face today. Happy, sad, and all of the variants in between. Angry and hurt, lost and weary too. And I don’t always know the right thing to say, the correct way to comfort him. But any lingering doubts I had over throwing in my job and getting on the plane are gone. Because he shouldn’t ever have had to face today alone.
I know in my bones I made the right choice.
“What are you looking at?” he asks.
“You.” Fuck, I love his smile. And his long body and his mind and all the rest. So doomed.
“How long can you stay?” he asks, his happy turning more serious.
“Beck, I only just arrived. I haven’t really made any decisions…”
He runs his tongue over his teeth. “Okay. Challenge accepted.”
“What?”
“I’m going to convince you to make your move here permanent.” And he’s so matter-of-fact about this. If only I had an ounce of his confidence. Because while this statement is beyond flattering, it’s still a bit bewildering. He’s a rich good-looking guy, he could have anyone he wants. So why me?
No way am I letting my insecurities out to play, however. “Maybe we should take things one step at a time. Why don’t you just stick to you telling me your story for now?”
“For now…okay. Here we go.” He takes another swig of wine straight from the bottle before clearing his throat. “Once upon a time, a canny bastard by the name of Jack Elliot decided working in his uncle’s grocery store his whole life was a bad deal. The pay was crap, the hours were long, and his cousin took every possible opportunity to lord it over him.”
“What a jerk.”
“Indeed he was,” agreed Beck. “Now, being your typical Scotsman, Jack was good at three things. Fighting, talking shit, and saving his pennies. Through this mad combination of skills, he bought up real estate. Started small and worked his way up. That turned out well for him. Especially once he started moving into building and developing as well. Next, he decided to invest in friends’ businesses. Helping them grow while charging them a bundle in interest on these loans. Sometimes, when they couldn’t pay him back, he’d also help them by buying them out at below cost.”
“How literal are you being about the word ‘friends’?”
His smile is tight. “There are some really good reasons why people don’t like my family.”
“Got it.”
“Didn’t matter about the money, though. Jacky boy still wasn’t accepted by the elite and didn’t that piss him off?” He smiles to himself, reading the label on the bottle of red. “So, he did what any sensible rich upstart would do and got himself an old-money society darling for a wife. The one and only Catherine Greenway of the Colorado Greenways Shipping Company.”
“Your grandmother?”
“That’s right. They could even trace their lineage back to some minor European royalty. Definite bonus points for that.” His gaze moves from the ceiling to me, a line forming between his brows. “What are you doing all the way down there?”
“Listening to you.”
“Be easier for you to hear if you were closer,” he says. “And I wouldn’t have to project my voice so much. It’s really quite delicate. I may have forgotten to mention that.”
“Your voice is delicate?”
“It’s more my throat.” He fake coughs. It’s a pitiful thing. “See?”
“That is sad.”
“Right?” As if his long lean body weren’t temptation enough, the man has these beautiful hazel eyes that he knows how to use to effect. Not to mention the dark lashes he’s currently fluttering in my direction. “C’mon, Alice. There’s only three hundred and eighty-five cushions on this monolith of a bed. I’m sure you’ll be comfortable up here beside me.”
“Beck…”
“I’ve had a very hard day. Don’t you want to comfort me?”
“You know I do.”
“And yet you’re still at the wrong end of the bed.”
Whether or not I want to be all over him is not the question. I drop my head back and stare at the high ceiling with its fancy decorative molding for a moment before giving him my serious look. “After that kiss at the airport, I very much want to be closer to you. But allow me to take this opportunity to mention that there is no lock on that door.”
“Really?” He screws up his face. “Bet that’s why she chose this room. What a sneaky, possibly bordering on evil, grandmother she is.”
“If it makes you feel any better, I was probably never having sex with you in your grandmother’s house anyway. There’s just something innately