Chapter 18 #3
He pulls out, leaving me panting against the wall, my insides on the edge and screaming for more.
He grabs my hand from the wall and leads me to the stairs, guiding me to kneel halfway up.
Then he kneels on the step below mine and straightens my body against his chest. He pushes my knees further apart and I lean my head back against his shoulder, my sex crying out for him to re-enter, my legs grateful for the relief from standing.
Holding my hips, he thrusts up into me, both of us moaning as he slips back into place, my body instantly lifting again.
He takes my hand and moves it back to my entrance so we’re both feeling him driving into me.
‘Gregory. I need to come.’
His lips clamp onto my neck and he sucks my skin hard as his cock sinks deeper. ‘Now, baby, together.’
Need. Delight. Relief. I scream his name as he roars expletives and our bodies shudder together, bucking in sync, his arms holding me against him as we climax violently, him deep inside me, my body merging into his.
‘Thank you,’ he whispers against my neck, holding me to him until our breathing settles.
‘Don’t ever thank me, Gregory, not for that. I love you.’
‘Baby, I love you so much, it’s going to be the death of me.’
‘Food first or bath first?’ I ask as we fumble to our feet at the bottom of the stairs.
‘Bath.’
‘Okay. I’m sorry to burst your bubble of ignorance, Mr Ryans, but we do actually need to talk about the game.’
* * *
I stand between his legs whilst he adjusts his position, then guides me down into the bubbly water between his thighs. Leaning back against his chest, I hum contentedly as he strokes water up and down my chest.
‘Black Diamonds, come on then.’
I don’t intend the enormous sigh that escapes me before I speak. ‘Someone has applications pending in Europe. They pipped us to the post by a matter of hours again.’
‘And now you’re very concerned.’
I roll over and rest my chin on my hands on his chest. ‘Very. Whoever it is, they’re following the exact pattern of my registration plan.’
‘Four jurisdictions, couldn’t it be coincidence?’
I shake my head. ‘No. Not now. It’s too coincidental that the registrations are so proximate, and the pattern.’
‘Surely the pattern is obvious: you dealt with the biggest jurisdictions first.’
‘Gregory, you need to start hearing what I’m saying.
I think this is purposeful. Now, someone thinks they own this game or they’ve made an exact replica and want to register their game before we register ours.
That way, if there’s a fight, they have a solid claim, particularly in jurisdictions where the rule is first to register wins. ’
‘I sense there’s a but.’
‘I just can’t stop thinking about the order and timing. Gregory, I think someone is doing this maliciously. Either someone, like you say, knows the most obvious pattern of registration, or…’
He pushes himself to sit higher in the bath. ‘Or they have your plan.’
‘That’s where I’m getting to. I’ve spent the day thinking about who it could be and the obvious place to start is people you, or I, or both of us have pissed off.’
He looks up, searching, listing, realising. ‘That’s a pretty big list.’
‘Yes. The people who have access to the plan are Tim and Jean-Paul. Perhaps they’re pissed about the way Nick Henshaw was fired?’
‘No. The game is to benefit Constant Sources; they wouldn’t do it.’
‘Nick Henshaw? Would they have given the plan to him?’
‘No. Their allegiance doesn’t lie with Nick. They wouldn’t dare.’
‘Well, there’s Stuart? There’s something about him, Gregory. And he works in your building, he knows computers; it’s not like he couldn’t find the plan.’
‘Why on earth would he be looking, Scarlett? He works for me now and it was his game. He’d breach the terms of our deal if he did anything like that and I doubt he wants to pay seven hundred and fifty grand back.’
He does have a point.
He reaches out, encouraging me to lie back into his chest. ‘It’s that woman Stella, from Lara’s party and the hunt. She hates me for being with you. She’s malicious.’
His chest vibrates against my back as he chuckles. ‘Do you really think Stella would get back at you for taking me off the market by entering into an intellectual property battle with you?’
I laugh with him. ‘I guess not. There’s an obvious person in Trina. I thought about her a lot. I’m waiting for her next move. But what would she know about games and IP?’
‘And it’s way off the mark in terms of her motivation. She wants to pull the lid off a pan of bribes; stealing or copying a game isn’t going to achieve that.’
Now I laugh harder. It’s completely inappropriate but his muddled saying in the midst of him being serious is just too damned cute.
‘What can possibly be so funny right now?’
‘Baby, what you just said was a whole other level of mess. I think you mean lift the lid, not pull and God knows what a pan of bribes is. For an intelligent man, you—’
His hands move to my hips, his fingers digging in until I squeal. ‘Say sorry.’
‘I’m sorry.’ I giggle. ‘Seriously, though, there is one other person. I don’t know how he’d know about the game necessarily but he definitely wouldn’t need sight of my registration plan to know what I’m thinking.’
‘Jack.’
‘He was my boss for a long time, Gregory. He might be a sick bastard but he taught me a few things in that time.’
‘And me putting him behind bars gives him a damn good reason to want retribution.’
‘Yep. I can’t piece everything together but he fits the bill of seriously pissed off and knowledgeable about the market and the legals behind everything.’
‘All right, lady, you’re starting to wrinkle; let’s eat.’ He pushes me up, standing and climbing out of the bath. The conversation might be over but his own thoughts are just getting started and he needs space to mull it over. I get that. It’s how I work, too.
I follow him out of the tub and let him wrap a white towel around my shoulders after he’s tied his own around his waist. ‘What did you want to talk about?’
‘My mother wants to discuss wedding plans with you. She’d like you to have lunch with her at the weekend.’
‘Already? We’ve only just gotten engaged.’
‘Well, she thinks she could pull something together soon, like in a month.’
‘A month? That’s insane.’
‘Hey.’ He holds my chin. ‘I waited long enough to find you, Scarlett Heath; I don’t want to wait any longer to make you mine. Please don’t fight me on this.’
I can’t resist his plea and my head is really too busy to start fretting about anything else. ‘I’ll meet with her,’ I tell him. But I’m not conceding.
‘Good. The other thing is, you need a dress for the charity gala on Thursday.’
‘Oh, crap, I forgot about that.’
‘I’ve made an appointment for you with Julia and Lucas tomorrow.’
‘Gregory, I don’t need another new dress. I can’t buy something new every time we go somewhere; I’ll be bankrupt.’
‘That’s fine because I’ll be paying, with our money, and on this occasion, you absolutely do need a new dress.
It’s our first public appearance since the engagement and given the hype surrounding me at the moment, there’ll be a lot of eyes.
I want you to feel comfortable and a beautiful new dress to match my gorgeous fiancée will help that. ’
Whilst I hate to admit it, what he’s saying does make sense. I want to look good but not for me: for him. I want him to be proud of me and that’s hard enough in a room full of stunning and insanely wealthy women. ‘Fine.’
He clears his throat theatrically. ‘That’s it? That’s all the grief you’re going to give me?’
‘It’s a one-off and don’t push it, Ryans.’
‘Fine. Jackson will pick you up from work at six and take you. I have something to take care of tomorrow.’
‘Fine.’
‘Fine.’
‘Stop trying to have the last word.’
‘I’m not trying to have the last word.’
‘You just did it again.’
‘Didn’t.’
He chuckles.
‘Did,’ I say, stomping my foot like a child.
‘Stop it.’
‘Okay, I’m done.’
‘Fine.’
‘Fine.’
‘Okay.’