Chapter 15 #2
Lexi shrugs, filling a glass halfway with wine. “Some article about the anniversary, or something like that. He didn’t get very far because—surprise, surprise—EWE had no real comment.”
“Doesn’t he know your brother works there?”
“Nope,” she says, swirling the wine in her glass. “Never told him. Didn’t think you’d want me to, especially not when it came to that.”
“Thank God.” The relief in his voice makes me sick to my stomach. His smile when he looks at me only makes the nausea claw further up my throat. “You wouldn’t believe the number of reporters and journalists who think there’s some big scheme to uncover.”
“Yeah, and I’m sure Brooks and Savannah love the fact that she’s a writer.” Lexi half snorts, taking a sip of wine. “Two of the most private people on the planet, and you bring a reporter into the circle.”
“It’s more of a pentagon, really,” I say, hands gripping the edge of the island countertop. I hope I sound more confident than I feel.
After a long moment of silence, Lexi’s face cracks when she looks at her brother, and their laughter fills the air. “You know something, Sloane. I think you’re going to fit in just fine around here.”
“If I get to wake up to this every morning, we are going to be just fine.” His voice, still laced with sleep, cuts through the fresh morning air from behind me.
I glance over my right shoulder to find him posted in the doorway—shirtless—with a cup of coffee, staring straight at my ass.
Now, I know I’ve seen him shirtless before—hell, I slept beside him shirtless last night—but there’s something about this image that makes the blood pump even harder through my veins.
I straighten out my leg from overhead, my foot falling back to the deck, and push up from the downward dog position to stand.
“You do this every morning?” Bennett asks, bringing the mug to his lips again.
“Most,” is all I can muster without giving away the way his stare is making me feel right now.
“Oh yeah, we’re gonna be just fine. I might put in a request that you stay in bed every few days so we can start the day off with a different kind of stretch.” He tries to hide the smirk behind his coffee cup, laughing when I swat his arm. “Hey! You’re going to spill my coffee.”
“Go work out or something,” I say.
“I can think of a few different workouts you can help me with.” He wiggles his eyebrows, and I roll my eyes. “I’m on probation, remember? No ring time, no gym—”
“Is that why you’re so horny? You and the guys can’t get each other off right now,” I say, and I expect his face to fall flat. Instead, another laugh erupts from his lips, and I can’t fight my own.
“Touché,” he says, still laughing. The black ink on his back is on full display when he turns to walk back inside.
The hilt begins on his neck, while the sharp blade runs the length of his spine, ending above the small of his back.
It’s beautifully symmetrical. “You hungry?” Bennett asks, looking over his shoulder to find me stuck in the doorway from the porch directly off the kitchen.
“I can make breakfast. Unless you and my sister have plans to go plot some more.”
“No, she left a little bit ago to go meet the guy she’s been seeing. He convinced her to join him in New York for dinner and The Phantom of the Opera,” I say, ungluing my feet to follow him.
The more I got to know Lexi yesterday, the more I realized she’s not as entitled as I thought when she first showed up.
She’s young—dare I say inexperienced in some respects—and is still trying to figure herself out.
After dinner, she and I spent the rest of the evening sharing a bottle of wine while she told me all about her on-again, off-again boyfriend.
The second she started gushing about Troy, Bennett left the room, telling me to find him when I got bored of listening to her real-life soap opera.
That never happened. I sat glued to the other end of the breakfast nook, listening to her spill all of Troy Prescott’s secrets.
The more I learned, the more it all made sense.
Troy wasn’t a full-time writer at the magazine; that’s why he didn’t spend as much time in the office, and would pop in when he felt like it.
The Baller was a hobby for him, something he did on the side because he was an avid Boston sports fan.
To Troy, getting fired meant he had time for more important things.
To Lexi, Troy getting fired meant he had more time for her, especially now that he wouldn’t be around that bitch editor of his.
“What do you mean?” I asked when Lexi said it. Was she talking about Laura?
“Well, I found out about two months ago that he started sleeping with his editor while we were broken up the last time, and when we started talking again, he broke it off with her, and that’s why he got fired.
” Lexi rolled her eyes, sipping her wine.
My mouth hung open. I guess the rumors are true.
Troy was fired because he was having sex with Laura.
But why wasn’t Laura fired? “Well, that’s what I think, anyway.
They said it was because he had nothing for that story I told you about, the one about EWE.
But I think she had him fired because he ended things. ”
Got it. Back to being just a rumor, though highly likely based on everything Lexi said.
“You said he has all of these connections. Why couldn’t he use them to write the story about EWE or keep his job? Surely, one of them could’ve helped him out.”
Lexi shrugged. “Probably didn’t want to look like an idiot. None of them knew he was a writer. He wrote under a fake name.”
Writing under a fake name isn’t unheard of, though not as common as you might think in the journalism field.
However, I always found it weird that Troy never allowed his picture to be posted anywhere.
He used to come into the office once a week, if that, while the rest of us were required to be there practically every day.
He missed a majority of our staff meetings.
Everyone always wondered why he was able to keep his job while never following the same rules as the rest of the staff, and it’s because he didn’t have to.
Barry had allowed him to do whatever he wanted, but apparently drew the line at sex with his superior, if the rumor is true.
The one thing I can’t figure out is why.
Why did Barry allow all of this to go on?
What was so special about Troy Prescott?
“So, that means it’s just you and me today?” Bennett asks, pulling me back from my thoughts. His hands land on my hips, my back flush against his chest. His breath tickles the spot where my collarbone and neck meet before I feel his lips on my skin.
“Ben,” I whisper, my head falling back against his shoulder.
“I have to admit, I was a little disappointed you weren’t in bed when I woke up this morning,” he whispers in my ear.
Not that I’d admit it, but I was, too. He’d already fallen asleep when I came upstairs last night.
How had we gone from agreeing to sleep in separate beds on the bus to now being in the same bed?
I don’t remember discussing it yesterday, but I didn’t even second-guess it, crawling into bed next to him.
Despite my attempt to stay on my side, somewhere between falling asleep and waking up this morning, we’d become tangled in each other.
The argument to stay right where I was and enjoy the feeling of being wrapped in his arms almost won, but the logical part of me knew that was a bad idea.
So, I forced myself out of bed, out of his arms, and came downstairs to put some distance between myself and the temptation.
Bennett kisses down my neck, and I gasp when one of his hands slides under my shirt. His touch is warm against my abdomen, reaching up to squeeze my right breast and pinch my nipple. He rolls the hard bud between his fingers, mirroring the roll of his tongue in the small dip above my clavicle.
“We…We…” I can’t get the thought out as his hand trails back down my abdomen. He hums against my skin, letting his fingers slip into the waistband of my shorts, and his name leaves me in a soft gasp when he dips one finger between my folds.
“Spread ’em,” he whispers in my ear, and I spread my legs without question. Bennett slips another finger inside me, and my hands reach for the edge of the kitchen island. “Should I make good on that promise? Show you what this old man can do.”
God, yes, I think.
“Wolf? Sloane? You guys here?” a voice calls from somewhere in the house.
“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me,” Bennett hisses, pulling his fingers from me, and I gasp at the sudden loss. My fingers dig into the counter, and I try to steady my breathing as Esther rounds the corner from the dining room.
“Oh! Am I interrupting something?” Esther carries a bundle of fresh flowers in one arm and a brown paper bag in the other. She pauses halfway inside the kitchen, her brow cocked.
“You could say that,” Bennett mumbles under his breath, loud enough for only me to hear.
“N-No,” I say quickly, smiling at the woman who birthed the man fingering me in her kitchen less than fifteen seconds ago. “We were figuring out our plans for today.”
“Well, don’t mind me,” she says and heaves the bag onto the counter behind me.
I exhale, trying to steady myself before finally letting go of the counter.
“I’ll only be in your way for a little bit.
I had to bring some food for a tea I’m hosting on Monday.
I was hoping to run into Lexi while I was here, though. Is she here, by chance?”
“Just missed her,” Bennett says, leaning over the other side of the island. There’s a dangerous gleam in his eyes when they meet mine. My core tightens when he smiles and brings his fingers to his lips, sucking them clean.
What is he doing? His mom is right there! She could see and…and she’s too preoccupied with putting things away in the fridge. My stomach uncoils a little. I should’ve known he’d never do that if she could see him.
Bennett clears his throat. “She ran off to New York this morning.”
Esther sighs and closes the refrigerator, stooping down to press on the side of the island.
With ease, the hidden cabinet door pops open, and she pulls out a large crystal vase.
I can’t help but stare at the cabinet after she presses it closed again.
The lines are seamless; if I hadn’t just watched her open it with my own eyes, I would have never guessed there was a door there.
She carefully unravels the flowers from their brown paper and begins arranging them in the vase.
“Esther, you in here?” a deep voice calls out from the dining room before Stewart James appears. Bennett stares at me from across the island, lips pulled into a firm line, and I roll my lips between my teeth to hide my laughter. “Oh, I didn’t know you kids were here!”
“Lexi ran off to New York this morning, dear,” Esther says, still arranging the white peonies. “I was about to ask these two if they want to grab lunch before we head back home.”
“They don’t want to have lunch with a bunch of old farts like us.
” Stewart chuckles, and I follow his gaze to the man across from me.
As much as I’d like to go upstairs and finish what Bennett started a few minutes ago, it can wait.
His parents don’t get much time with him, and if not for me, he’d probably be in Tampa right now.
Why not take advantage of this opportunity?
Turning away from Stewart, I meet Ben’s gaze and smile. “Actually, that sounds like a great idea.”