Chapter 28
TWENTY-EIGH T
LILACS
Caroline
“Let’s discuss the Peterson wedding on Monday. They have some…interesting ideas that are going to require more brain power than I have on a Thursday afternoon after a long week.”
Addie smiled at me from across my desk and closed her laptop propped on her lap.
“Yeah, I reviewed their questionnaire. They want hot air balloons?” She tucked a piece of her blonde hair behind her ear and stood.
I shook my head and saved the document I’d been taking notes on. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw my phone light up. I picked it up just to make sure it wasn’t work-related. It wasn’t.
Ryder: Whatcha doin’?
I typed out a response to Ryder while I explained to Addie that was exactly why I couldn’t handle it until the following week. I needed sleep and extra caffeine if I was going to discuss balloons filled with hot air flying through the sky. And all the safety requirements that go with them.
Me: Finishing up a meeting and hoping I don’t fall asleep at my desk.
“Caroline?” Addie prompted, and I jerked my head up.
“Yes? Sorry, I was?—”
“Smiling at your phone,” she said with a smile of her own. “You don’t have to give me any details, but it’s nice to see you so happy.”
My phone vibrated in my hand, likely with Ryder’s response, but I didn’t look down at it. I’d been caught once. I wasn’t going to have her find me smiling at my phone again.
“Are you saying I’m not usually happy?” I joked, pressing my elbows to my desk and narrowing my eyes.
Addie took my joke in stride and waved me off. “Of course, you’re rainbows and sunshine all the damn time. But recently, it’s like you’re, I don’t know, floating on a cloud made of cotton candy.”
Her description of my attitude took me off guard, and I choked out a surprised laugh. Getting dick on the regular would do that to a person. Especially when it was platinum, A+ dick.
“I don’t think anyone has ever described me that way. Usually, it’s workaholic or blunt, but I like the picture you paint better.”
She shrugged. “Last question—is it the same guy who sent the flowers?”
She pointed to the bouquet of mostly light purple and pink lilacs sitting on the table in the middle of my office. They’d been delivered that morning, and I’d quickly hidden the card tucked inside them.
Lilac is my favorite color, too, pretty girl.
They were beautiful flowers, and the gesture made me smile. I would have hidden the bouquet, too, if it were possible and if everyone else in the office hadn’t already seen it .
Realizing I wasn’t going to answer, she straightened her pink skirt and white blouse. Turning for the door, she stopped halfway there. When she pivoted back around, worry creased her brows and hung across her features.
“Oh, I meant to tell you, I will be about an hour late to set up for the company party tomorrow night. I already talked to Sarah about it, and she said she’ll make sure the caterer and staff know where to go.”
“Sure, that’s fine. I’ll probably stop by after I finish with the Russell’s rehearsal dinner. Everything okay?”
With my question, every indication that something was wrong disappeared, and her smile slipped back into place.
“Yeah, absolutely! Just…family stuff.” She didn’t wait around to provide more of an explanation. She reached for the glass door and pulled it open, stepping back into the hallway.
I was always concerned for my employees and their well-being, but Addie was special. She somehow managed two jobs, family issues I wasn’t privy to, and a boyfriend who, for lack of a better description, was kind of an asshole.
As her employer, I did what I could without stepping on her toes or invading her privacy. Which meant I eavesdropped occasionally and watched for changes in her mood.
Remembering my unread text, I looked down at my phone.
Ryder: Sounds like you need coffee. I’ll be there in three minutes.
My eyes went wide. The text had been sent more than three minutes ago. I furiously started typing back a response, telling him that he should by no means come to my office, especially right?—
“Hey, pretty girl.”
I didn’t look up. I didn’t need to. I set my phone down on my desk in front of me, my now pointless text staring up at me, and took a deep breath .
“What are you doing here?” I asked, standing from my desk and crossing to him. He stepped into my office, and I peered down the hallway before shutting the door behind him. Addie was probably about to leave, but I think we were the last two left.
Ryder held up the drink carrier with two coffees. “Bringing you coffee like I said I was.”
He plucked one out and handed it to me. I took a tentative sip. An iced vanilla latte—my favorite. I turned and walked back to my desk, needing the distance between us.
Ryder had told me about his meeting downtown, so I wasn’t surprised to see him in a dark-blue suit and a white button-down shirt. That didn’t keep my body from reacting, though. His black hair was windswept and slightly messy, and his cheeks were flushed from the June heat. He looked damn good, thus the required distance between us.
Safely on the opposite side of my desk, I set my coffee on the edge and turned back to find him unabashedly staring at my ass. My ass did look better than normal in the fitted black dress, so I appreciated he noticed.
“You gave me the coffee. Now, unless there’s something else…”
Completely ignoring me, Ryder set the carrier on the table next to the flowers and retrieved his coffee. He took a long sip and walked around the table, gazing at the flowers.
“I’m glad you got the flowers,” he said with a coy smile he hid behind his coffee cup. I stayed silent and watched him watch me.
“You can’t be here, Ryder,” I said.
Like usual, he wasn’t dissuaded by my bluntness. If I wasn’t mistaken, his smile widened. Similarly, I didn’t let his lack of reaction stop me.
“Your mom is going to be here any minute, so you should probably go.” I pointed to the door and crossed my arms over my chest .
Ryder’s eyebrows shot to his hairline. “My mom? Natalie?”
I nodded.
“What is she meeting you here for?”
Rolling my lips, I reached for my coffee and considered what I should tell him. What she was really meeting me for wasn’t something I wanted to share with her son.
“We’re going shopping,” I said simply.
“Just shopping?”
I rolled my eyes and groaned. “You are so freaking nosy.”
Ryder began walking toward me, and I had to quickly decide whether to keep the safe distance between us and head around my desk even though it would certainly show weakness. Or stand my ground and try my best not to react.
I chose the latter and held my breath as he came to stand in front of me, placing his coffee down near mine.
“I just don’t believe you,” he said. “I think you’re coming up with excuses to make me leave.”
“Although I wouldn’t put it past me to do something like that,” I admitted. “That’s not what’s happening now.”
He stepped closer and reached for my waist before I had a chance to pull back. He gripped right above my hip and tugged me into him until it was just my crossed arms between us.
“So, you’re just shopping? That’s a little vague.”
“You want to know what we’re shopping for?” I asked, my patience and ability to bite my tongue gone. He didn’t stop me, so I continued, “We’re going shopping for lingerie, because she wants to?—”
His hand appeared over my mouth, effectively cutting off my explanation. He grimaced, shaking his head and screwing his eyes shut, and I had the fleeting thought that his horrified expression was kind of cute.
“You’re right,” he said without opening his eyes. “I didn’t need to know that.”
He dropped his hand, and I smiled smugly. “Say that again.”
He slowly opened and narrowed his eyes. His fingers tightened around my waist, and I had to work hard not to let him hear or see my breath catch or let my smile wobble.
“Tell you that you’re right?”
I inclined my head and held his stare. He licked his lips, and my eyes inadvertently darted to them, watching his tongue slowly slip across his lower lip.
My ability to think straight was wholly compromised by his presence, let alone his proximity and how good he smelled and felt.
“You’re right, Caroline.” He dropped his voice, and I swallowed down my arousal. “You’re so smart, brilliant, really, and driven and successful, and so fucking gorgeous it makes it hard to think straight.”
With my folded arms still between us, that didn’t keep Ryder from cupping the side of my face and running his thumb over my cheek. The moment his blue eyes landed on my lips, he leaned in. And I lost my mind for a second, because I dropped my arms to my sides and let him tug me closer as he pressed his mouth to mine.
A little grunt escaped his lips when my hips brushed against his cock, and I felt lightheaded. His urgent tongue swept against my mouth, and his palm flattened against the small of my back. That slow-churning pull in my gut that I always felt near him was at an all-time high. Not so much slow as it was consuming and impossible to ignore.
I slipped my hand over his that was still against my cheek and tilted my head to the side to deepen the kiss.
“Fuck, Car—” Ryder muttered against my mouth. But his words were cut short by a sound out in the hallway.
Instantly, he dropped his hands, and I stepped back, glancing over his shoulder to identify the noise. Not seeing anything, I took a labored breath and moved around the desk. I leaned to the left and peered down the hallway to see Natalie stooping to pick up her phone she must have dropped on her way to my office .
“It’s your mom,” I whispered. My heart was pounding. “So, you better fix that .” I glanced quickly down at the outline of his noticeably hard cock pressing through his tight dress pants.
Ryder didn’t look as horrified as I was that we’d almost been caught by his mother. But he did smooth a palm over his problem and readjust his slacks while I sat in my desk chair and logged into my computer that had long gone dark.
“God, I cannot stand you sometimes,” I muttered under my breath, attempting to type my password for a third time. Shaking hands made the process difficult.
Ryder groaned and dropped his head back. “I told you, you can’t say stuff like that to me. It just turns me on.”
My retort fell dead on my tongue when the door opened, and Natalie stepped inside.
“Oh, Ryder, hi. I didn’t realize you…what are you doing here?”
God, we were lucky. So fucking lucky that we had a built-in excuse for Ryder being in my office.
“We had a few last-minute things we had to talk about for Stephen and Miles’s wedding,” I said casually. Or at least, that’s what I was going for.
“And I had a meeting in the area, so I thought it’d be easier to just drop by,” Ryder added smoothly. He was so much better than I was at lying to his mom. Likely from years of practice, but also because he was less concerned about her reaction if she found out about all the sneaking around we did behind her back.
Guilt made me nauseous just thinking about it.
“That’s convenient,” Natalie said as she crossed to Ryder. They hugged, and I wanted to puke. “How was your day?” she asked her son, and I tried to entertain myself by responding to emails that could have waited and randomly clicking around on my home screen to appear busy.
I used the length of their short conversation to try to get my mind right and to push away the guilt at least for the time being. Not that I could do much more than that—it always came back .
“Care?” Natalie called my name, and my head popped up. I could tell by her tone—and Ryder’s barely suppressed smile—that she must have said my name several times.
“Yeah?”
Natalie was across the room and standing in front of the very large, purple bouquet. “Who are these from?”
“A client,” I said quickly.
She raised her eyebrows, and her smile broadened. I knew immediately she didn’t believe me. She tucked a piece of dark hair behind her ear and leaned forward to smell the flowers. “A client or a man?”
“What do you mean? I?—”
“I mean, I don’t believe you, but that’s fine you don’t have to tell me.”
Somehow, I managed to keep my expression neutral even with Ryder’s eyes burrowing into the side of my face. “Fine, it was a man. Are you happy?”
Natalie’s smile widened. “Is there a card?”
Fuck, fuck, fuck , I thought.
“I didn’t see one either,” Ryder piped up. Slowly, I turned toward him and gave him my most menacing look that he, for some reason, seemed to enjoy. It didn’t have its desired effect, but at least he knew that I didn’t appreciate his commentary.
“There wasn’t a note,” I said. “The delivery guy dropped it on his way up. But…I know who they’re from. A card wouldn’t have been necessary.” I knew I had to give Natalie something, otherwise she wouldn’t drop the topic. And with Ryder in the room, I was feeling pressure from all sides.
She pursed her lips and nodded. But I knew that look all too well—she’d descend into a million questions later, and I had to prepare for each of them. I began compiling answers as we stood there.
Fuck Ryder and his gorgeous bouquet.
“Okay, well, should we go? Unless there are other wedding detail s you all need to discuss?” Natalie clutched her bag in one hand and looked between me and Ryder.
“Nope,” I said quickly. “We’re done. Let me just grab my bag, and we can go.”
“I guess I’ll head out as well. Bye, Mom, love you,” Ryder said, stooping to hug his mom once again. He stuffed his hands into his pockets and strode toward the door. But before he walked out, he glanced back at me over his shoulder. I hoped Natalie didn’t note the way I tensed when his eyes landed on me.
“I’ll talk to you soon, Caroline.”
He left, and I finally felt like I could breathe again. Shaking away the lingering feelings, I grabbed my purse and shut down my computer, stuffing it into my bag.
I could still hear Ryder’s footsteps on the tile floor in the hallway when Natalie asked, “So, who’s the guy?”
“Just a guy.”
She scoffed, and I pushed my chair underneath my desk, straightening a few things before I looked up at her. She gave me an incredulous look.
“Whattt?” I asked, drawing the word out and slumping my shoulders. “What do you want from me? He’s just a guy, Nat.”
The words felt wrong the moment I said them. They didn’t just sour on my tongue. They made my stomach turn and my head hurt.
“The way you just said that. I don’t believe you,” Natalie said. I hadn’t thought to control my voice. I didn’t think that it would shake over the words. “But, whatever. If you don’t want to tell me, you don’t have to.”
“Nat, I—” I began, stepping toward her, but she waved me off then reached for my hand. She wrapped her fingers around mine and squeezed once. Her soft smile hit me directly in the heart.
“I’m serious. You don’t have to tell me everything, although that w on’t keep me from being curious and wanting to know. I just…you can tell me when you’re ready. If you ever are ready or if it becomes something worth telling.”