Chapter 24 #2
The smile I gave was genuine. Mace already felt like home. What my cowboy didn’t do was throw his arms out, prepared to make out with me for the world—my six security guards and the pilot—to see. His thumb guided me toward the passenger side of his truck as he pivoted the other direction.
Not what I wanted, but I hightailed it that way.
Mace was barely inside when my side door shut us securely in, drowning out the downshifting rotors of the helicopter.
My giant grin matched his as he pulled me over the center console, smashing his mouth against mine.
The peppering of kisses was pure sweetness.
My world settled into that place I called home.
“Bed,” I managed, pulling at the hem of his T-shirt, desperately needing the skin-on-skin touch.
“I’m glad you’re here.” Mace’s palms cradled my cheeks as he tilted my head, driving his tongue forward. It was perfect and right and the absolute wrong tactic because it meant I had to be the one with a functioning brain.
The velvet strength of his tongue lashed over mine. A moan slipped free as I ripped my mouth away.
“No,” Mace groaned, the undisguised whine in the single word sent a thrill through me.
“Yes,” I managed. “They’re watching and I can’t risk any of them watching then wanting. Thirteen days without my guy between my thighs drove me insane.”
He laughed right in my face. His humor at my genuine statement was probably the only thing to pull him off me. “I went years without any sort of real sex. You’ll be fine.”
Might be true, but I didn’t want to find out. I sat back in my seat when Mace took his. He managed to start the truck and turn his head toward me. The happiness was still there.
“Wanna see the progress?” he asked, revving the engine with an extra press to the gas pedal.
“Check the schedule I sent you. We view the changes made in four hours. We eat before we go. I brought you a New York slice to change your view on pizza forever. Gray wants to talk to us. Remember him?”
“Yeah, your friend. He bought chairs. How is he?”
“Don’t distract me by bringing up the night we met.
” I grinned over at him and patted his thigh.
“He’s been allotted five minutes unless I can find an excuse to blow him off.
That means three and a half hours in bed if you get us back home in the next five minutes before we come up for air,” I explained.
The truck swiftly went from steady course to knocking me around, hitting all the ruts and divots along the way.
I liked that he chose to increase the speed to get us home faster.
“You never follow your own schedule,” Mace said, clocking me with the truth.
“Don’t say that. If we don’t follow the time, you’ll still be in bed, recovering when it’s time for me to leave in the morning,” I said with all certainty.
I had little hope that wasn’t going to happen anyway. My guy might not have had sex for years, but this is the longest I’d been without sex…well, ever. Even my self-imposed celibacy had limits.
=?=
Slade
“You ready?” I asked Mace before accepting the video call.
He was still panting and barely upright as he leaned against the headboard and reached for the bottle of water on his nightstand.
I waited for him to settle back in place and lifted the blanket to cover the sexy V that caught the light just right and drew my eye lower, guaranteeing we wouldn’t make it out of bed if it remained in sight.
Gray didn’t have sexual boundaries. Everyone was fair game. I didn’t need him to laser focus on Mace and his hard body. Of course, I trusted Mace. He wasn’t a player, but Gray’s constant flirting would make me absolutely crazy.
“Go,” Mace instructed, nodding toward my phone. He angled until he was under my arm, pressed against my side, having no care that I only had my left hand to manage the video call. Apparently, I didn’t care either. Thank goodness for touch screen.
I pushed the accept button on the screen. Gray’s face appeared less than two seconds later.
“You have five minutes,” I stated with finality in lieu of greeting. “We’re late on the day, and I got things to do.”
At the same time, Gray said, “Who’s Dash Richmond and why’s he trying to reach me?”
“Did you talk to him?” Mace asked.
“Hell no.” His face was expressive, making the ‘hell no’ into something that made it clear talking to Dash was interfering and not worth his time.
He’d trained that brow to crinkle in different ways.
This next look meant nothing more mattered than his next words.
“Do you own a brush? For either the hair on your head or growing out of your jaw. Who has that much hair? How do you handle it?”
I turned my head toward my guy. In that unspoken way we had, Mace lifted his left hand, running his fingers over my hair, gripping and tugging to guide me in the direction he wanted me. As far as I was concerned, I wasn’t ever going to cut my hair again. I liked a good hair pull.
“Quit looking at my appearance and focus on why you’re calling.” Even under my own declaration, I turned to Mace. “Put my hair down.” Mace did, patting my head.
“It’s not gonna happen,” Mace said with a critical assessment.
“How in the world did I miss you, Mace? Let me correct that. What’s up?” Gray asked.
The sound was sexy, given with his best come hither, and Mace and I both turned toward Gray. Me, radiating with pure jealousy. Mace lifted his chin and a hand in appreciation.
In a briefly calculated move, my hand lifted, blocking Mace from Gray’s line of sight. Gray didn’t appear put-out. He lowered his head and peeked at Mace from the bottom of the screen.
“Stop being a baby,” Gray stated flatly.
“Your boyfriend’s hot. People will look.
Now tell me who Dash is to Mace. You two can’t already be divorcing and splitting your assets, being friends forever.
” Gray tried his best to hide the grin tugging at the corner of his mouth but failed.
“So now I have to come up with a prenup for dating?”
“You’re a dumb shit,” I said. “Dash is representing Mace on a couple of matters. We found him through Austin. Dash handles legal for Grainger Studios.”
“I believe he has your Grainger Studios contracts ready as well,” Gray said in a way that said I should already know that.
“See what he has to say. He and Mace talked about filing a civil suit regarding his accident. By the time Mace’s memory returned, the investigation was settled and closed. No one wanted to reopen the case.”
“A civil suit?” Gray asked and reached for a pen, finally taking the call seriously.
“That’s what he said,” Mace answered.
“Against the Dunn family and everyone else involved. Apparently the investigators flat-out lied, and the guy who caused the accident didn’t die,” I added.
We lost Gray for several seconds as he wrote with a savant’s intensity on the piece of paper.
“We need to get Bryce involved. He’s connected with the wealthy of Texas.
They pal around. He’ll help. I’ll put Dash with him.
He’s great at knowing the right holes to poke.
Hold tight. Let me see if he’s available to be on the call.
” As Gray put the pen down and began to type on an unseen keyboard, Mace and I waited, staring at the small screen as he worked.
“I’m sorry you had to go through all that,” Gray said absently to Mace. “We’re more corrupt here in Texas than people realize. The wealthy set the laws and enforce them only to their own benefit. It’s a crime in itself.”
“It’s hard talkin’ about it,” Mace confessed. “Harder thinkin’ about it after the memories came back. Justice seems like a good thing. Settin’ the record straight matters, I guess.”
Gray added Bryce to the call but I was also given an option to accept him into the conversation.
“Why am I needed to help with anything? What do you want?” Bryce said irritated. “You’ve got about two minutes. I’m busy.”
“I need you to tell me about Dash Richmond. Offer insight for an investigation,” I corrected.
“Why? Gray that’s why I pay you so much money.”
“Barely minimum wage,” Gray shot back with a pfft.
Bryce’s bark of disgusted laughter was instantaneous. “Yeah. If only that were true. Do you know what minimum wage is? I’m not actually being paid minimum wage either. Far below.”
Oh no, we couldn’t joke about money in front of Mace, or he would shut down, and worry about it for the rest of the day.
My finger instinctively reached forward and pushed end to Bryce’s time on the screen to which Gray laughed hysterically when his brother’s image vanished.
Mace needed more time with us to digest all the shit talking and back and forth we did all the time.
“What about the money?” Mace asked me quietly. “I can work more shifts if we need money to pay for all this.”
The words were sweetly muttered with concern. Like shift work could ever make enough money to cover these men’s costs.