30. Capri
C apri~
I hadn’t planned on going to Ares’ office for sex, but the man was hard to resist when he was being irresistible, which was most of the time if I was being honest. In truth, I’d made a conscious decision to do something nice and invite him to lunch, but he’d just returned from a lunch meeting, so we’d ended up having sex instead, and that wasn’t a complaint.
Luckily, it was Friday, and while Ares never really took a full day off, he’d be working from home, which was something that I was very familiar with, so no complaints.
Besides, I had my own things to figure out, and it really sucked when you had to start over when you were already knocking on forty’s front door, though it could be worse.
I could be broke, which I wasn’t, something that I was very grateful for.
After Ares had finally accepted my decision to walk away from Martha Holdings, I’d given most of the profits to my grandfather, making sure that he was set for the rest of his life.
As for my father, I’d given him nothing but what’d been contracted since it’d been his bullshit that had bankrupted our family’s company.
He’d been pissed, but any way that you sliced it, Martha Holdings wouldn’t exist without my grandfather’s vision and dedication, so it was only right that he’d gotten the remaining pieces of what’d been left.
There was also the fact that my father was never going to see the seriousness of his gambling problem if he didn’t suffer for it.
Like most addicts, they needed to hit rock bottom to make a change, and my father wasn’t even close to facing the truth of his situation yet.
Staring out at the scenery flying by, now there was nothing left to do but decide where I wanted to go from here.
I had visited a couple of banks about a business loan, but as I had explained to Ares, those visits had been more of a backup plan.
With the sale of Martha Holdings and my own personal savings account, I had enough money to start something small, but I just wasn’t sure what yet.
All I knew was that I had to work, and I also had to build my success myself.
While there was nothing that I could do about my last name and the weight that it carried, I could also make my business registration public as proof that TCC wasn’t carrying me.
“We’re almost there.”
I turned to look back at Ares. “I’m not complaining. The countryside is very beautiful.”
“Once we turn up here, we own everything that’s fenced off,” he said casually, and while that was his truth, it wasn’t mine, and it was an argument that we were probably going to take to our deathbeds with us. Ares’ money wasn’t mine, no matter how much he believed that it was.
“How often do you come out here?” I asked as I looked back out the window.
“Not as often as I’d like,” he answered. “Maybe once a week. Twice if I’m lucky, and always when I’m sick.”
“Your set up at the penthouse makes more sense now that I know that you don’t consider it your real home,” I remarked. “Apart from your workaholic nature, there’s nothing there that identifies you.”
“Brook Manor has always felt like home to me,” he said. “As a kid, I could remember how much I hated to leave this place. My grandfather was a good man, and I had learned so much out here.”
Just then, Ares turned right, and I immediately saw the fencing that began to mark his property, but it wasn’t until we were a mile in that the clearing came into view, and in the middle of the clearing was a breathtaking mansion, despite how Ares had just called it a manor.
There was also a crystal-clear blue lake sitting off to the left of the property, and it looked to wrap around the back of the house.
Hell, I wasn’t sure if I was ever going to want to leave this place.
“Christ, it’s beautiful,” I murmured in awe.
“This is our real home,” Ares said as he followed the driveway to circle around to the front of the house. “This is where we’ll escape from the world and celebrate holidays.”
“It’s incredible, Ares,” I told him. “It really is.”
After putting the car in park, Ares turned it off, but instead of getting out, then grabbing our bags to head inside, he looked over at me as he said, “I want to show you the lake first.”
I nodded, recognizing something different in his voice, and so I sat still until he took the keys out of the ignition, got out of the car, then walked over to open my door for me. For all that Ares Cormac was an asshole on a good day, the man had manners, and I’d always found manners sexy on a man.
Ares helped me out of the car, and I left my purse since we’d be back for our bags anyways.
When Ares had told me about this place, he’d said that it would be up to me if I wanted to live full-time at the penthouse or here, and I’d thought it odd at the time, considering the convenience of the penthouse, but now that I’d seen the manor, I understood why he’d said that.
Neither of us spoke as Ares led us past the house and towards the lake, and when we finally reached the back end of the property, the beauty of the lake stopped me in my tracks, and Ares was forced to stop walking, looking back at me to see what the problem was.
“Baby?”
“My God, Ares,” I rushed out. “It’s...it’s stunning.”
He smiled, and with that one simple act, Ares had put the vision around us to shame. If there was anything more stunning than a happy Ares Cormac, then I’d never seen it before. He was absolutely mesmerizing when his guard was down, and I selfishly wanted to keep this Ares all to myself.
“It’s my favorite place in the world,” he admitted. “My grandfather and I used to sit on the pier and look out at the lake while we talked.”
“That sounds like a very special part of your childhood,” I remarked, trying to imagine Ares as a small child.
“It is,” he replied, still smiling. “I also love how he always spoke to me like I was smart enough to understand his wisdom, no matter my age. I can’t ever remember him talking down to me.”
“This place is gorgeous, Ares,” I told him. “It really is.”
With my hand still in his, he tugged gently until I was practically in his arms. “Apart from the house staff, you’re the only other person that’s ever been here, baby.
On this lake and inside the walls of the manor, that’s where you’ll see the real me.
This is my home, and you’re the only person that will ever know the Ares Cormac that grew up here. ”
Ready to finally take the leap, I said, “However many Ares Cormacs that there are, I’m going to love them all the same.”
His smile dropped from his lips as he grabbed my face with his hands. “Say it,” he demanded. “Say the words, Capri.”
I grabbed his wrists, those eyes of his making me weak in the knees. “I love you, Ares. Despite all the wildness that’s been these past few weeks, I love you.”
“I love you,” he replied. “I love you, and I swear on my life that you will always be my priority.” He let out a deep sigh, and his voice was filled with so much emotion that it was hard not to believe him when he made me feel everything like this.
“There will only ever be us, Capri. There’s you and me, and then there’s everybody else. Understand?’
I nodded, the rush of emotions making it nearly hard to speak. “You and me.”
Ares dropped his forehead against mine. “You and me, baby. Always.”
“I...I still need to make it on my own professionally, but the rest of me is yours,” I vowed.
“All of you is mine,” he corrected. “While I’ll do my best to respect how you want to carve something out for yourself, I’m still going to be there to make sure that you never fail at anything, baby.
Either you make your dreams come true, or I’ll make them come true for you, but either way, I’ve got you, Capri. Always.”
While I wanted to believe him, I’d never been the type to trust blindly, so that was something that I was going to have to work on and would come with time.
Even though I could admit to already being in love with him- despite how fast this was all happening -trust was something different altogether, and I still needed to work on healing from what my father had done.
“Baby steps, okay?” I asked, hoping for some grace.
Ares’ right thumb began caressing my jaw softly. “Since we have the rest of our lives together, I can work on baby steps.”
“And this will be our home,” I told him. “While we’ll use the penthouse for the convenience of work, I want to move most of my stuff here. This is where everything will matter.”
He gave me a quick nod of agreement. “Whatever you want, baby.”
“What if I said that I’d like to go swimming in the lake?”
“I’d say that you have to wait until summer,” he chuckled. “We’ll die of hypothermia if we take a swim now.”
“What? You don’t have it heated?” I teased.
“I can call around the world right now to see if anyone can make that happen, if that’s really what you want,” he replied, and I knew that he was being completely serious.
“How about a tour first, then some dinner, then you can find a different way to keep me warm on the pier?”
A wicked gleam danced in his eyes. “That I can do, baby.”