Chapter 25 Post-coital Plans are Some of the Worst Plans Ever Made…
Post-coital Plans are Some of the Worst Plans Ever Made…
Ben
Am I dead? I think we both just died. I’m seeing stars and there’s a halo around Vivian’s face as I lay over her.
She’s panting and smiling and good God, she’s perfect.
Her blonde hair drapes over my pillow and her skin is flushed and her lips are rosy from all of our kissing.
I bury my head in her neck for a few seconds while I recover.
The scent of her skin and her hair is heavenly.
I feel satisfied in a way I never have been before, and yet, I’m already filled with longing for more.
“You should come with a warning label. Highly addictive. Proceed with caution.”
Vivian giggles, her fingertips brushing up and down the length of my back in a way I can only describe as hypnotic. “I could say the same thing about you. That was beyond anything I’ve ever experienced.”
“Really?”
“Definitely. This was something completely different. It was so intense and amazingly wonderful.” She gives me a lingering kiss. “It was perfect.”
“I agree,” I say, closing my eyes and kissing her again.
“But we should probably get dressed. I need to show you the presentation before everyone gets home.”
I laugh, thinking she’s joking. “What? Do you sell juice cleanses as a side hustle or something?”
She freezes for a second, then says, “No. I’m talking about the presentation Dominic told you about.”
“Dominic didn’t tell me anything about a presentation.”
Vivian gives me a hard look. “So what did you think he was giving the green light on?”
“This,” I answer. “The two of us, sleeping together.”
“Dominic doesn’t know anything about this. Or if he does, it’s not from me.”
“Are you serious?”
She nods, and I quickly roll off her, my brain racing to figure out what the hell she was talking about before we started tearing off each other’s clothes. “Wait. So, when you said we should do this in the living room, you weren’t talking about this?”
Vivian sits up, covering herself with the sheet. “No. I’ve been working on a way to help you get your playhouse business off the ground and I wanted to…” She gasps, then says, “You thought I wanted to video us doing this and play it on that massive screen while we were…”
Oh shit. It all sounds so obviously wrong now. “Yes. Yes, I did.”
“Why would you think that?”
I hop out of bed and grab a pair of boxer briefs, yanking them up fast. “Because Dominic said we needed our privacy and that you had something to show me that I’d definitely want to see and I said I didn’t want to rock the boat, and he said, ‘No, trust me, you’ll definitely want to rock this boat.
’ And the way he said it made it sound like the best thing ever, and the best thing ever for me would be sex with you.
And then he told me to go shower, and then you said you were nervous and we should do it in the living room. ”
The entire time I talk, I continue getting dressed, then I hurry into my en suite and grab a robe for her, then toss it to her.
Vivian somehow manages to pull it on without flashing me (which is a bit of a bummer, but probably for the best under the circumstances).
She gets up. “No, I absolutely wasn’t trying to seduce you. ”
“Well … come on. You were a little. Admit it.”
“No, there’s nothing to admit. I was talking about your work. In fact, I was trying to be professional. I put my hair up, put on a nice dress. I was getting us lemon waters, for God’s sake.”
“Yeah, well, I thought you put your hair up so I could kiss your neck and that the dress was for … you know … easier access.”
Her mouth drops. “Easier access?! No! I was being business-like because I wanted you to trust me to help you launch your new company.”
“What new company?”
“Benjamin James Designs—the world’s premier custom playhouses. Helping children, dream, play, and grow.”
“That sounds like the perfect tagline.”
“It is. Paige helped me come up with it.”
“Wow, that is so nice of you.”
We stare at each other for a second while we both piece together everything that happened. I open my mouth, then close it, then say, “Wait, so, Dominic’s knowledge of what’s going on between us is…”
“Nonexistent, yes.”
“Shit.”
“Shit is right,” Vivian says. “Not that he’ll care that much.
I mean, he went on a few dates while we were in New York and I was totally supportive, so he can hardly fault me for finding my own side action.
But, you are his brother so that thing you said about this complicating things still stands. ”
“Side action? Is that what I am to you?”
“No! I didn’t mean it like that. Obviously, you’re the main action, and he’s the …
no action! But it’s not like this could be anything public because the entire world has fallen in love with me falling in love with your brother.
” She pauses, then says, “Not the whole world. The small subset of people in the world who watch my videos.”
“That’s millions of people,” I say.
“Out of eight billion. It’s small.”
“Imagine trying to fit five million people in a stadium.”
“Can’t be done.”
“Exactly. It’s huge.” Grabbing her hand, I say, “We better get out of here before everyone gets home and we confuse the hell out of my son and horrify my mother.”
We hurry down the hall together, and Vivian says, “Will Jo be horrified? Really?”
“Only because she won’t want me to mess things up for Dominic, which could totally happen if somehow things go sour between you and me and you end up dumping him.”
When we get to the living room, Vivian grabs her clothes and starts to get dressed while I make a beeline for the front door and look out to see if they’re back. “Look, what we need is a plan. I have no intention of backing out on my deal with Dominic, no matter what happens with us.”
“Good, good.” No, not good. I want her to say she has to back out on the deal because she can’t live without me.
But that’s not exactly realistic, is it?
Not without Dominic getting hurt. “Because I still really want to keep doing this—like, with every fiber of my being—but I would never, in a million years, want to take away his dream. He’s my brother and I love him.
Not only that, I owe him for everything he’s done. ”
“Okay, well, that makes two of us,” Vivian says, lifting her dress over her head.
“Which part? The bit about you wanting to keep having sex or the part about not hurting Dominic?”
“Both. Definitely both.” She hurries over and looks out the front door, then says, “Do you think it’s possible to have both?”
“I do. We just have to be smart about it.”
“Smart how?”
“We need to agree right now that we both understand what this is. It’s just two people with busy, complicated lives who care about each other and want very much to sleep together as often as possible. But we know that it’s not going to go any further than that. Can we do that?”
She stares up at me and chews her bottom lip, which is the sexiest thing ever. Finally, she nods. “I think we can do that. In fact, this sounds perfect to me because neither of us has to give up anything. I don’t have to be Ariel.”
“What?”
“The Little Mermaid? Have you not seen it? She lives this terrific life under the sea, then she gives it all up to go live on land with a prince, who doesn’t have to give up anything for her. He just gets to carry on with his normal prince life, only with a hot wife.”
“I don’t want you to give up anything. Ever.”
“Good, because honestly, I’m not cut out to be Ariel,” she says. “So I keep my fabulous life in New York, and you keep your wonderful life here, and we can do this every time I come back to the island? No strings attached. Just … fully nude, full-on sexy sex.”
Hmm, I’m not sure I like the sound of that. I was hoping for some strings at least. Like we both agree we only do this with each other. But I can hardly ask for that, now, can I? Not without sounding like some controlling jerk wad.
She gives me a hard kiss, then grabs my hand and drags me toward the couch. “Now, hurry up. Let me show you my presentation before they get back.”
I sit down next to her and she quickly gets into ‘super professional Vivian’ mode, clicking away on her keyboard.
She shows me the website first. It’s everything a person would want in a site, with a simple, clean design, clear menus, and all the information any potential client would want.
She even made a logo for me that I love.
And the ‘about me’ section has the perfect feel.
It’s casual and friendly, yet instills confidence.
“Hell, you make me want to hire me,” I tell her.
She grins at me, then says, “Honestly, this was easy to put together. Your work sells itself. It’s simply a matter of getting the word out.” As she scrolls through the images, I see pictures that I’ve never seen before of all of the playhouses.
“Wait. Where did you get these photos?”
Looking a little worried, she says, “I hope you don’t mind, but I got Dominic to contact your former clients and ask if I could come take pictures and video. They all agreed immediately. Honestly, Ben, they love you.”
My heart swells as the reality of what she did for me sinks in. “This must’ve taken days to do.”
Vivian shrugs. “It was one day of filming, and then I worked on it on the plane and back in New York in the evenings. Honestly, it was nothing.”
I take her hand and smile down at her, more in love than I’ve ever been. “No, this is huge. The fact that you would do all of this for me. It’s … beyond thoughtful. It’s unbelievable.”
“What you’ve done for all these families is unbelievable.
Especially Carl,” she says, her eyes shining as she looks up at me.
Turning, she says, “Let me show you the best part. Each of the families gave me footage of their children seeing the playhouses for the first time. I’ve compiled them all into one video. It’s the sweetest thing ever.”
I sit and watch, listening to the emotional music she chose and seeing the happy faces of the kids as they jump up and down with excitement and explore.
For the first time in my career, I feel important.
Like I’m making a real difference doing something that is unique to me.
Something I love doing almost as much as I love being Henry’s dad.
As I watch, I know two things beyond a shadow of a doubt.
First is that I want to do this work full-time.
Second is that I’m deeply, madly, wildly in love with the woman sitting next to me.
And I don’t know how I’m going to do it, but I have to find some way for us to be together without my brother getting hurt.