Chapter 46
forty-six
showing up
A soft knock woke Ryan. He rubbed his eyes and glanced at his phone. Hell, he’d slept most of the day, passing out on the couch after a shower and some reheated leftovers. Some documentary ran on the TV, autoplay having decided he needed to watch dolphins getting busy.
Another knock sounded, slightly louder. He lumbered off the couch and stumbled to the door. His heart leaped as he opened it, and he stopped breathing for one eternity of a second.
Elissa stood on the landing, clutching a large envelope in her hands. Dark circles ringed her eyes, and she was dressed in ripped jeans and a faded T-shirt, but he would swear she never looked better.
He cleared his throat. “How’s your mom?”
Elissa threw herself at him, and he caught her, holding her close and rubbing her back as she cried. Any doubts about her, about them, melted away.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it,” she said through sobs. “I need you, Ryan, so badly it scares me.”
“I know you didn’t mean it. I know you’re scared. I am, too.”
“You are?”
“Fucking terrified. Here, come in and sit down.”
He stepped back, keeping an arm around her shoulders, and guided her to the couch. She tossed the envelope on the coffee table as he settled into the corner. He pulled her onto his lap and handed her the box of tissues Iz kept on the end table.
She wiped her face clean. “Does that mean you forgive me?”
Ryan kissed her forehead. “Yes, you are forgiven a thousand times over. You thought by being the perfect daughter, the perfect sister, the perfect accountant, you could prevent bad things happening to your family.”
“It sounds stupid when you say it like that.”
“It’s not stupid.” Chuckling, he tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “It’s human. It’s a good look on you, Elissa. But you still haven’t answered my question. How’s your mom?”
“She’s going to be fine. Some broken bones, but nothing life threatening.”
“Thank God.” And he hugged her tighter. She relaxed into his embrace.
“I brought a peace offering.” Elissa leaned away and grabbed the envelope, slightly wrinkled where she’d been clutching it like a life preserver.
“You didn’t have to?—”
“Yeah, I did. I emailed a friend from college who’s an expert in market research. He filled in a lot of the blanks on your business plan. You can do this without your family now.”
“Elissa…thank you. You didn’t have to do anything to make it up to me but thank you. The only people who’ve ever had my back were my Nonna and Iz.” He put the envelope on the table. He’d tear into it later, but this was more important. “And now you.”
“I screwed up. Shouldn’t you be yelling at me instead of being so nice?”
“I am always nice.”
She scoffed, a cute little snort he could eat up all day long.
“Fine, maybe not, but I want the kind of relationship where you show up for someone. This is me, showing up. I freaked you out, then your mom got hurt. I was angry, but I don’t know how I’d react in the same circumstances.
Alex told me to give you some breathing room, and I figured he wasn’t wrong. ”
“Your brother is pretty smart.”
“Sometimes. Mostly he’s a pain in the ass, but he’d say the same about me.”
“It’s been my experience everyone thinks their siblings are pains in the ass. I’m sorry for freaking out.”
“I should have told you how I felt, right out in the open. Not whispered it like some dirty little secret. It’s okay if you’re not there yet?—”
She shushed him with a finger over his lips.
“I’m there,” she said huskily. “That’s why I was so scared. I love you, Ryan.”
It took a moment for his brain to catch up.
He sat frozen until his body reacted. His lips crashed into hers, and he kissed her for all he was worth.
He cupped the back of her head, threading his fingers through her curls as he devoured her.
He licked the salt of her tears from her lips, and she opened for him with a quiet moan.
He swallowed it like ambrosia, like the finest tequila.
“I love when you make those sounds.” He broke away to trail kisses down her neck. “I love the way you respond to my touch.”
Ryan trailed a hand down her arm, and goosebumps followed in his wake. She arched into him. He met her gaze, watching those lake-blue eyes darken with desire.
“I love your laugh. I love your brain. I love how fiercely you love your family. There is not a single thing I don’t love about you, Elissa, and it’s going to take more than fear to drive me away. Okay?”
“If I agree, will you kiss me again?”
So he kissed her again. And again.
His hand slid under her shirt and traced the edge of her bra.
She ground against him, rubbing against his hardening cock in his sweats.
He tugged her shirt over her head and kissed over the soft swell of her breasts, tracing the lacy edge of the cups with his tongue.
The sounds she made had him desperate with desire. Her head fell back and?—
Knock, knock, knock
He’d know that knock anywhere. Loud enough to gain someone’s attention, all business. Fuck.
“It’s my dad,” he muttered.
“Can we ignore him?” Elissa rubbed against him again, and he was so tempted. So, so tempted.
“I’m supposed to be sick. Food poisoning.”
“Oh, poor baby.” She smiled and trailed a finger over his lips, then slid off his lap. “I’ll go hide. Bathroom?”
Elissa slipped her shirt on and turned away. Ryan grasped her arm.
“No. You should stick around for this.”
“I-I don’t want to get you in trouble.”
Knock, knock, knock .
“It’s fine. I’m tired of pretending to be something I’m not. You might be the perfect daughter, but I am far from the perfect son, and pretending I could ever be is killing me.”
Before she could answer, he strode to the door and yanked it open.
“Hi, Dad. We were just talking about you. Won’t you come in?”
Thrusting a plastic container at Ryan, Alessandro walked in, still dressed for work. “Your mother wanted me to drop off this soup after work?—”
He spotted Elissa, and the slightly irritated expression he’d worn morphed into outrage. His brows drew down and his cheeks reddened.
“What the hell is going on here? You’re supposed to be sick.”
“I’ve been dating your accountant.”
Elissa wiggled her fingers at his father, but didn’t make eye contact, staring at a point over his father’s shoulder.
“Hello, Mr. DeMarco.”
“You lied to your brother and took the day off to screw?—”
“Watch the next words out of your mouth.” Ryan’s voice was cold and calm. His dad’s gaze zeroed in on him. “I will not have you disrespect the woman I love.”
“What the fuck do you know about love? You’ve fucked every woman who would have you. She’s after your money, like all the rest.” His piercing gaze found Elissa. “He’ll never see a cent.”
“I don’t care about his trust fund,” she said from next to Ryan, threading her fingers through his. He had been so focused on his father, he hadn’t noticed her approach. “I care about him.”
The contrast between his father and Elissa was remarkable.
He was mostly muscle softening a bit with age.
The world revolved around him, and he acted accordingly.
Elissa was barefoot in her jeans and—oops—inside-out T-shirt, tiny but fierce in her defense of Ryan, shaking the envelope at his father.
Ryan himself had never stood up to his father this way.
“I will be informing your employer?—”
“No need. I told Karina yesterday, and she is waiting for the HR director to return tomorrow. I’m sure appropriate disciplinary action will be taken.”
“You’re a smart woman. You think you love him now, what about in ten years, when he’s still clueless, still foolish, still lazy?”
Elissa released Ryan’s hand and focused on Alessandro like an asteroid ready to end civilization as he knew it, face set in a stubborn frown. She poked him.
She actually poked his father.
The man looked so taken aback someone had dared laid a finger on him that Ryan had to hold in a bark of laughter.
“You don’t know your son at all,” she said.
“And after what, two months, you do?”
She glanced at Ryan, her stubborn frown softening, and she winked.
“Better than you. He knows exactly what he wants to do with his life, you just don’t think it’s worthwhile.
But I’ve run the numbers, and he can make it work financially, with or without his trust fund.
Even if he can’t, he’s miserable in your office.
He’ll be better off as a bartender, or almost anything else. ”
Disgust crossed his father’s face. “You’re a?—”
That was enough. Another word and he’d sucker punch his own father.
“We’re done here, Dad,” Ryan said. “If nothing I do will ever be good enough, if who I date will never be good enough, I don’t want the money anymore.
The only thing DeMarco money has bought is my education and the tools I need to do what I want.
I don’t need it anymore, and I don’t need you controlling my life.
Consider this my resignation. I’ll have it in writing first thing and will work until you find a replacement, but I’m done. Deal’s off.”
“We are not done!”
Elissa put the hand clenching the envelope flat on his father’s chest and slowly, inexorably, pushed. “Yes, you are done. Come back when you have calmed down. And read the goddamned business plan.”
His dad took a step back.
“Goodnight, Dad.”
Muttering to himself, Alessandro snatched the envelope from Elissa and slammed the door on his way out.
“That won’t be the last time we have to deal with his bullshit.” Ryan threw the deadbolt.
“Family. Can’t live with them, can’t live without them. I’ll print you another copy of the plan—it truly is a thing of beauty now.”
She wrapped her arms around his waist and rested her head against his chest.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone stand up to my father like that.”
She shrugged, which was cute. “You deserve better.”
“I have better.”
He lifted her chin with a finger and kissed her, lingering on her soft lips, relishing her gentle scent. She hummed as he broke away.
“Don’t stop.”
Ryan walked her backward until her back hit the door. “You like that?”
“Yes. More please.”
“Well, since you asked so nicely.”
And he kissed her again. Deeper this time, claiming her, letting her claim him. He never wanted to stop.
He left her mouth and trailed his lips over her jaw and down her neck.
“When does…Iz get home?”
Her words were breathless, and her hands threaded through his hair, driving him wild. He chuckled.
“We’ve got time.”
“Time for what?”
“Oh, you know what.”
He picked her up by the waist and slung her over his shoulder. She squealed and pounded feebly on his back as he carried her to his bedroom.
They had all the time in the world for whatever they wanted to do. And he was going to love every moment with her.