Chapter 29
SOLID AND UNSHAKABLE
“Thanks for meeting this late in the day,” Spencer said to Braylon and West two days later. They’d agreed it was best to do this in London’s conference room after Molly left. Paris had stayed too. Apparently the peanut gallery needed representation.
He felt outnumbered as hell.
He would’ve killed for one ally. Or at least someone other than London by his side.
Then he immediately told himself that was ridiculous.
Showing even a hint of insecurity here would be the fastest way to lose their confidence in his professionalism. He needed to be solid and unshakable. He needed to come across as if this was still work and not something personal.
“The place looks good,” West said, glancing around.
“Thanks,” Paris said. “I did it.”
“By all means, keep bragging,” London said.
He hid a smile and caught her quick glance his way. She was nervous too, but doing a damn good job pretending she wasn’t. But he saw her fingers gripping and releasing the handle of the chair. Her foot was bouncing on the floor under the table and nudging his with each tap.
“What’s going on?” Braylon asked.
She arched a brow at him. It was as if she was silently saying, “You said you’d do the talking.”
He trusted her with her family.
He just didn’t trust her not to say something… London-ish.
He cleared his throat. “We wanted to let you both know that London and I have been seeing each other outside of work. It wasn’t planned. It just happened.”
Braylon started grinning immediately.
West… did not. The guy could have been carved out of stone.
“How long has it been going on?” West asked.
“I’m not sure there’s an official date,” she said. “It started in Maine.”
“About seven weeks ago,” he added.
She smirked. “What can I say? Spencer’s tougher than he looks to put up with me.”
West slid a look at Braylon. “You’re grinning. Did you know?”
“I had my suspicions.”
“You did?” she asked. “Why didn’t you say anything?”
“Why would I? I could have been wrong. Maybe you two just constantly rub each other the wrong way. There is a fine line between annoyance and attraction.”
“Oh, we do,” he said. “But there’s a hell of a lot more to your cousin than her short fuse.”
“That few people get to see,” Paris added. “But Spencer has seen it from the start.”
He straightened, meeting West’s eyes head-on. “None of this affects my judgment. I’ll still tell London no if I don’t agree with a proposal or if she wants to push something outside legal limits.”
“And I have no problem giving him grief and making him explain exactly why I can or can’t do what I want,” she said brightly.
West exhaled a dry laugh. “Sounds a little like me and Abby.”
He blinked. That sounded like acceptance.
And the biggest surprise of all?
No one looked shocked.
No one looked upset.
If anything, they looked like they’d been waiting for this shoe to drop from day one and that he was the idiot for wanting to keep this from them.
“We’d like to continue keeping this quiet,” he said. “It’s best that way.”
“Agreed,” Braylon said. “Only the people in this room know?”
“My parents know,” she said.
“And somehow my mother doesn’t know?” West asked, smirking. “I find that hard to believe.” He turned to London.
“I told my mother not to say a word. If she did, then Aunt Aileen is keeping it to herself.”
Both Braylon and West burst out laughing. “No. Not possible. She’d never be able to do it no matter how much she wants to say she can,” West said.
“Then it’s only us.”
“And Coy and Angel,” she said. “Your parents.”
“But they aren’t here so that doesn’t count.”
“Then I’d say we’re done. Almost,” West said. He just nodded once, then jerked his head toward the hallway. “Walk with me, Spencer.”
He forced his stomach not to tighten and stood. London shot him a don’t-poke-the-bear look. As if he ever would. She’d be the one more likely to do it.
He followed West out of the conference room, down the short hall, and into London’s office. West closed the door behind them with a soft click.
The last thing he wanted was his job on the line. It was bad enough he worried he was only hired because of his relationship with the Bonds, but it was another thing altogether to think his personal life was now going to get in the way.
The rule-following guy broke one he’d made for himself and he hoped to hell it didn’t bite him in the ass.
But there was no yelling. No posturing. Just West standing there, arms folded, studying him like a witness on the stand he wasn’t convinced was telling the full truth.
“Are you serious about her?” West asked.
Straight shot. No warm-up. No reason to dick around on either of their parts.
“Yes,” he said without hesitating. “Very. It’s early, but I know what I feel. I think I know what she does.”
West nodded. “You might be one of the first besides Paris. I can’t profess to know her well, but she’s family, and she’s here.”
“And you’re the head of the family,” he finished for his boss.
“I am. I owe my Uncle Austin a lot for my success early on.”
The unspoken words that meant Spencer could easily be cast aside in the blink of an eye.
“Understood.”
West sighed. “I’m sure I don’t need to tell you that London… she’s fire. And trouble. And half the time she acts tougher than she feels. So if you’re screwing around—”
“I’m not.” He stepped forward, his shoulders squared. “I don’t play games. And I don’t start something I don’t plan to finish. But what we’ve got is between us and no one else. I’m positive she’d tell you the same thing. We’ll keep it separate, but we don’t owe explanations either.”
There was only so much of a lecture he was going to take when it came to his personal life.
West’s jaw flexed, but it wasn’t tense. “You know how this family is. We’re a lot. Loud. Loyal. We close ranks. Especially around the women.”
“I’m aware,” he said.
West’s brow lifted just slightly. “You don’t scare off easily if you’ve gotten close to her.”
“I’m an attorney,” he said, snorting. “Patience, pressure, and chaos are my daily job. Especially around London.”
West huffed out something close to a laugh. “Fair enough.”
“This is a line I always told myself I wouldn’t cross, and because I have, I’ll be more cautious than ever. Not just to stop hurt on anyone’s part, but to keep chatter to a minimum. I’m sure it’ll come out at some point. Hopefully later than sooner.”
“You’ll figure the line,” West said. “You know, you were hired because your personality was exactly what she needed for her business.”
He wasn’t sure he liked where this was going. “So I was only hired for her and not your company?”
“Oh, you were hired for a lot of reasons. Don’t mistake that. But knowing what was coming with the twins, we worried about her... tongue. Let’s say right away, Braylon was drawn to you with her in mind. Not the way we thought it’d go.” The fact West grinned with that said the worst might be over.
“Nor me after the first meeting,” he said drily.
“It’s on you two now where it goes from here. We all mess up, just make sure if you do, it’s outside of the office.”
“You have my word.”
“Are you going to tell me what West said to you in my office?” she asked him when they were walking to his condo. They’d stopped at her place first. She got a change of clothes and was going to spend the night.
It was the first she was doing it when they had to go to work the next day, but after that meeting, he wanted the time to decompress and see how she was feeling.
“We are almost at my place. We can’t wait until then to talk?”
“No. It’s been twenty minutes since we left the office. I can’t believe I’ve waited this long to ask.”
“Neither can I.”
“So tell me.”
She’d keep pushing if he didn’t start. “Not much. I’m not going to betray his confidence in me.”
“Oh shit,” she said. “Did he pull the whole he’s head of the family and he owes my father?”
He laughed. “Why would you say that?”
“Because I overheard him talking to my father about this months before everything was finalized. Trust me, it’s the one thing that has stuck in my head about why West agreed to this. The last thing I need is to think he only did this out of family obligation.”
He knew she’d been unsure of her company and the role West had in it.
Maybe no more than he was for the reason he was hired.
It was something he worked hard to get by, but maybe took a few steps back after that conversation.
It just felt as if more was on the line for him. That he was hired with her in mind and if things didn’t work out, would he be forced out?
He didn’t think that would happen. But it could.
And the last thing he wanted was for her to have that on her shoulders.
“That’s on you to work out. West and I were in your office less than five minutes. Nothing bad or worrisome. It’s all good.”
“Positive?” she asked when they turned past his doorman and he waved.
“I am. Don’t you trust me?”
She hooked her arm through his. “Oh, I trust you. Maybe more than I should.”
“Hey, what does that mean?”
They got in the elevator. “That I wanted to be the one to tell them and you said you could do it better.”
“And I did. See how quiet and low key it was?”
“It would have been if I’d done it also.”
“You keep telling yourself that,” he said, nudging her arm with his.
She rolled her eyes and leaned over to give him a kiss, not even caring they weren’t alone. Why would she care? She didn’t know these people. Neither did he.
“You like me all worked up,” she said when they got off the elevator. At least she waited to say that in the hallway.
“I do, but not in the office and not with witnesses.”
He unlocked his door and she shoved him inside, then dropped her bag on the floor. “No witnesses now. I say you let me get it all out of my system. I’ve been pent up all day, full of nerves. Paris said I was driving her nuts.”
“You know, I can take one for the team if it’ll make you feel better,” he said, urging her toward his bedroom.
She pulled him toward the bathroom across though. “Shower first. Or more like a playtime shower.”
He moved past her, reached into the shower and turned it on, letting it warm, the steam filling the room while the two of them quickly unzipped, unbuttoned, and kicked their clothing away.
He opened a drawer and got a condom out, then put it on a shelf out of the way for now.
She nudged past him and climbed into the large tiled space, her back away from the water, then held her hand out.
He didn’t hesitate to thread their fingers together, then she yanked him in hard, slamming against her, her laughter bubbling out and telling him the hardest part might be behind them.
Or maybe she was feeling the same relief that he’d felt.
He kissed her then. Hard, hungry, and with every bit of heat he’d been holding back. The water pounded around them, over them, between them, but she didn’t move, she didn’t waver. She kissed him like she wanted to steal every breath he had.
Like she wanted to gobble him and take control of the situation.
Most times he let her. It was their thing.
The bit of control she needed to show she still had it.
But tonight, this was for him.
And she’d give herself to him because she liked when he stepped up just as much.
It was a balance they had. One that worked for them.
Equals when it was all leveled out in the end.
His hand slid down between their bodies, his fingers sliding between her lower lips, feeling the heat and the silky dew, then trusting inside.
London moaned against his mouth, her tongue sliding in to dance with his, her nails gripping his shoulders.
“I’m really close,” she said. “And it’s going to be fast. I really want you in me.”
If she hadn’t whispered it. If she hadn’t made it sound like a need. He might have made her wait. Let her come on his hand, then worked her up a second time.
But Spencer needed the release as much as her. He needed her to know that today was just as hard on him as it was her, but maybe he contained it better.
She was opening up with him more. He saw it even when she didn’t want him to.
He’d do what she wanted. He’d do what she asked.
Because he had her. He always would. He always wanted to.
He opened the condom, covered himself. Lifting her a little, he put her back against the tiles, found her heat and slammed in once. Then again. A third time.
Her body rose with each thrust, her breath came out in a quick gasp, her head back, her neck exposed.
He attacked that as he attacked every other part of her body with the goal of bringing her to the height of pleasure.
To bring them both there.
“That’s it,” he said. “Let go and come for me. Just me and no one else.”
His words were almost a brush against her lips as they came out, his teeth grabbing her lower lip and pulling it in to nibble.
She was bucking against him as he pushed into her. She was riding any way she could to the end.
His fingers gripped her ass, squeezing her skin as he continued to jerk up into her while she ground down.
“You’re there,” he said. “I know you are. Don’t fight it.”
“It just feels too good to end,” she said.
“I’ll give it to you again. More. But do as I say. Do it now,” he commanded.
It was as if she needed him to be firm. To let her drop the shield and wall she always threw up to show how strong she was.
He loved that about her.
Shit.
Did that thought just pop into his brain?
Looked like it did, but with her coming around his dick, he was losing the ability to think of much more than slamming into her again and again.
Her body sagged against his as wave after wave, pulse after pulse, filled his body.
“Spencer,” she said, her mouth against his neck.
“Yeah,” he said, the word barely coming out in a quick release of breath.
“That was wonderful.”
He felt the smile on his skin. “Yeah, it was. And so are you.”
She kissed his neck. “I feel the same.”
He just had to wonder if she really felt the same as him or it was wishful thinking.