Chapter 19
Brady
If the darkness came in the form of a person, which she’d just confirmed, then my gut told me it was David. I could see the fear written across her face; I could hear it in her voice.
Whoever that motherfucker was, I wanted to wrap my hands around his neck and strangle the shit out of him.
What I didn’t want to do was push her to talk about every hardship in her life. We’d already covered the shocking revelation of her parents, a period I couldn’t even fathom, and then we transitioned straight into the asshole who was haunting her. She’d had a rough day as it was; I wouldn’t continue pulling her down the rabbit hole of hell.
But, shit, between her expression and the way she’d broken down tonight, sobbing in my arms, it was no wonder she’d given me those warnings.
She was dealing with some heavy things.
But not heavy enough to make me get up from this bed and walk out.
Fuck that.
I wanted her.
And hearing that she wasn’t perfect, that she had a tragic and difficult past, confirmed that this woman knew how to fight. She knew how to survive. That she hadn’t let either of these scenarios break her.
That was what I wanted in my life.
That was what made me want her even more.
If David—or whoever this person was—became a problem, I would deal with him.
Because deep down, I was a fighter too.
Until then, there was no reason to even talk about him.
I traced down the side of her face, stopping when I reached the corner of her mouth, which hadn’t grinned in far too fucking long. “How about I bore you with the history of Brady Spade?” I tugged at the section where her lips split. “Would that earn me a smile?”
She sighed. “Honestly, I would love nothing more.”
I leaned forward to kiss her, inhaling the pi?a colada scent off her skin, slowly, carefully holding our mouths together. I’d promised her that my cock was staying in my pants. But any more of this, even the swipe of her tongue against mine, would jeopardize that.
Guaranteed.
I just couldn’t get enough.
Once we were separated, I adjusted my back against the headboard. “The quick rundown is this: I’m LA born and bred. I went to college at UNLV. I wasn’t there for the academics. I was there to party my ass off on the Strip. My dad and uncle started Spade Hotels—now called Cole and Spade Hotels, which is another story. My brothers—Cooper and Macon, whom you met on the Daltons’ plane—and I worked for them through high school, and as soon as we graduated college, we joined the company full-time. That’s where I’ve been ever since. Working, traveling, having a hell of a lot of fun.”
“We need to back up for a second. Vegas? For four years? Whoa. The most I’ve ever done was a two-night stopover, and it kicked my ass. I wasn’t sure I was even going to make my flight.”
I laughed. “But it was a good time, wasn’t it?”
While she filled her lungs, her lips began to tug wide. “A memorable time, I’ll say that.”
“My father’s requirement was a degree. He didn’t care where we went or what we studied. Now, my brothers took things a little more seriously. Double majors, minors. Academic honors.” I placed my forearm under my head, using it as a pillow. “That’s not me. I fulfilled what was asked of me, but I was really there to party. I wanted to get as wild as possible before my life became all business—maybe not all, but most.”
“I’m going to ask you the same question you asked me. Do you love your job?”
I let out a mouthful of air. “The day-to-day? No. It’s all bullshit busy work. Meetings, decisions, corporate policies—none of that interests me. I like being hands-on. Designing a new property or renovating an existing structure. I like overseeing the process from the ground up and watching the guests’ reactions when they walk into one of my creations and they take it all in.”
She rolled onto her side, folding the pillow to prop her up a little. “Sounds like you travel a lot for work?”
My hand went to her neck, cupping that sweet spot between her throat and collarbone. “Yes, and no. Once a property is up and running, my job is done. But to get that hotel where it needs to be requires an immense amount of travel. Once we close on the property here in Edinburgh, I’ll be going back and forth once a week.”
Her eyes widened. “Weekly?”
“I don’t plan on moving here. My brothers typically do, they prefer staying in the location until the project is finished. In the past, I’ve done it both ways.” I stroked her cheek while I studied her eyes. “For now, the weekly trips just feel right.”
She glanced at the ceiling, the window, across the room toward the door. “This is the hotel you’re buying, isn’t it?” She glanced at me again. “I overheard you talking to Dominick on the flight to Tampa.”
“It’s going to look nothing like this once I’m done with it.”
Her lips were pulling even wider. “Everything you do is fascinating.”
“You haven’t seen me in action. If you think I’m an asshole now, work mode is even worse.”
She giggled. “I haven’t seen you in action?” Her cheeks stayed red when she added, “By the way … I Googled you.”
“And?”
“Your accolades are quite impressive, Mr. Spade. You have the largest five-star hospitality brand in the world—six of those properties being your designs, Scotland will be the seventh. Out of those six existing structures, two of them won architectural awards.” With each point, she held out a finger. “You personally worked with an IT company to create proprietary software that streamlined the check-in process for your guests and a backend system for your whole network of hotels. And the rumor is, you’re already setting your sights on Bangkok as your next location, which you think will be one of your most successful hotels.”
“Bangkok,” I sighed. “That was mentioned on fucking Google?”
Her hand shot out to my chest. “It wasn’t online. I heard you talk about it during the flight to Tampa. And don’t worry, I signed a fifteen-page NDA before the Daltons would let me step foot on their plane. I would never speak a word about anything any of you discuss. I’m a vault.”
The anger lowered to a dull irritation. “I was about to have someone’s goddamn head.” I took a breath. “But, yes, that’s where I’d like to build next. Jenner is starting to look at properties for me.”
“And you’d live there, I assume?”
“It would be about a year and a half from now, and with the distance, I’d really have no choice.” Hair seemed to constantly fall in her face, and I brushed some back. “Have you been?”
She nodded. “Twice. Both times for stopovers. So much to see and do. And the food? I die.”
“Agreed. I just have to convince the team.”
“The team is Macon and Cooper?”
I moved my arm out from under my head and rubbed my hand over my hair. “I fucking wish. That would make my life much, much simpler.” I hissed out a mouthful of air. “My uncle recently retired, finally handing over the business to us boys and my cousin, but with that came a merger with Cole International. A transition that hasn’t been easy on any of us. So, instead of there being four partners, there are seven.”
She sat up. “I read about this too.”
“You probably did. It made international headlines for quite a few weeks.”
She wiggled over the mattress until she found a position she liked. “Let me get this all straight. There’re three Spade brothers and a cousin?”
“Jo Dalton. She’s married to Jenner.”
“Oh, yes, I’ve met her. She’s so lovely.” She tucked her legs underneath her. “And then there’re two Cole brothers and a sister, right?”
“Ridge and Rhett are the brothers. Rowan is their sister. Rowan is dating Cooper, my middle brother.” I chuckled. “It’s a lot to take in, I know.”
“Good Lord.” She rested her hands in her lap. “I’m pretty sure I’ve read about their romance. It hit the tabloids.”
I clasped my hand around her shoulder. “Do me a favor—mention that when you see him. Nothing would please me more than the look on his face when you tell him there was a fucking article written about his love life.”
She winced. “I’m pretty positive it was a magazine.”
“Even better.”
“I’m going to take a wild guess and say you’re unhappy with having three more partners.” She paused. “Am I right?”
It blew my mind how smooth it was to talk to her. How uncomplicated it felt. She wasn’t drilling me or interviewing me, like many of the women I’d hooked up with in the past. She was truly trying to just understand it all.
And opening up—something I rarely did outside of family and close friends, and even then, I was usually tight-lipped about the personal stuff—wasn’t hard to do.
“You’re right.” I rubbed the outside of her thigh, needing at least some part of me touching her. “Rowan’s cool. My issue isn’t with her. Although when she first started dating Cooper—given that she was one of our partners—that rubbed me the wrong way. Her brothers, on the other hand, have gotten under my skin since day one.”
“I get the sense that’s easy to do.”
“You really think you know me, don’t you?” I winked.
“Just a little hunch I have.”
“Again, you’re not wrong.” My thumb stilled by her inner thigh. “But those fuckers came in with nothing but attitude. Granted, we’re three cocky men who hate advice and compromising. I wouldn’t want to deal with us, and I don’t know how Jo does. But those dudes came at us all wrong.” I flattened the top of my hair. “Ridge has a little girl, Daisy. She’s a cute one, and he’s the softer of the two, but Rhett”—I ruffled up my hair—“that bastard is something else.”
She smiled. “Sounds like executive meetings are a blast.”
My head shook back and forth. “They’re getting better. They’re nothing like when the merger first happened. Honestly, Rhett is lucky to be alive with how many times I’ve wanted to choke his ass out.” My voice quieted a little as I added, “Macon wants us to give him a little slack. Their dad, Ray, is dying. He doesn’t have much time left. It’s tough.”
“Are they close to their dad?”
“Very.”
“Take it from someone who’s been through it. He’s going to need a lot of slack. I wouldn’t wish that pain on anyone—not even someone I hate.”
I moved my hand under her leg and squeezed. “For you, I’ll think about it.”
A sound went off on the other side of the room.
A vibration.
I didn’t have to look to know what it was.
As Lily heard it, her posture changed. Her lips mashed together. Her chest was moving like she was panting and she couldn’t stop fidgeting.
A conversation that had been going so well, and then this.
“Hey …” My fingers went to her cheek. “It’s just us in here. No one else. Whatever is happening over there, ignore it.”
At least I had confirmation that the sound of her phone was what changed her demeanor. That every time the fucker vibrated, it set something off inside her.
A trigger that went deep as hell.
I didn’t think I could rewind her past and erase the damage that had been done, but I could certainly try to rub every spot that had been wounded and kiss those fucking scars in hopes that they’d never reopen again.
“It’s so ingrained in my head. It’s like … I’m always waiting for it.” Her voice was barely above a whisper. “And when I don’t answer or respond, the messages come in faster.”
“I’ll solve that right now.” I got up from the bed and grabbed her phone off the dresser. Not only were there missed calls from David, but several texts had also come through. I hit the buttons that would turn her phone off, and when the screen went black, I returned it to the dresser and rejoined her on the mattress. “Now, you can’t be reached, and you can’t react to the messages if you don’t know they’re coming through.”
Her eyes were getting emotional. Not teary. It was like I could see the fear within her irises. “That was probably a very bad idea.”
“Listen to me.” I grabbed both of her shoulders and moved my face close to hers. “I’m not going to let anyone hurt you or fuck with you in any way. I think you know me well enough at this point to know how serious I am when I say that.”
“This is different.” Her voice stayed flat.
“You’re saying I should destroy your phone, then?”
She tucked her legs up to her chest, staying quiet for far too many seconds. “It wouldn’t matter, Brady. He’d still find me.”