EIGHTEEN
“THAT’S NOT THE CASE,” her father said a brandy or two in.
She should’ve warned Brogan not to engage.
“You anticipate the possibility,” Brogan said, in his own wingback chair near the fireplace.
They all had a chair though not all got the same amount of time with the proverbial talking stick.
Her mother’s chair was next to her father’s.
The look on her face suggested she was listening, yet the loose wine glass in her hand was over it.
All the years she’d sat in silence, her mom must’ve picked up a few coping strategies. Wine was as good a crutch as any.
“You plan for failure?” her father asked Brogan. “You expect to fail?”
“I prepare myself for every eventuality, Conway. Some things are out of our hands.”
“Sears are not built that way,” her father said, smug. “We’re not built to fail.”
“Maybe,” Brogan said. “Or maybe I look at situations from more than one perspective. It’s not about what I want, it’s what I can achieve.
Risk versus reward. That takes work beyond the basics.
Why exert the effort if the end game doesn’t have significant payoff?
You chase the small potatoes, that wastes time that could be better spent elsewhere. ”
It was so stupid, but she was proud of him.
The conversation wasn’t exactly confrontational, though there was some tension.
That would always exist… Though not with her around.
Brogan and her relatives would still see each other in the boardroom.
Once the deal was done, she wouldn’t be around this tension anymore.
She finished her wine and put the glass down to slide to the edge of her seat.
“I’m going to bed,” she said.
“Bed?” her mother repeated and looked to her father.
“You’re staying?”
“Why wouldn’t we?” she asked. “The party is tomorrow night. You’ll have a lot to organize.” Which usually she’d help with. “And it’s the weekend. There’s no point going back to the city tonight only to come back out tomorrow.” She caught Brogan’s eye. “Do you want me to show you where my room is?”
“I know where your room is.”
How? God only knew. Interesting though, his security guy had known it too.
“Okay. Wake me when you come up.”
He tossed the last of his Scotch into his throat then stood up. “What you’re taking up there is more entertaining than anything down here.”
Wrapping an arm around her, he held her to his side. “We’ll see you at breakfast.”
“Oh no, no. No, no, no,” her father said. “In my house?”
“It’s my house too.”
She couldn’t push too hard or she’d be on the street in a few weeks. Maybe Roxie would let her move into Crimson Palace. What a life that would be.
“It’s inappropriate.”
“No,” Brogan said. “It’s inappropriate to single out your consenting daughter for doing what all adults do. I can screw her here or I can do it at home, makes no difference to my cock.”
And, boom, a mic drop that got her instantly wet. He’d said that. He’d really said it.
She didn’t hear any objections. Though that may be because the room hung in silent suspension. They couldn’t quite believe he’d said it either. That one would keep going for a while. Time to take advantage of the astonishment.
“Goodnight, everyone.”
With a nudge, Brogan walked them away from her dumbstruck family. He kept the pace as they ascended the stairs and traversed corridors. If navigating duty had been hers, they’d be sprinting.
As stated, Brogan knew just where to go and led them straight to her room. Inside, she spun out of his arm’s embrace to lock the door as he checked things out. Spine to the door, she clutched the handle, still trying to—did that really happen?
“I can’t believe you did that,” she said, exhilarated, adrenaline fueled blood rushing through her veins. “You’re incredible.”
“Followed your lead,” he said. “I’d have sent Elton home when we arrived if I’d known we were staying.”
She cringed, pushing away from the door.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t think we were, but we’re here and…
” Raising her hands, she let them find his body as she got up close.
“We’ve had sex at your home, at your work…
We don’t need to have sex tonight, but I’d like to see you in my bed…
Unless it makes you uncomfortable. We can leave if—”
“We’d have to come back for the party tomorrow.” With the back of his hands, he swept her hair from her shoulders. “You locked the door?”
“Because I don’t want us to be interrupted, not because I’m ashamed of…” Though anyone walking in on them in flagrante… “Do you want me to unlock it? Leave it open?”
His mouth slanted in a semi-smile. “We could always just do it in the foyer.”
She laughed. “I think we can leave that to Roxie and Zairn.”
“Are they coming tomorrow?”
“I’ve talked to Roxie about the party all week. I didn’t specifically ask her to come because with Zairn coming home tomorrow…” She slipped his jacket off, catching it as it dropped from his arms. “I didn’t want to pressure or obligate her.”
“You could always invite Tripp.”
Now that would be funny. “Just to tip my mom into a nervous breakdown?” Carrying his jacket to the closet, she peeked back. “You’re all the man I need, Mister.”
Hanging his jacket up in the closet, it was weird the thrill she got just seeing it there among her everyday things.
“I’m all the man you’re allowed to have.”
She hadn’t heard him coming, but there he was behind her. Maybe she’d been too caught up in her mooning.
He unzipped her dress, ridding her of the fabric. “Men usually need my father’s permission to sleep in my bed.”
“Only permission I need is yours.”
As he stroked her back, she tilted her chin toward her shoulder. “I gave you that already. Didn’t you say I couldn’t take it back?”
He brushed her hair away from her spine to rest his lips there. “Do you want to take it back?”
Her eyes closed, submerging her senses in that sweet spot pampered by his mouth. “Not in the slightest.”
The delicious slide of his hands up her hips, her waist, to enclose her breasts in their security. Exactly where they belonged. She couldn’t imagine ever retracting permission. One day they’d end, but it wouldn’t be at her behest.
“Let’s go to bed.”
His fingers twined between hers to guide her to the threshold of the closet.
“I have to hang up my dress,” she said, trying to withdraw.
The hold on her hand tightened. “No, Irish,” he said. “I don’t care who holds the deed, our bedroom is sovereign territory. Clean up after I’m done with you.”
A question almost escaped her lips. Would he ever be done with her?
Of course he would. It felt special to her; sharing her body with men didn’t come easy.
Whereas sex was second nature to a guy like Brogan.
Glamorous women from all over the world had graced his sheets.
Bringing him to her bed could be considered selfish because she wasn’t giving him close to what he’d get from them.
On the way to bed, she faced him, walking backward, undoing the buttons on his shirt with one hand.
“I won’t forget this,” she murmured, eyes locked on his even as he shed the shirt.
“Women don’t forget having sex with me.”
No one would expect him to be funny, she hadn’t expected it, yet that was what he aimed for. His sense of humor might be dry, but it was definitely there.
“You stood up for me.”
“You’re capable of standing up for yourself.”
Something he’d claimed with such ease in the past.
“You backed me up.”
“Followed your lead, Irish.”
“Would you let me…” Splaying her hands on his chest, she fortified herself. “You’re for me in a way no one ever has been. You walk beside me.”
“No,” he said, both hands holding her face. “I walk with you. You’re strong, baby. You’re too used to giving in. Stop letting them dictate your life.”
“It’s easy to say that. Right now I feel strong because you’re here.”
“Things will change,” he said.
“When we’re over?” she asked and shook her head. “With my family? I don’t…”
“You have to assert yourself.”
“I can do that when I’m with you.”
“That’s in contradiction to how most people see me.”
“Funny that.” Her arms went around him as he embraced her. “You have all the strength in the world, but you don’t let people in. What can they do to you? Why keep yourself so…?”
“People respect what they don’t understand.”
She laughed, swaying until her chin almost met his chest. “I suppose that’s true. I respect you and don’t understand how…”
“Ask me,” he said, inscrutable.
“It’s so easy for you to distance yourself.”
“Is it?”
“From where I’m standing,” she said. “You know yourself so well. I’m a stranger to myself.”
“I don’t think you are. You know yourself, you don’t trust yourself.
There’s a stark difference.” And he had absolute faith in himself.
Justified, granted, but it was another of his enviable traits.
“You accept your father’s view before your own.
Eventually you’ll figure out he’s full of shit.
Man’s got no fucking idea what he’s doing, and he sure doesn’t know you. ”
She liked that he was so certain. After such a short time, it was unlikely he honestly did know her better. Still, his resolve strengthened hers.
“I like to think he wants the best for me.”
“That’s what’s so sad,” he said. “You deserve better.”
“Thought we weren’t bitching about my family anymore.”
“In front of them. And this isn’t bitching. You need to see what’s in front of you. Soon I won’t be around to remind you.”
No, but she didn’t want to think about that. This wasn’t the end. Not yet.
Rising on her tiptoes, she hoped to beg his lips. “Will you remind me now?”
“Remind you how that fire works?”
Because when she called for him, in those climactic seconds, she could see herself as invincible. Or she would if her brain worked in that ecstasy.
He picked her up to toss her onto the bed. Home. With her family. With her guy. The two were so different. Right then, only one really mattered.