Bonding

EMERALD

~Humor me.~ That was the most annoying thing Tate had said to me. Ever.

Of course, he was being a pain in my ass. Why would he ever not be, right? Don’t want to shock my poor mind into Stupidville if he just dropped the asshole right out of his personality.

Then again, that would leave him with very little personality left to work with.

“Stop glaring, Emerald.” He chuckled as I tried, once again, to turn him to ash with my eyes.

The store assistant had pulled me to the changing rooms and hung up enough clothes to fill my entire former apartment.

How the hell she got her hands on that much just walking through the store had to be some kind of magic because I swear her hands were empty as she shoved my ass into the stall.

So far, we had gotten me new jeans, shorts, shirts, pajamas, sneakers, slippers, basically all casual wear.

Now, we had moved into the more formal things, like dresses and shit. And he frequently said that annoying phrase. ~Humor me~. I was fuming, of course.

“This is not what we agreed on, Tate,” I said, knowing he was sitting in the plush chairs just outside the private changing area, which was really a sharp corner and a well-placed wall.

“No, but I suspect you won’t let me do this again later, so I’m taking full advantage now while you’re in a good mood,” he replied, sounding amused and ~very~ full of himself. “Wonder how that might have happened?”

“As if you don’t know,” I muttered as I stripped.

“What was that?” he asked smugly.

“What I want to say is not suitable for the public,” I snapped.

“I’m sure I’ll hear it when we get home, then.” He laughed.

“You mean in the car. Why are there no price tags on any of this?” I asked, finding only a barcode.

“Stop worrying about the tags, Emerald. The faster you get this over with, the faster we can get you something to eat, cranky pants.” He laughed.

“The term is ‘hangry,’ Tate, and it is in your best interest to feed me sooner than later. I vote for now and we’ll come back to this, preferably, never,” I said, taking the first dress off the hanger.

“After this, we’ll make one more stop before food. I promise,” he said while I shimmied into the dress and immediately took it back off.

“Hey, lady! Can we not have my ass cheeks flapping in the wind and my boobs one deep breath from a lot more than a nip slip? Thanks.” I put the dress back on the hanger and hung it over the top of the stall door.

“Yes, I would like to keep that for my viewing only,” Tate agreed.

“This eye-melting yellow can go. Fuck off with this hot-pink nonsense. What the fuck is this?” I held something out the door.

“One of our more popular designs, miss,” the poor girl said with a pasted-on smile.

“This is not a dress. This is strips of cloth in strategic placement. Modesty, please. I am far too pale to go about flashing a bunch of skin. I can blind satellites on a rainy day, it’s that bad.”

I ducked back into the changing room.

“I would like to see that one, actually,” Tate piped in.

“I bet you would. What happened to keeping that for your viewing only, though?”

“I really hate it when you make a point.” He huffed.

I put on the next thing that looked like it was decent and made a face at my reflection. It fit well enough, and if I did something with my hair and maybe a touch of lipstick, I could see myself looking pretty good.

“You got quiet,” Tate pointed out.

“I’m trying to think of new and creative ways to get revenge for this,” I replied, shaking my head and moving on to the next.

“Fish-slapping isn’t good enough anymore?”

“Why insult the fish?”

***

“Tate King!” I hissed when I saw the next stop on our shopping trip. “You are ~not~, under any circumstances, buying me a fucking thing from here!”

“You said no one counts underwear, right?”

“This isn’t underwear!”

“Some of it isn’t,” he agreed, getting out of the car and turning to lean back in slightly. “Who wants to wear leather under their clothes?”

“Tate!” I snapped when he grabbed my wrist and gently pulled me out, laughing.

“Fine, I’m not going in. I’d rather be surprised anyhow, but the ladies in there have been told that you have a minimum spending limit.

“Put up too much fuss and I’ll be forced to intervene.” He smiled, running his hands up my arms to my shoulders so he could lean over and kiss my cheek.

“I am very mad at you.” I narrowed my eyes at him.

“I am aware, and I have to say, I like this kind of mad. Very sexy, Ms. Wells.” He chuckled and stepped away, giving me a small push toward the lingerie shop.

“You won’t be saying that later, Mr. King,” I shot over my shoulder as I went inside.

About twenty minutes later, my face was burning hot as I heard Tate asking about color options with one of the sales ladies.

“Dammit, Tate!”

“I told you not to fuss too much.” He laughed.

“She’s actually almost reached the limit you set, sir,” the attendant supplied.

“Here, add this in her size,” he said, and I was almost about to run out of the fitting room in my panties and store-supplied pasties to stop him.

“Can we ~please~ call it good enough? I’m about to rip your stupid head off your stupid shoulders and use it like a stupid soccer ball!” I snapped as I hurried to get dressed again.

“That was a lot of stupid in one sentence, so yes. We’ll call it good enough, and in an effort to preserve my life, let’s get you some food before we go home.” Tate chuckled.

“At this point, I doubt anything could save you, asshole,” I snapped as I threw the door open and stalked out of the fitting area.

“You’re blushing, Emerald. I can’t wait to see what’s gotten you worked up.” He smirked, eyes sparkling with desire.

“Back off, buster. You’re on my shit list right now.” I held up a finger as I walked by him.

“I can’t believe I’ve found the one woman in the world that doesn’t like shopping.” He laughed as he took the last bag from the sales counter and followed after me.

“How do you expect me to spoil and pamper you if you refuse to let me?”

“I’m pretty low maintenance, Tate. I eat pizza from a dive, cake from the grocery store, and drink wine from a box.

“I call dumping the last of my shampoo into a bubble bath a spa day. It is not that hard to do,” I said, pushing the door open before he got there to do it for me.

“Shopping, for the record, is the bane of my existence.”

“I couldn’t tell.” He chuckled, handing the bag to Dale before opening the door for me. “Burgers for lunch?”

“Tate, I’m about three minutes away from going wild and gnawing on the nearest animal.

“I don’t give a shit what we eat, but if I don’t get something in my stomach soon, I’m going to choke you because my restraint only goes so far and you’re fucking annoying,” I said, sliding into the car.

“Okay, okay. Pygmies are terrifying when hungry,” he said, getting in behind me.

I damn near growled at him every time he looked at me until I had food in front of me. He thought it was entertaining and I just glared at him as I devoured the oversized burger and extra fries.

I drank the last of my soda and leaned back in my chair in contentment while Tate smiled at me.

“Better?” he asked, eating a fry.

“Better.” I nodded.

“I don’t think I’ve had this much fun since I graduated from high school and went off to college,” he mused, pulling his wallet out and dropping a couple of bills on the table, overpaying by an insane amount.

Our waitress was going to die with a 700 percent tip.

“Worth playing hooky at work?” I gave him a look.

“There’s plenty of time to be serious later. I’m spending time with my girlfriend now that she’s not off-limits because of work,” he said, giving me his hand to help me up and squeezing it as we left the casual diner.

“Which makes me curious. Now that you can’t technically work at King Industries, what are you planning on doing?”

“Well, Mom’s lease at her apartment is up in a month and a half,” I said. “I need to look for a facility for Mom and figure out my employment issues before then.”

“You know, the company isn’t the only thing that my grandfather left without a head to run it,” he said thoughtfully as we walked into a little park down the street.

“There are a number of charities and organizations that my grandmother was saying needed a hand at the helm, as she put it.

“You’re pretty good at keeping my life on track, so I think you might be a good fit in one of those.”

“I’m not looking for favors, Tate,” I sighed.

“Not a favor”—he held up his free hand—“just me telling you a good place to look. You’ll have to take up employment with my grandmother since she’s the one in charge of hiring the upper management and such for those.”

“Which is also a great excuse to meet her.” I gave him a sidelong look. “I thought we said we were going to hold off on big moves like that for a while?”

“I’m still just trying to help my girl,” he smirked at me.

“I was actually thinking about maybe taking a week or two to just relax. I don’t have any bills of my own, and Mom’s are already covered by what I have coming from my final check.” I made a face. “I’m not sure, though.”

“I think that’s a good idea. You’ve been working nonstop for how long now? I think you could use a few weeks of stress-free vacation before going back to work.” He nodded thoughtfully.

“I don’t even know what to do with all of that free time, though.” I shook my head.

“Spend some time with your family. Lance goes back on tour soon, and every moment with your mother is precious right now,” he suggested. “You and your brother can look into facilities together.”

“I thought you said stress-free?” I teased him.

“You can always keep me company at work.” He wiggled his eyebrows.

“You’ll see me plenty at home, Tate.” I rolled my eyes.

“I like having meals with you, though.” He pouted dramatically.

“I make you breakfast, and we’ll probably be eating dinner together a lot.” I laughed.

“But what about lunch?” he asked sadly.

“You have a lot of working lunches,” I pointed out.

“I can change that.” He waved it off.

“You could always just ask me to come have lunch with you, big baby.” I rolled my eyes.

“Emerald, will you come have lunch with me tomorrow?” He poked his bottom lip out for effect.

“Yes, Tate. I’ll have lunch with you.” I laughed. “Noon or one?”

“Pretty sure I have a late morning meeting, so one?” He tilted his head to the side.

“I can always ask your new assistant in the morning when she comes over.” I shrugged.

“She’s not coming into our house.” He narrowed his eyes at something in front of us. “I want to fire her, but I need someone to man the phones and such until HR finds a proper replacement.”

“I think my friend Macy might be looking for a job. She just got back from a long vacation that didn’t quite go very well, so it may be a few days for her to get over the jet lag,” I supplied.

“She’s got loads more experience than I did.”

“You had no experience.” He snorted.

“Not a speck.” I nodded with a wide smile. “Why did you hire me, then?”

“Honestly, you were only supposed to be temporary, like What’s-Her-Name. You took to the job very well, though, so I decided to keep you, even though you drove me crazy,” he admitted.

“I did ask a lot of questions, didn’t I?” I giggled.

“That’s not how you drove me crazy, but yes, you asked a lot of questions.” He laughed.

“Wait. What did I do, then?” I asked, looking up at him.

“You were there.” He snorted. “Emerald, baby, you take my breath away every time I see you. You always have. The more I got to know you, the more you started to fascinate me, too.”

I shook my head and tugged on Tate’s hand, making him stop as my eyes misted over a bit.

“Wait. Shit, what did I say this time?” he asked, taking my face in his hands, concern etched in the depths of his eyes.

“Just the sweetest damn thing anyone’s ever said to me.” I laughed, the sound shaky with emotion. “Good tears, Tate, not bad.”

“Not bad.” He breathed in relief.

“I swear, I’m not usually this emotional. It’s just been a really long week and you just dropped that on me like a bunch of freaking puppies and kittens.” I sniffed again and put my arms around his middle.

“So long as they aren’t pigeons in disguise, right?” He chuckled and tucked my hair behind my ear.

“Damn straight.” I looked up at him with a crooked, albeit watery, smile.

“How about we go home, then? You can use the bathtub you’ve been eye-fucking every morning for the past ten months.” He smiled at me, then kissed my nose. “Turn on the jets?”

“Oh, the jets.” I sighed wistfully.

“We can get you unpacked afterward, then I’ll order dinner,” he said, walking me backward toward the car.

“Because you can’t cook.” I snorted.

“I won’t subject you to my cooking.” He laughed.

“You do get points for effort, though. Just make sure you have a fire extinguisher on hand next time you try.” I giggled.

“We’ll watch movies and eat popcorn all night,” he continued. “I’ll even order breakfast to be delivered in the morning, so you don’t have to wake up early and I don’t have to burn the penthouse to ash.”

“You really are going to spoil me,” I said, stepping to the side so I was under his arm with my hand around his back.

“Finally,” he said triumphantly. “I was beginning to think you’re incapable of it.”

“That would have really sucked for you, huh?” I laughed.

“Very much.” He nodded seriously. “I forgot to ask you how you felt about being in the media, by the way.”

“I kind of already figured it was going to happen. I was actually hoping on them crashing this party by now,” I admitted. “Would have saved me from retail torture.”

“Oh, they’re here. I just have bodyguards keeping them from butting it too far. Pretty sure we’re already viral.” He nodded.

“Whatever.” I shrugged. “I’m not here for cameras and articles. I’m here because you asked for my help.”

“I didn’t ask for your help because I needed it. Well, I do need it, but…I’m not good at this, am I?” He huffed.

“Terrible.” I laughed and squeezed him as best as I could with only the one arm around him. “I know what you’re trying to say, though. I think I agreed for the same reason. Even if I tried to deny it.”

“I wanted ~this~,” he said after a moment. “You with me. I’d take it any way I could, but I’m so fucking glad you wanted it too.”