Beg For Me: Chapter 26

I’ll give him credit for one thing at least. The man is pathologically punctual.

Precisely at midnight, his Corvette’s headlights sweep the darkened street as he passes by the house. He parks somewhere out of sight, then trots up the sidewalk and across the lawn. I pull open the door before he can knock. We both speak in whispers.

“Hi.”

“Hi yourself. Come inside. Let’s go upstairs. Harlow’s already asleep.”

I close and lock the door behind him, then lead him upstairs to my bedroom. Shutting the door as softly as I can, I listen for a beat to make sure I don’t hear anything, then turn around.

I left one lamp burning on the dresser on the nightstand. In the low light, I can see that Carter’s grin is big and wide.

Like a cat burglar, he’s dressed from head to toe in black.

He whispers, “This is exciting! Are we role-playing that I’m the head of a crime family, and you’re the federal agent whose tasked with bringing me down but falls in love with me instead?”

I walk over to him and give him a push so he’s sitting on the edge of the bed. Looking down at him, I say quietly, “No games. Just direct questions and straight answers. Are you in the Mafia?”

He shakes his head. “No.”

“Is any member of your family in the Mafia?”

“No.”

When I narrow my eyes at him, he lifts his hands in surrender. “It’s the truth.”

“Then what was all that business about delicacies we couldn’t talk about on the phone?”

He opens his mouth to answer, but then looks around the room suspiciously, eyeing all the AC vents and electrical outlets.

“What’s wrong?”

“When was the last time you swept your house for bugs?”

I know he doesn’t mean insects. Eyes wide and horrified, I clap my hands over my mouth.

He falls backward onto the mattress, clutching his stomach and shaking with silent laughter.

He was teasing me, the ass.

Leaning over him, I hiss, “You jerk!”

He sits up, grabs me, and takes me down to the bed with him. Rolling on top of me, he grins at me like a fool.

“You should’ve seen your face.”

Irked, I grouse, “You take an unnatural enjoyment in scaring the crap out of me.”

“Only because I know not much scares you. God, you’re beautiful. Those spellcasting eyes. If you were a witch, would you put a hex on me?”

I close my eyes and sigh. He kisses me all over my face, sweet little kisses from a sweet little psychopath.

What have I gotten myself into?

Opening my eyes, I glare at him.

“Oh fuck,” he breathes. “There’s that look I love. You really want to murder me right now, don’t you?”

“Maybe a little bit. But if I did, I’d feel badly about it afterward. For at least five minutes. Can you let me up, please?”

Instead of doing that, he makes himself more comfortable, arranging his body on top of mine so his muscular thighs pin mine on either side and the bulk of his upper body pins me to the mattress. Propped up on his elbows, he gazes down at me with a look of utter satisfaction.

“Guess what I did this afternoon.”

“Aside from acquiring a tabloid magazine and firing its editor and photographer? Hmm. Let’s see…what does a crazy billionaire do on a Friday afternoon? You bought a news channel?”

“No, I bought a building.”

Why he should look so smug about that, I don’t know. “A commercial building?”

“A high-rise luxury condominium building.”

I can tell he’s dying for me to ask him all about it, so I sigh again and relent. “Okay, I’ll bite. Why did you buy a high-rise luxury condominium building?”

“So we can have privacy.”

I furrow my brow. “Explain.”

“Well, that photographer wouldn’t have been able to get up-close-and-personal pics of us if we were inside the penthouse of a high-rise, right?”

“Unless they rented a helicopter, I guess not. So you’ve decided to move from the house in Santa Monica to a penthouse condo?”

“Yes. Well, no, not exactly. I’m moving into the whole building.”

“I’m confused. Your offices will be there too?”

“No. It’s just for me. Me and you, so we can have privacy.”

I try to wrap my head around what he’s saying, but he’s got me running in circles. “This is a building that’s being constructed?”

“Oh, no. It’s fully occupied. I’m giving everyone sixty days to relocate.”

“You’re kicking people out of their homes? That’s awful!”

He’s amused by my dismay and drops his face to my neck to muffle his laughter. I lie there, aggravated, until he controls himself.

“I’m not kicking them out. I’m buying them out. My real estate attorney will send everyone individual offers by the end of next week, but in the meantime, my official offer for the property will be submitted to the HOA board Monday. Legally, we need at least eighty percent of homeowners to agree to it, so I made sure my offer was sufficiently juicy. All those people are going to make a lot of money.”

I stare at him in blank disbelief. “How big is this building?”

“Twenty-five stories with a helipad on top.” He frowns. “Why, do you think I should’ve gone bigger?”

“Carter, this is…extravagant. And bizarre. Are you telling me the truth?”

“Of course I’m telling you the truth. You asked me to, remember?”

I wave my hands uselessly in the air by his sides. “But why didn’t you just buy the penthouse? Why the whole damn building?”

His answer is matter-of-fact. “Yeah, I thought about that. But then we’d have to worry about other residents seeing us coming and going up the elevators, we’d have to worry about the valet staff tipping off the paparazzi anytime we were about to leave, all that stuff. It just seemed easier to take all those problems off the table. If privacy is what we’re after, we need our own little twenty-five story island.”

I’m at a loss for words. I keep rewinding it to try to make sense of it, but I can’t.

It’s ludicrous.

Looking at my expression, he says, “I know what you’re thinking.”

“Really? Please share. Because it feels to me like my brain has taken a vacation.”

“I’m not expecting you to move in with me. I know you love this house, and you need stability for Harlow, all that stuff.”

“Move in with you?” I repeat faintly. I think that smoke I smell is all the synapses in my brain frying.

“I said I’m not expecting you to move in with me. I mean, unless you want to. That would be fucking amazing. But I figured you wouldn’t want to, so this is just a stop-gap.”

“A stop-gap for what?”

“Between now and whenever we get married. Then you can choose where you want us to live.”

I stare at him with my mouth open and the sensation that the room is spinning, like I’ve had too much wine.

He starts to laugh again, harder this time, dropping his head to my shoulder and trying to choke it back so he can’t be heard by my sleeping daughter in her room down the hall.

I say flatly, “Oh, I get it. This is another little joke of yours. Ha-ha, funny man. What song should I sing at your funeral?”

“I’m sorry. I can’t help it. You make the best faces!”

I exhale in a gust and close my eyes. He kisses my neck, nuzzling his nose into my hair.

He whispers, “So about my family.”

My eyes fly open. “Yes?”

“I want you to meet them. Cole’s wedding is coming up. You’ll be my plus-one.” He raises his head to see my reaction. “What do you say?”

“You want me to meet this family of yours who may or may not be in the Mafia?”

He rolls his eyes. “They’re not in the Mafia.”

“Yes, you keep saying that, but somehow you make it sound like they’re Mafia-adjacent.”

“We’re the good guys, okay? I mean, I’m not supposed to know anything about it, and my brothers and dad think I don’t know anything about it, but when nobody listens to you because you’re the baby, you can learn a lot.”

“Like what?”

He thinks for a moment. “Consider us philanthropists. But strictly off the books.”

“You’re talking in circles.”

“Will you help me decorate the penthouse?”

“Now, you’re trying to change the subject.”

“Sorry, that was just my ADHD. What were we talking about?”

“The Mafia!”

“Right. We’re not in the Mafia.”

Unsure if I believe him, I close my eyes again. “Okay.”

“Look, if we were bad guys, it would be all over the press.”

“You own the press!”

“Not all of it. For instance, we don’t own TriCast. And you guys have never run any bad stories about us. Oh, that reminds me. Where should we go on our honeymoon? How do you feel about Aruba? I really love a sandy white beach.”

When I groan, he dissolves into laughter again. Then he kisses me, cradling my face in his hands and flexing his hips into mine so I can feel his erection.

“Okay, enough talking.” His voice drops to a growl. “Time to get your pussy licked.”

“No. I’m not having sex with you with my daughter sleeping down the hall.”

“Oral sex isn’t technically sex.”

“Really? The word ‘sex’ is right there in the description.”

“You know what I mean.”

“Yes, I do, and the answer’s still no.”

He rolls off me onto his back and sighs dramatically at the ceiling. I roll onto my side and prop myself up on an elbow so I can look at him. “You really want me to go to your brother’s wedding with you?”

“Duh.”

“I’m going to ignore that you sounded exactly like my fourteen year old there and skip to the part when I say I’m not sure that’s such a good idea.”

He turns his head and gazes at me with a furrowed brow. “Why the hell not?”

“It’s still early in our relationship.”

“That’s your way of saying you’re not sure if you want to keep seeing me.”

“No, Carter, not at all. I do want to keep seeing you.”

When he only stares at me doubtfully, I stroke his face. “Just because I’m not letting you go down on me right now doesn’t mean I don’t want to see you anymore.”

“It seems like a pretty good indicator.”

“Don’t be difficult. And don’t pout. It’s much too cute.”

He closes his eyes and sighs. “Fucking cute again. I can’t wait until I’m ten years older and can be rugged and manly instead of cute.”

That makes me smile. “I’ll try not to use that word again since it’s so offensive to you.” I sober when I think of Nick and his threat to take Harlow away from me.

A moment later, his fingers on my jaw, Carter turns my face toward him.

“Where’d you just go?”

It’s uncanny how attuned he is to my emotional fluctuations, like a barometer reading changes in the atmosphere. “Had a nice chat with my ex tonight.”

His voice gains an edge. “And by nice, you mean…?”

“He said I was an unfit mother. He threatened to take Harlow away from me.”

Alarmed, Carter sits bolt upright and stares down at me. “Because you’re with me?”

“Because he’s an asshole.”

“Do you think he was serious?”

Sighing, I push myself up to a sitting position. “I don’t know. But I do know he was drunk.”

“Is that a regular thing for him? He’s a heavy drinker?”

“No. At least not when we were together.”

He’s quiet for a moment, thinking. “Make sure you keep notes about these interactions with him.”

“Why do you say that?”

“Because if he tries to manipulate you through the legal system, you’ll need to fight back. Every interaction you have with him from now on should be documented. Every phone call, every email, every time he drives past your house. Consider him an enemy and proceed accordingly.”

Those words give me a chill. “That’s just great. Between him and the threat from Hartman, I’m having a fantastic day.”

Carter falls still. His eyes glitter with malice. “What threat?”

I wave a dismissive hand in the air. “I told you, he had a meltdown.”

“You didn’t tell me he made a threat against you.”

I peer at him, my curiosity piqued by the dangerous new tone in his voice. “Why? Are you and your brother going to go dig another hole in the Vegas desert?”

He doesn’t smile at my joke. He simply stares at me, waiting for an explanation.

“You’re a little scary when you get like this, stable boy.”

“Good. It’s better than cute. What did your boss say to you? Specifically.”

I stand, prop my hands on my hips, and take a turn around the bedroom. When I stop and look back at him, Carter is sitting on the edge of my bed looking as if he’s about to launch himself into outer space. He’s wound so tight, I can almost hear springs squeaking.

“He said he was going to consult with legal.”

“About us?”

“Yes. He said it looks bad that we’re ‘sneaking around’ together, and the stock holders won’t be happy.”

Black and threatening, thunderclouds gather over his head.

“Before you go out and commit a homicide, you should know that there’s nothing that prohibits employees from having personal relationships with competitors. Hartman might not like it, but there’s technically nothing he can do about it.”

“There are all kinds of things he can do about it. You know how cutthroat this business is. If he really wants to, he can make your life miserable.”

I lean against the dresser and cross my arms. “The term ‘fuck around and find out’ would be apropos then, because I don’t let people push me around. If he tries to retaliate, he’ll regret it.”

Impressed, Carter chuckles. “My father is gonna go gaga over you. He’ll probably offer you a position in the company. He’ll probably offer you my position in the company.”

“If I can have your gargantuan salary, I’ll take it.”

Lips quirked, he stands and slowly moves toward me. “Oh, so that’s how it is, is it?”

I deadpan, “Yes. This has all been a plot to meet your father in an organic way so I can steal your job.”

Lids lowered, he drawls, “In an organic way. I see what you did there.”

I pretend innocence, like I forgot he used those same words when he confessed how he plotted to meet me. “I don’t know what you mean.”

He grabs me, pinning my arms by my side and grinning rakishly down at me. “Sure you don’t, your grace. You’re the very picture of virtue.”

He lowers his head to kiss me but is interrupted by a loud knocking coming from downstairs.

Someone is pounding on my front door.

After midnight.

And here I thought this day couldn’t get any worse.