26. Miracle Worker
26
MIRACLE WORKER
L eave it to West to start shit right away.
Guess they wanted to see his reaction to everything and if he kept his cool or gave them all crap.
Surprisingly, Foster wasn’t pissed off.
No, it felt more like it did when they were kids and goofing around.
When Charlotte smiled, he realized maybe his big brother knew enough to act like a normal sibling and not a fancy billionaire.
“Charlotte, this is my brother, West, and his wife, Abby.”
“It’s so nice to meet you both,” she said, shaking their hands. “I can’t say I’ve heard a lot about you because Foster doesn’t talk much. And I think we all know I didn’t know his last name until recently.”
West shook her hand. “I like her already,” West said. “She’s giving you shit.”
Charlotte looked embarrassed over that. “Sorry,” she mouthed. “I really wasn’t.”
“It’s fine,” he said. “Everyone does in our family. It’s as I told you before. We all come from similar backgrounds.”
An hour later, the night was going much smoother than he’d thought it would.
Or maybe he hoped it’d be like this and it was.
How many times in his life had he been dating someone and they met West and acted like an idiot?
Foster always gave them a pass if they were intimidated, but it wasn’t often that.
Then he remembered that Charlotte was used to rubbing elbows with wealthy people. Not just in her personal life but in her job as well.
“How are you doing?” she asked as she leaned into his ear. Appetizers had been taken away and they were sitting at a large round table, everyone talking and the conversation going fairly smoothly.
Nelson had come in late and was going to eat and then go into the bar. He imagined his single younger brother would rather try to find a woman for himself, even if it was for the night.
Nelson wouldn’t say he was here with his siblings, but he might say who he was if he thought it’d get him some action.
His brother would have to learn those things on his own.
“I’m fine,” he said. “Why do you ask?”
“Because you’ve said before that you tend to get overwhelmed being around family after a period of time. I appreciate being introduced to everyone, but I don’t want you to feel like we’ve got to stay if you need a break.”
“She is the sweetest thing,” Laken said. “That she knows that about you and is willing to leave.”
“I don’t believe that was meant for your ears, nosy,” he said to his sister who had walked by and stopped to hear most of the conversation.
“No,” Charlotte said. “Sorry if I got you in trouble.”
“Foster is always in trouble,” Laken said. “Right, Braylon?”
“Always,” Braylon said. “Well, not anymore. He was as a kid, but he didn’t always start it.”
“That’s right,” he said. “Sometimes it was Elias or Rowen.”
“Rarely Elias if it had to do with you,” West said. “You two were glued at the hip even though he’s closer in age to Rowan.”
“I think it’s great you are all so close,” Charlotte said. “I didn’t have that. I have one sister and we are close now, but she lives on Amore Island.”
“We heard,” Braylon said. “Or more like we’ve heard about your sister.”
“I told you that West knows your sister’s father-in-law,” he said.
“In passing,” West said. “Nice family.”
“They are great,” she said. “Maybe Foster can meet them one day.”
There was a lot of silence when she said that. Then Laken jumped in. “Good luck there. You might need it.”
“Thanks,” he said. “I’m not that bad. It might be nice to take a few days off.”
More silence to those words. “I think Charlotte might be a miracle worker,” West said.
“Wait until Mom finds out,” Braylon said.
“You guys are so horrible,” Lily said. “Leave Foster alone.”
“Thank you, Lily,” he said to Braylon’s fiancée. “It’s nice to have someone in my corner.”
“I’m in your corner,” Charlotte said, smiling.
She touched his hand under the table. It was good timing that their food was being brought out.
While everyone was being served, he looked around and noticed Jamie’s arm around Laken. Braylon was rubbing his hand on Lily’s arm. West had reached out to touch his wife a few times.
Not him.
Charlotte’s slight touch of his hand under the table was the only affection they’d shown anyone.
It just wasn’t him and he wondered if she needed that.
Or wanted it.
Hours later, they were entering their hotel room.
“I’m sorry if I’m not like my siblings.”
“What?” she asked.
“I’m not like them. I’m not outgoing or affectionate in public. I’ve never been much of a fan of PDA.”
She tilted her head. “I want you to be you, Foster. Not them. They aren’t the ones I’m in a relationship with. It’s you and only you. And if I’m being honest, if you draped your arm over my shoulder, it would have felt forced and been a trigger for me.”
“A trigger?” he asked.
“I don’t want to get into it too much. Not when we’ve had such a great night. But in the past, I felt like when the men I was with did that, it made me feel like a possession or a kept woman. That they were showing me off rather than giving me love.”
Foster was damn happy he hadn’t given in and put his arm around her shoulder like he’d been debating.
He’d told himself if he felt that unsure of it, it wasn’t worth doing.
“I don’t want you to feel that way with me,” he said. “Ever. But I worry I’m too hard for you. Maybe too rough around the edges at times.”
She started to laugh. “Can I confess something to you?”
“Always,” he said.
“I like that about you. It might have been my first draw. Or the tingle in my body when you were gruff.”
“It wasn’t annoyance?” he asked, lifting his eyebrow.
“Well, I think it was that too, but I had noticed how hot you were. Then you opened your mouth and I was like, geez, what did I do to tick him off? It’s not like I tripped on purpose with a big ladder in my hand.”
He laughed. “I’m glad you like the way I am.”
“I do,” she said. “Don’t worry about romance or soft and gentle actions.” She dipped her head down. “I find you being a little aggressive or rough is hot. It makes me feel like a woman. A real woman that turns a man on.”
“Oh,” he said, picking her up. “No doubt about that.”
He put her on the bed. Not soft, but didn’t drop her either. But he did grab her hands and hold them over her head as his mouth lowered to hers.
“Like this,” she whispered. “Does it make me a bad person that I like feeling helpless around you when we are together?”
Since he knew she was far from helpless, it didn’t make his heart hammer in his chest that he had to take care of her as much as it did fuel him to make her his.
“Not at all,” he said.
He held both of her hands in one of his, slid the other down her side to her waist and pulled her silky shirt out of her jeans. His fingers went inside and found her nipple hardened under her bra.
“Your touch always makes me feel alive,” she said.
Foster looked into her eyes to see the truth of the words. It was there for anyone to see along with maybe something else that was scaring him more than a little.
“I don’t think I started to live until you came into my life,” he said quietly, then kissed her again.
He didn’t want her to reply to those words. Something that might have come off as cheesy, but fueled from his heart.
When her hips started to press into his, he released her arms and pulled the shirt over her head and tossed it on the floor.
She started to tug his shirt out of his pants and together they were disrobing each other and reaching for naked bodies before they fell back on the bed. He’d put a condom on before they hit the mattress because he needed to sink right inside her instantly.
She parted her legs for him, but he pinned her arms above her head like before, then found her wet heat and sank in fast.
His mouth went to hers, their tongues moving as fast as their hips were lifting and falling.
Everything they did always seemed rushed, and though he would have liked to slow it down, he wanted to give her what she liked. What she said she wanted from him.
The hotel bed started to squeak and he tried to slow down, but she wanted no part of that and lifted her legs up to get him deeper.
Her arms started to move, but he wasn’t letting them go and she stopped the struggle to reach for him.
“Tell me what I want to hear,” he said. “Tell me you’re going to come.”
“I am,” she said. “Hard. Just like you’re giving it to me.”
He was ramming into her and with each thrust she was letting out a groan every single time. Not in pain, but in the same amount of pleasure that he was feeling.
She started to tense under him, then her inner muscles took hold and wouldn’t let go as she was coming, pulsing and squeezing him hard.
He followed suit and collapsed on her, releasing her arms and trying to keep his weight off of her.
“Tell me what you’re feeling,” he said. “What I want to hear.”
He was looking in her eyes. She kept quiet for a minute, then said, “I don’t want to scare you.”
“You won’t,” he said.
“Then I love you,” she said. “I think I have for a while.”
He smiled and she returned it. “I know,” he said.
“Then tell me what I want to hear,” she said. She was grinning like him.
But he couldn’t get the words out of his mouth.
“The same as you.” It was as good as he could do for now.