30. Katherine #2
“Sounds lovely. I’ve always wanted to go back,” I tell him.
Over the years, I grew to prefer reading the news on my tablet.
But a headline snags my attention as Ford folds the paper just so.
In the scheme of things, the bold type, maybe a third of an inch high, isn’t the largest I’ve seen.
Not even in today’s edition, I’d bet. But the five words might as well be a thousand feet high.
I reach for my phone and open the web browser, typing those same words into the search engine.
“Tech Tycoon Makes Bank Bid”
A handful of articles pop up, pictures included. The headlines vary, but the information is the same, and the pictures are different, but they’re all of the same man.
My man.
Tech tycoon Gabriel Rothburn has issued a surprise bid to buy out the Cort half of one of Manhattan’s oldest banks.
“What do you think?” King asks.
“I think someone’s been keeping secrets,” I say.
Even though I had my suspicions, because of course I did, I know discontent when I hear it, and Hayden Cort was itching to make a move. To get out of bed with Chanler and into something different. Something perhaps less volatile than my mother and the sinking ship my grandfather left behind.
Everyone falls silent, and I realize King was looking at Alex.
“Secrets?” Shon asks as Alex leans in close, arm sliding across the back of my chair.
I’m surrounded. Cocooned between King and Alex, and there’s honestly no place I’d rather be as my worlds collide.
“What’s wrong, Katie Bird?”
I hand him my phone but glance at King. “What were you talking about?” I ask, hoping to distract myself.
King doesn’t answer. Rather, he watches Alex skim the screen. My heartbeat sounds loud in my ears. I hate the way everyone’s watching me. Just waiting, like I’m going to fall apart at any moment.
Alex hands him my phone, and with the way King sort of wilts in his chair, I surmise that he already knew about the Cort deal.
“Did you both know, too?” I glance at Alex.
He has the grace to look down but answer me with a simple, honest, “Yes.”
“So I guess I’m the only one who’s not allowed to keep things to myself. Noted.” Honestly, it doesn’t even bother me that Gabe is interested in taking over half of my family’s company. That seems like an obvious choice, given the trauma my grandfather caused. And good for Gabe. Get your revenge.
My problem is how he gave me hell for keeping something to myself for two weeks. A detail that theoretically would affect my life and not his.
But this… His secret concerns both of us. And he’s known of his intentions for months, I’m sure. These things take time. Discussions. Due diligence. Lots of round and round with numbers and reports and enough spreadsheets to drown a seal.
And I don’t even mind that King and Alex apparently knew as well. It wasn’t their news to share. As Gabe’s best friend and his new lover, I get that they’d be in a tough spot here. But my logical brain can’t stop the pain filling me like a balloon.
Apparently, I’ve left both men speechless. Shon gives me a sympathetic look, but she doesn’t know what to say either. And really, what is there to say?
Except, I do know what to say.
“When did you want to go?” I ask King, fully aware that I’m once again running away.
“Go?”
“To Greece,” I prod. Time and distance from this whole situation, and from Gabe, sounds like exactly what I need to lift this weight from my chest. It’ll let me breathe again and reset in a place I’m familiar with and with a person I trust.
“Oh. Um. I was going to ask Alex if he could live without you for a few days…”
That doesn’t answer my question.
“We should go soon. This afternoon?” I reach for my phone and pull up the calendar, counting the Thursdays. “I have a board meeting on Thursday that I need to attend.”
“Works for me,” King says, warming to the idea.
Alex’s hand tightens on my knee. “You’ll take the jet and a team.”
“As many as you want,” King agrees easily. “They’re not gonna fit on my boat, though.”
“We’ll make it work.”
“Okay.” He grabs my hand. “Okay?”
That single question rights my world. “Yes. Very okay.” I glance past him to Shon, and my enthusiasm dims.
She reads my expression with ease. “Go! Hello. Greece? You two never shut up about it anyway. Besides, you can drop me off on your way.”
“Are you sure? I’m really enjoying our chill weekend.”
“Me too, but if you don’t get me out of here now, I really won’t leave. I won’t finish my degree. I’ll miss graduation. It’ll be a whole thing.”
“You heard the lady,” King says, scooting his chair back.
Alex is already on his phone, presumably texting the team that will accompany me and King. I don’t want to be without him any more than I wanted to be without King and Gabe while Alex and I went to Paris.
But it’s probably healthy to have one-on-one time. Not that I know what I’m doing. It’s just a guess.
Shon laughs and stands. “I guess I’ll go pack.”
“Same,” King says, following her lead. The look he sends me as he walks away is hot as lava. I can only imagine what he’s planning to pack. And that makes me blush. I hope we don’t end up in another tabloid.
At least I won’t be on a commercial flight with a vibe up my…
He ambles off toward the pool house.
Across the table, Ford folds the newspaper and lays it next to his plate, but his attention is on me. Me and Alex and King. And I swear he looks almost—wistful.
That’s an expression I’ve never seen on my little brother’s face, but it’s one I recognize nevertheless.
“You guys have a good trip.” He’s out of his chair and three steps toward the house when he calls back to Sutton. “You coming?”
Sutton half rolls his eyes and follows Ford into the house.
Those two. They’ve been glued at the hip for as long as I can remember and were besties long before Sutton’s mom married our dad.
They got even closer when Sutton and Beatrice moved in with Ford and Dad, and then they stayed there when their mom died.
I turn to face the last person left at the table with me. “Are you sure you’re okay with this? We don’t have to go today.”
Alex slides a possessive hand up the inside of my right thigh. Then he gives a hearty sigh. “Yeah. I’m okay with it.”
“But?”
His lips twitch.
“I’m not thrilled with you being so far away.”
“So I won’t go.”
“Oh, you’re going.”
A laugh bubbles up my throat. “I’m starting to feel a little like a puppet.”
“My hesitation has nothing to do with you and King and everything to do with your safety.”
“Mmm…” I trail a fingertip up his forearm. “So come protect us.”
“On your date?” He grunts. “King would never let me live that down.”
“So stay a safe distance away.”
He’s silent long enough that I can tell he’s considering it.
“Never mind. I shouldn’t have suggested that,” I say. “You have work here. I’ll be fine. I’m not taking this off.”
I jingle the bracelet.
“Good.”
“Seriously. We’ll be fine. And I think some time far away might be just what King and I need right now.
Perspective and all that. I know I keep putting things off, and I’ve got to stop running at some point.
Maybe we’ll be able to get back into our building after we get back, and Simon and I can do some plant triage. ”
That brings a full smile to his lips, and I can’t stop myself from leaning over and peppering a kiss against the corner of his mouth. His fingers tighten on my thigh, and my breath hitches, heat dripping through my veins.
“Let’s go see what King’s up to,” I whisper in Alex’s ear.
He takes no prodding. In fact, he’s out of his chair in a flash and reaching for my hand. I have to jog across the pool deck to keep up with him. It reminds me of our run through the rain in Paris, and by the time we get to the door, I’m laughing.
But my laughter dies the instant we’re inside, and he pulls me into his arms. His chest rises beneath my hands, and desire coils tight in my belly. The tension from the last seventy-two hours comes to a head, and the overwhelming emotions compound until it hurts to breathe.
“You okay, Beauty?”
Fisting a handful of his shirt, I pull him into a kiss. He groans, tightening his hold on me. New Katherine purrs in delight.
Yes. Yep. Uh-huh. Absolutely.
“I am now,” I say against his lips.
A second set of hands close around my waist, and I sigh, melting between them. My brain starts to hum with pleasure as King sweeps my hair to one side and presses kisses over the opposite shoulder. I shiver, nipples hardening.
I reach for King behind me.
There was a moment after I came to on that yacht that I worried I’d never get to see them again, much less feel this connected. Love is a great motivator.
Turning, I wrap my arms around King’s neck and lift my lips to his. He spears his tongue into my mouth, overwhelming my senses. I parry right back, sinking my fingers into his hair. He’s like oxygen and sunlight, essential ingredients to life. I can’t get enough.
“Need you both,” I say against King’s lips. Then I wrench my lips from his and turn to Alex. “Before I go.”
There’s a split second of hesitation, and I can guess what’s going through their head because the same thing is going through mine.
As right as this feels, someone’s missing.
King and I will be alone halfway around the world doing who knows what. Alex will be stateside waiting. And Gabe will be wherever he is.
But in this moment, I can’t let myself care where he is or what he’s doing. I think I’ve earned my disappointment where he’s concerned. Disappointment, frustration, anger—take your pick.
The emotions well inside me like a fiery little dragon. And she hurts. Deeply .
Which is, perhaps, silly. Gabe and I never made ’til-death-do-us-part promises to each other. But my heart has already promised a hunk of itself to him. To that sinful smirk of his. To his past, his pain, the trauma he carries.
Maybe I got carried away on a cloud of hormones. Time will tell.
As my nose starts to tingle and I try desperately to pull up from my pity party, I lift watery eyes to Alex. It hurts even worse knowing Gabe’s in pain and he won’t let me reach out to him.
The dragon snarls. No thinking about him. Not right now. “I want to lose myself in both of you. I don’t want to think about him or his hang-ups or why he isn’t here with us. I don’t want to think about his hypocrisy?—”
“I don’t think?—”
I whirl on King, and he shuts up instantly. Smart man.
“Just don’t. It’s probably not logical, but it’s how I’m feeling. It fucking hurts, Kingston. He gave me hell for not telling him about the inheritance situation, and all that time he was keeping this from me?”
Alex wraps a beefy arm around my middle and tugs me back against his chest. How he can be so big and deadly and yet gentle with me… Some of my fury cools, which makes the pain in my chest intensify.
“But he didn’t keep it from you,” I point out.
“Maybe one day I’ll know why. But not today.
Today we’re flying to Greece and we’re going to swim in azure seas and stuff our faces with baklava and sleep under the stars.
But before we go, I’m going to have you both.
And then I’m going to get on that plane full of your cum. ”