keep close for a while longer. I wanted to hold on to this thing we had going between us a while longer before I embraced the future. I knew Bo would be happy. I wasn’t worried about that. I just wanted to keep it to myself for a while longer, like savoring the taste of a good wine. For right now it was mine. Just mine. Soon enough I would have to share it with the world, but for now it was mine.

“You okay, babe?”

Bo had pulled back and was studying my face, concern dancing in his perfect eyes.

I touched his face and asked myself the same question for the first time in…well, ever. A slow smile slipped over my lips. “I am better than okay. I’m happy.”

He lifted me a little higher against the door so that we were eye-to-eye. He brushed his nose against mine, the tip of his tongue sliding briefly over my lower lip. “I’m glad you said that because I would feel like a fool if you hadn’t and I admitted that I’d never been as happy as I am right now in this moment.”

“Yeah?”

“I love you, Remy,” he said softly against my lips. “And that’s it, that’s all I want, all I need, to live the rest of my life in perfect bliss.”

I ran my hands over the top of his head, dragging my fingers through his hair. I found myself hoping this baby had his hair, that it was a towheaded little baby with a big smile and perfect blue eyes.

“I love you, too.”