“Perhaps if she had a big shiny rock on her left hand, it would help to remind me of her status,” Kaga offers.
“I can see it will have to be large enough that blind men like you will be able to see it.” I pick up Tiny’s slim fingers and press a kiss against them. Her fingers do look bare.
On the way home, she snuggles into my side—I like it. I like it so much I draw her closer, pinning her in place. The promise to ravish me in the car is forgotten and as the car ride lulls her to sleep, my mind swings back to the frustrating day with Louis.
“Did you have a very bad day at work,” she says, smoothing her ringless hand over my chest. Now that Kaga has pointed it out, the fact she doesn’t have my ring on her finger bothers me. I need to give it to her but I haven’t found the right moment.Fuck, that hand is screaming for a ring from me and my wallet’s itching to pay for it.
“I thought you were asleep bunny,” I say pulling her into my lap and dropping a kiss on her hair.
“No but I’m really full and feeling terribly relaxed. I’m sorry I’m not embarrassing you in front of Steve like I said I would.”
“You’ll have to make up for it later,” I say.
“Will you tell me what’s bother you first?” she asks.
I hesitate because I don’t like burdening Tiny with unimportant things—things that have no bearing on our life together. But I’m always pressing her to share every little corner of her life with me so I’m a raging hypocrite if I don’t tell her. “I’m likely going to fire my vice president of operations,” I finally admit.
She pushes away and gives me a frown. “That sounds serious.”
I pull her back because I miss her. “It’s not. It’s probably been a long time coming. I told him that I’m thinking of winding down Kerr Inc and he did not take that well.”
“But Ian, why would you do that? I don’t understand.”
“I hardly can explain it myself,” I answer. “I’ve worked nonstop since the age of fifteen, even earlier. I went to school, did odd jobs hustling on the boardwalk in Atlantic City, playing poker games and leveraging those sums into higher stakes poker until I had enough money to buy my way into a small time brokerage firm. I bought and sold everything—legal and illegal—that I could get my hands on. Kerr Inc. is a nice accomplishment, but I can’t go anywhere from here.”
“So you want to retire on top?”
“No,” I shake my head. “I want something fulfilling in my life, and I know that the acquisition of more wealth, more status isn’t it. The only reason that I want to have money now is so that our family never suffers. But the mere fact that I have so much makes us both targets. I don’t like that. I want to live a quiet life with you. I want to drive our kids to school and chaperone them on school trips. I want to watch every softball pitch or soccer kick. None of those things can happen while I’m down on Hudson Street trying to figure out whether to invest twenty million in this new technology or that new venture.”
“Oh.” She leans back to stare at me as she digests this.
A moment of uncharacteristic uncertainty wafts over me. Does giving up Kerr Inc. diminish me in her eyes in some way? Was I not man enough without the billions backing me? “I’ll still be filthy stinking rich,” I say, unable to keep the sarcasm from leaking out.
“Lord, Ian.” She rolls her eyes. “As if that even matters to me. I just had no idea you felt that way. I think it’s comforting, actually. I wonder sometimes if I’m enough for you. Whether you’ll lose interest because I’m not smart enough to figure out all the terms for buyouts and mergers and leverages and positions. Wanting to exit the fast lane doesn’t make you smaller to me. Just smarter.” She hesitates and then jokes, “Can we just run off to an island together and forget about the real world?”
I grab her hand and press a kiss against the back of her fingers. “Done. What island do you want me to buy? Something in the Baltic? Perhaps down by Greece? South America?”
A small smile appears while she pretends to contemplate her options. “Why not all of them? We can travel from island to island whenever we get bored.”
“I can’t think of anything better. Let’s leave tomorrow.”
“I wish.” She laughs lightly.
“You don’t need to wish,” I answer. “It can be reality if you want it to be and I will be your rainmaker.”
“You know what I really wish for is you,” she whispers with a secret smile, her eyes wide and suddenly vulnerable.
Fuck this girl gets to me. With that one look, I’m on fire, my chest tight with emotion, my dick straining to join me to her. “I’d like to stop using condoms, bunny,” I tell her.huskily whisper, pulling her closer to me, “I’ve had a medical check up and I’m ready to go. All clean. All clean and if you’ll have me, all yours.”
Her eyes widen with surprise, then haze over in lust. “You want to have children?” she asks me, her tone slow and measured.
“When you’re ready, but mostly I want to f**k you without protection,” I say honestly.
Her eyes heat up, and it’s a good thing we arrive home or we’d have to employ the privacy screen again. As it is, we barely make it inside the door before I’ve ripped her panties down her legs and she has me out and inside of her.
“God, Ian, you feel amazing. I swear I can feel every vein.”
I can’t speak to her because I’ve no brain cells left. The lush feel of her bare cunt against my unprotected length is too mind blowing. I can’t form words. I can only grunt and thrust as the world spins around me. It’s too fast and I’m losing control and I need for her to come with me.
I fasten my mouth on her, plunging my tongue inside her. The sounds of our sex is messy and wet. I reach between us, pushing her skirt out of my way so I can find her perfect little clit. I press down with my thumb and she finds her release only seconds before mine comes shooting down my spine.
“That was…” she’s at a loss for words.
“Fucking amazing,” I finish for her. After a few more heartbeats I carry her up the stairs until I find our bedroom and we start all over again.
SEVEN
“I APPRECIATE YOU DOING THIS,” Tiny says for the millionth time as she rushes around the bathroom trying to get ready. I don’t recall ever seeing her this nervous before.