Eligible Ex-husband - Marie Johnston Page 0,66

one to face the world with, only I had two little girls who look to me for everything.

“I’ve got you,” he whispers and slips his hand between us.

As soon as his finger touches my clit, I lose all thought. It’s nothing but his strong embrace, him inside me, and a peak of pure bliss that’s so close.

“I love you,” I whimper. I might not be ready to put my heart on the line and say my vows again, but I can be honest. I love him. I’ve always loved him and that’ll never change.

“I love you too,” he says gruffly.

That’s it for me. I explode, biting my lip to keep from hollering and bringing the kids to the door.

His hold tightens and he stiffens underneath me, rocking us both as he releases inside. He buries his head in the crook of my neck and rides out his orgasm as I finish mine.

Rolling us to the side, I remain in his embrace, but this time it’s my head in the crook of his neck.

His embrace tightens. “You don’t know how scared I was that I’d never hear you say that again.”

I sigh. “Same.”

“I’m going to marry you again, Natalie. Whatever it takes.”

I look up at him. “I hope so.”

Simon

I take the girls with me to get groceries and put them to work hauling the bags inside and unloading them. Natalie was down in the gym when we got home, getting her run in.

The connection we had before I left…

That alone will make the next few hours answering messages and emails worth it. But it was worth it long before that.

The girls are in their room, finding fresh beach towels for swimming lessons. I sit at the table and pull up my inbox.

Fuck.

Pages of messages. I set up an autoresponder like Lancaster suggested, but it seems to have doubled my emails. Mr. Waterson is demanding an update about the London startup that went under. He refuses to deal with Helena. Several more messages from Helena regarding all the work she was stuck with over the weekend.

I wince. She ended up working more than I thought because I was offline.

As I scroll through, I stop at the one from Graham Morgan.

I hear you’re expanding. My offer still stands.

I have no idea why he wants to buy Gainesworth Equity. Well, other than money. But there are a lot of successful equity firms that are much larger and more established. Why mine?

I don’t bother to reply. He’s my brother’s ex-best friend. The fallout between them was more epic than I knew at the time, but Liam’s been gone for years. Is Graham looking out for me, or does he have it out for me?

I switch to voicemail and frown when I see my father’s number. He didn’t leave a message.

I flick my gaze to the stairs. The girls have been in their room for twenty minutes. Looking for beach towels has probably taken a detour into playing.

I call him back.

He answers with, “Simon. Where were you?”

“Sorry I missed your call. I took the girls camping this weekend.” I refrain from saying we since I haven’t told them that Natalie and I are back together.

“Ah.” There’s no interest in his tone. “Your mother and I have a flight to Singapore next weekend, but we thought we’d prolong a stop in Minneapolis and fly in and out of Fargo.”

They never fly directly here. Coming to Fargo was an inconvenient diversion in their travel plans. When Liam was alive, I’d hear about how much easier it was to visit him. How big his house was. How well his work was going. I don’t get that anymore, but I know they’re thinking it.

Are you sure that’s the best route to take for investing? Shouldn’t you have more employees by now? If you hired someone instead of working with Natalie, maybe you’d be better established.

“When are you coming in?” Please be a weekend. I’m so behind and I can’t heap more onto Helena, but I also can’t miss my parents.

“We’ll fly in Saturday for lunch. We’ll rent a car because the turnaround is pretty tight.”

It doesn’t have to be. They could come for the weekend. They could stay overnight. If they didn’t want to stay here, they could get a damn hotel room. But Singapore calls.

They’re never going to change so there’s no point in bringing up any of those options. “Okay. We’ll see you then. And, uh… Natalie and I are back together.”

My father doesn’t reply for a heartbeat.