The Merger

Chapter 14

Chapter Fourteen

C arys

Ring! Ring! Ring!

Knock! Knock! Knock!

I open my eyes and immediately regret it. The glimpse of the room— where the heck am I? —is nauseating.

Knock! Knock! Knock!

“Stop it,” I groan, covering my head with a pillow. With a couch pillow?

Knock! Knock! Knock!

I whimper as I peek through my lashes and let the room steady.

Definitely in the living room . I wipe a hand across the side of my mouth. Have I been drooling? I yank the covers back to find my body still clad in the dress I wore to Courtney’s.

To Courtney’s …

The front door creaks open as I struggle to sit up. The motion makes me woozy, and I plant a hand on the couch to keep from falling on my face.

“Who’s here?” I yell and wince again.

“You have a phone for a reason. Why don’t you … Oh .” Courtney stops at the end of the couch, two coffees in her hands, and makes a face. “I take it you had a rough night.”

“I don’t … I don’t know.”

“Your car was still in the driveway this morning. Margot said you got picked up.”

I did? I freeze. I did .

Oh. My. God.

My face heats, and vomit gurgles precariously in the back of my throat.

“I brought you coffee, but it looks like you already ordered breakfast,” Courtney says.

“What are you talking about?”

She motions toward the coffee table. A perfect lavender box faces me with Tapo’s written on the top in a beautiful script I recognize from the restaurant’s menu. Next to it is an iced matcha latte.

I cover my face with my hands, trying to process the past … twelve hours ? I don’t even know what time it is.

Visions of Gannon kneeling in front of me, taking off my heels filter through my mind. The look in his eyes. The feeling of his hand on the back of my leg.

I shiver.

“Have you eaten yet?” Courtney asks, the couch dipping as she sits beside me.

He came inside. He sat … right here.

As the haze parts, my memory becomes clearer.

His smirk. Oh my God, I straddled him . He gripped my waist. His face was buried in my chest.

I tried to fuck Gannon Brewer last night.

“Are you going to talk to me?” Courtney asks.

“Court …” I drop my hands and look at her warily. “If I tell you something, you have to swear on your Louboutins that you won’t tell a soul.”

“Okay.”

“I mean it—no one. Not Margot, not Taryn, and not Tate.”

She smirks. “You’ve piqued my curiosity. I swear on whatever you want. Spill it, sister.”

I take a deep breath. “I tried to sleep with Gannon Brewer last night.”

“ What ?” Her eyes grow wide, and she sits the coffees down. “What happened? And talk fast and keep focused. No tangents.”

“I don’t really know.”

“That’s not going to fly.”

I chuckle, getting to my feet. I need to move. There’s too much energy flowing through me to sit still.

“He picked me up from your house,” I say.

“You called him to come get you? I didn’t know you were on that level.”

I shake my head carefully so that I don’t get sick. “No. That part’s still confusing, but Tate asked him to get me, I think. I didn’t know Gannon was coming until he called me while I was dancing with Taryn.”

“Did you about die?”

“I think I was in disbelief. I also expected Tate to be with him or something.”

Especially after the maintenance closet.

My stomach flutters at the memory of our interaction yesterday afternoon.

A grin inches its way across my lips. Courtney watches in anticipation.

“Then we got here,” I say, the scene playing out like a movie. “I couldn’t walk in my heels anymore. So he dropped to his knees?—”

She gasps.

“And took them off for me.”

“No, he didn’t. Carys! That’s so hot!”

I laugh. “I know.”

“I’ve never wanted to be you more than I do today. This even beats when the Viking guy took you on a boat for brunch and made you his lunch.”

“Yeah, that was a great day.”

She giggles. “But back to this. What happened when you got inside?”

I pace slowly around the room as it all comes back to me.

“We sort of had a little argument, I think,” I say, wrinkling my forehead in thought. “And then I basically propositioned him.”

She falls back dramatically into the cushions. “You are my hero.”

“Don’t get too excited because it didn’t happen. But I did straddle him, I think.”

“So did he just turn you down? Because I can’t imagine that happening. Especially if you were wearing that and grinding against him. The man isn’t dead.”

I remember how hard his cock was as I slid back and forth over it. Damn .

“He said I had been drinking, so he couldn’t do it.” I roll my eyes. “Of all the nights the asshole decides to be a gentleman, he chose last night.”

Courtney grins. “You know, that’s hot, too. Like I know you would’ve loved getting nailed by him, but it’s kind of sexy that he refrained.”

He refrained.

Her words echo through my head. He refrained. He said no. He rejected me, even when I begged.

My face heats. How am I going to face him again? I’m not sorry about how I acted because I would’ve said it sober. Heck, I practically said the same thing in the maintenance room. But I can’t recall every minutia of last night, and he can.

And he refrained.

Courtney leans forward and opens the top of the Tapo’s box that I forgot was there.

“This looks amazing,” she says.

I stare at the dish and slowly melt.

“Two potato and egg fritters with smoked salmon, please. Double crème fraiche.”

“What did you do? Order delivery?” she asks.

“I just woke up when you got here.”

She looks at me, her perfectly manicured brows pulling together. “What does he drive? A Mercedes? Completely blacked out?”

I nod.

“I passed him leaving your neighborhood as I was coming in,” she says, grinning.

“Do you think he came back this morning?”

“That or he stayed last night.”

I look around the room. “Surely, he didn’t. Why would he …?”

My attention lands on the loveseat by the fireplace. A blanket is folded on the armrest, but not the way I do it. And the cushions are slightly askew as if someone had lain on them recently.

He did stay here. At least for a while. Did he stay all night and order breakfast to be delivered? Or did he bring it back for me this morning?

The heat from my cheeks flows down my neck and into my chest.

Either way, it’s sweet as hell.

“This is why you need a doorbell camera like the rest of the world,” she says. “I’m getting you one for Christmas. This is ridiculous.”

I grab my matcha and try to still the butterflies in my stomach.

“I need to take a bath so I can think,” I say. “You’re welcome to hang out and talk to me, or you can go. Either way, thanks for the coffee.”

She narrows her eyes. “I’ll hang out with you because I want any details you missed. And then I’ll drive you to my house to get the Gremlin.”

“You’re the best.”

“Better than Tate?”

I laugh as she stands and follows me up the stairs.

Gannon

“Hey, B,” I say as soon as Bianca answers the phone. “I didn’t know if you’d pick up.”

“I’m not sure if I’m not sleeping because I’m too happy or too exhausted.”

I grin as I stare out the kitchen window. “Tell yourself it’s the first.”

“Right? But it’s probably that anyway. I didn’t know it was possible to be this happy.”

It took two solid hours in the gym for my body to finally give up and wear out enough for me to settle. It might not be from happiness like my sister, but it’s adrenaline all the same. Bianca has her happy ending. I got a taste of what happiness could feel like with Carys on my lap, and that will have to be enough for me.

Sleep wasn’t possible on Carys’s loveseat. Even if I could get comfortable, I wouldn’t have been able to ignore her lying just a few feet away from me. She snored softly, her lips pressed in a perfect pout. Just being in the room with her, in her house, was something I never imagined would actually happen. It felt like I was exactly where I should have been—in her space, taking care of her. I also never imagined that I’d be in that position and not feel uncomfortable or awkward. Or unwanted .

“How are you feeling?” I ask, turning away from the window. “Is Foxx taking good care of you?”

“He’s about to drive me crazy.” She laughs. “He’s a helicopter husband at this stage.”

I chuckle. “Better that than the alternative.”

“He’s been amazing, both with me and our daughter.”

“I’m glad. I’m happy for you, Bianca.”

“Thanks, Gannon.” She sighs. “You hear all these stories about how having a baby changes your life, and I always thought it was silly. How could having a baby change you in a moment? But it’s true. All of it. Even though I love Foxx with everything in me, having this little piece of both of us … our love created a life. It changed the makeup of the world. Isn’t that amazing?”

I wince. “That’s amazing.”

She laughs. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to be so rude to throw something as nasty as emotions onto you.”

“Apology accepted.”

She laughs again. “So when are you coming down to see us?”

“Mom said you wanted time alone.”

“We do. I mean, that’s the plan. But Foxx’s brothers live in the same cul-de-sac as us and none of them understand boundaries.”

“Foxx lets them get away with that?”

“You, dear brother, haven’t met the Carmichael boys. Moss is pretty level-headed. Maddox is mostly calm, but he’s super easy to rile up—which his brothers ensure to do constantly. Jess has the shortest trigger and is always in a prank battle with one of them. He also thinks he’s a chicken farmer now.” She pauses. “And then there’s Banks. He’s … Banks.”

“Maybe you can just bring Emery up here.”

The sound of a baby whimper slips through the air, and Bianca soothes the child until she stills.

My heart swells as I listen to their interaction, and I consider what could’ve been. What is it like for Foxx to watch his wife and daughter? How does it feel to have a woman in your life who chose you and willingly gave her life, her body , to create a family with you?

I clear my throat. “I’ll let you go. I know you’re busy. I just wanted to congratulate you.”

“That means a lot, Gannon. Thank you.”

“Tell Foxx I said congrats, too, okay?”

“Absolutely. I love you, big brother.”

I grin. “I love you, B. Goodbye.”

“Bye.”

I clutch the phone to my chest as I wander around the empty house aimlessly.

“There’s no one here but us,” she says, stopping in front of me. “And I’m willing to do whatever it takes to try to make you happy.”

I consider her words as I head upstairs, figuring a quick shower will help clear my head.

No one has ever tried to make me happy before. Maybe women have sucked me off because they know I like it, but it was a means to an end. An end they were never going to get . But no one in my life has ever even lied about simply wanting to make me happy with no conditions. No deals. No tit-for-tat.

Just for me.

The concept makes me squirm. I don’t know how to handle it. I don’t want to think about how to handle it. I want to put Carys Johnson in a box with every other woman I’ve pointlessly fucked and call it a day.

And maybe I can.

“I only want one thing from you. And it’s not your heart.”

I reach into the shower and turn on the hot water.

“Tate’s just afraid you’ll break my heart. But how can you break it if I don’t give it to you?”

My reflection stares at me through the mirror. My cheeks are flushed. My eyes are bright. I haven’t done a lick of work today—I haven’t even thought about it.

I’ve only thought about her.

“I’m willing to do whatever it takes to try to make you happy. No one will know. I just need to feel you inside me.”

“As much as I know it’s not right, you might get what you wish for, Miss Johnson.”

I climb in the shower to jack off to her. Again.