Chapter 46
CHAPTER 46
CHARLIE
N ew York was an incredibly strange, incredibly loud place but I suddenly found myself sort of understanding the reason why people flocked here from all over the world. Not only did it seem to be true that the city never slept, but there was a magic in the air here that I’d never felt replicated anywhere else.
Olivia moaned and writhed underneath me, her features beautifully contorted as she came apart around me. Her hot, slick channel milked me, her orgasm demanding my own. I clenched my teeth and tried to fight for control, but my name on her lips in the throes of release did me in. “Oh, God. Shit, Liv.”
I rammed my hips into hers, my balls tightening as the base of my spine exploded. A loud groan was torn right out of my lungs, the climax hitting me so hard that my ears rang with the intensity of it. As I dropped my forehead to hers in the aftermath, I felt her still spasming around me and I kissed the tip of her nose, fucking quivering in a way I didn’t think I’d done during sex since I’d been a teenager.
Could be because that wasn’t just sex, though.
I dismissed the thought out of hand. Now wasn’t the time to get into that. I was even more attracted to her after seeing her in her natural habitat than I had been before, though. That was for sure.
Olivia captured my gaze when she flicked her eyes up to mine, smiling sleepily before pressing a chaste kiss to my side. “Why are you so good at that?”
I smirked. “You’re becoming more than just a city girl to me. That’s why. As much as I’d like to take credit for it, I don’t think I can because I don’t think it’s just me. It’s us.”
What in the unholy heck am I saying?
I’d never said anything like that before, but it wasn’t untrue.
Olivia’s eyes flared wide open, searching mine before she released a slow breath through her nose. She glanced at her hand on my chest, inhaled, and looked back up at me. As her gaze lingered on mine, it was almost like I could see her hesitation about what she was about to say, but in the time I’d known her, she’d never been one to let uncertainty stop her.
“I never would’ve seen it coming,” she started quietly but confidently, the expression in her eyes raw and fierce. “If someone had told me that this would happen, I’d have laughed in their faces, but I’m falling for a country boy from Texas. What is the world coming to?”
I chuckled, but my heart was beating out of my chest. I drew her closer, burying my nose in her hair and breathing in deeply. A torrent of emotions swept through me and my eyes closed, my pulse hammering under my jaw.
“I didn’t see any of this coming either, but I can’t say I mind it.” In fact, I didn’t only not mind it. I loved it. It was different, and exhilarating, and it felt right in so many ways that were so unexpected. It just worked, and I honestly didn’t even want to try to understand why.
She smiled up at me. “Same.”
Pressing a kiss to her forehead, I held her tight and wondered just how the hell I had gotten myself into this situation with her. Or her with me, for that matter. We were so mismatched and yet we fit together.
As I exhaled, I looked down into her eyes. “You’re really okay with falling for a cowboy?”
She shook her head. “I’m okay with falling for you .”
My heart constricted again, doing all these wild things in response to just those six words. A short pause later, she tilted her head on my chest to face me fully. “Do you think you’ll survive a city girl?”
I chuckled. “As long as it’s you , I’m pretty sure I’ll be okay.”
She cuddled deeper into my side, letting out a content sigh and resting her head on my chest once more. As we lay there, we talked quietly until we fell asleep, both of us wondering out loud how we were going to navigate our relationship without letting it get in the way of working together.
I was optimistic, though. Misunderstanding aside, we hadn’t had any trouble so far, and it wasn’t like we shared an office. We’d just have to make sure to avoid any more misunderstandings in the future, and if we could manage that, I was confident that we wouldn’t have any issues where that was concerned.
When I told her as much, she smiled sleepily up at me. “How about this? Next time, tell me how you’re feeling instead of Dallas.”
“I can do that,” I murmured, kissing her forehead before falling asleep with her in my arms.
The next morning, we were up super early, leaving our room and sneaking back to our respective suites. I walked Olivia to hers, kissed her soundly, and then went to close out our room with the front desk before I headed back to the guys.
Colt and Dallas were still fast asleep in the dark interior when I walked in, the block-out blinds closed and the soft sound of their snoring filling the air. I bypassed them both, heading into the bathroom to start getting ready for the day.
As I stepped under the spray of a cool shower, I decided that next time Olivia and I spent the night together, I wouldn’t let her leave before we cleaned up together. This would’ve been so much better with her here.
My cock started swelling and I turned the faucet to ice cold. Last night had been incredible and we’d definitely taken a few steps forward in our relationship, but today was the first day of the conference.
We both had to go to work.
As I emerged from the bathroom, I padded quietly across the room to grab some clothes, then ducked into the walk-in closet to change. I rubbed on some cologne, slid my feet into my boots, and debated bringing my hat downstairs with me, but I knew it would probably only wind up being something I had to carry around with me all day long, so I left it.
The guys eventually woke up when I pressed the button to open the blinds, letting the early morning sunlight tumble into the room. I hit Start on the little coffee machine in the room, resting my palms against the counter. I watched Dallas shoot upright in bed while Colt rolled over before remembering where he was.
“God, I love this city,” Dallas said groggily before he yawned and stretched his arms out above his head. “New York is epic, but I wish we could sleep a little longer.”
“You already have slept a little longer.” I jerked my chin at the round clock mounted above the bathroom door. “Four hours longer, actually. Time to rise and shine, boys. We’ve got to hit breakfast before the conference starts.”
“That’s only happening at noon,” Colt objected on a loud yawn, but eventually he smacked himself in the face a few times and stumbled out of bed. “We do need food, though. Coffee?”
“Already brewing,” I assured him. “How was the rest of your night last night?”
“Wild,” he said, speaking over his shoulder as he headed to the bathroom. “We had a blast. I’m hitting the shower. Fix my coffee.”
The bathroom door slammed behind him and I groaned, grateful I didn’t have a hangover. That bang would’ve made my head explode if I did. I heard Colt whistling as the shower started up and I frowned, turning to Dallas and arching an eyebrow.
“Did anything happen that I should know about? He seems to be in a really good mood.”
Dallas shrugged as he got up and came over to get a cup of coffee. “I think he’s just excited about discovering a real and true love for street food. The guy has as many, or maybe even more, stomachs than a cow. I don’t know how he packed in as much as he did.”
I laughed. “Colt has always had that talent. All good, then?”
“All good.” He hesitated before adding, “Lacey and I ended up spending a long time talking last night. I really like her. Like , like her.”
“You should go for it.” Somehow, I managed to keep the surprise out of my tone. “Only if you’re sure you’re ready for whatever might come of it, though.”
Which I doubted, but stranger things had happened—such as me falling head over heels for a girl who’d probably never even milked a dang cow.
“I’ll see how the week goes,” he finally said, accepting the cup I handed over with a grateful smile before he went to the couch in our small sitting area. “How was your night?”
“It was awesome, but I promised Liv I’d talk to her about how I felt from now on and not to you, so let’s leave it at that.”
He sighed. “Hoes over bros, huh?”
“Don’t call her that,” I snapped, even though I knew he didn’t mean it. “Also, I doubt you want to hear more about my night.”
He chuckled. “Fair enough. You got your own room, didn’t you?”
“We did.”
“Well, then that’s all I need to know.” He sipped on his coffee.
I pulled my cup out of the slot and inserted another for Colt. Dallas swallowed his drink and then looked at me in a way that said he wasn’t really sure how to ask what he was about to. I gave him time to work it out, turning my head to take in the bustling street below while Dallas broke down a few of his own mental barriers. The thing about those was they were best pounded down from the inside.
While I assumed this was about the feelings he was developing for Lacey, I didn’t push him, deciding to let him figure it out by himself—like I had. Neither of us had ever been good at romance or relationships, and neither of us had ever cared.
Until now.
Eventually, Colt interrupted Dallas’s silent struggle, strutting out of the bathroom fully dressed and ready to hit the buffet. He jerked his head back toward the door. “You’d better be quick. I’m starving.”
“How?” Dallas’s features screwed up, like he honestly didn’t know how Colt could be hungry again after eating as much as he had last night, but he stood up and left his coffee behind while he went to grab a shower.
Colt frowned at me. “What crawled up his ass?”
“A crush, I think.” I pushed his coffee toward him on the counter. “Drink up. Some of us didn’t eat half of New York last night.”
“Nah, you just ate?—”
“You do not want to finish that sentence,” I threatened, cutting him off before he could go there, but there wasn’t much heat in my words.
I wouldn’t let him or anyone presume to know things about Liv and me, but I was also in too good a mood to get pissed about it. A fact that Colt had evidently been counting on.
He laughed. “Who knew that a chick from New York would eventually be the one who tamed you?”
“Keep talking about this and we’ll find out how tame I really am.” I pumped my eyebrows at him playfully and he waved me off, preferring to tell me about all the food he’d tasted last night while Dallas finished up in the shower.
Once he was ready, we left our suite and headed down to the lobby for breakfast in the restaurant, and as soon as we exited the elevator, I knew I’d underestimated the reach of Walker Marketing. Accents from all over drifted to my ears, a lot of them not even from this country.
It seemed like there were people here from all over the world, and it occurred to me that Olivia was the right hand of the man who owned a company that brought people here from thousands of miles away. It was impressive, to say the least.
The conference was kicking off with a “Mingle Lunch” around midday, and the turnout was huge. Colt, Dallas, and I went around introducing ourselves and meeting tons of new people. So many different businesses used the Walker firm for their marketing that I could barely comprehend how many different industries Olivia obviously had knowledge of.
I hadn’t even seen her yet, but my respect for her and her level of skill was growing by the minute. By all accounts from long-standing clients and newbies alike, the ranch was damn lucky to have her on our side—and I was damn lucky to have her at mine.
A fact I never planned on forgetting or taking for granted. She was a powerhouse of a woman with a heart of gold, and she was all mine. Now all I had to do was make sure she stayed that way.