Easy Kisses (The Boudreaux Series Book 4) (6 page)

“Trust me, I have way more lust for this burger than Simon has for me.”

“Whatever,” Heidi says, rolling her eyes.

“Besides,” I continue, “he’s made it clear that this is strictly professional, and I already know that he’s not right for me.”

“You already know that?” Violet asks.

“Yep. I always know.” And it’s not just a little disappointing that I haven’t found the right one yet.

“Now, this is advice I need,” Heidi says and leans in. “Because I always choose badly. How do you know?”

“I can tell in the first five minutes if a man is
the one.
And trust me, Simon isn’t him.”

“How in the hell can you tell in five minutes?” Heidi asks.

“I just can,” I reply with a shrug. “Sometimes it’s based on the clothes they wear, or what they do for a living, or their opinion on food.”

“Oh Lord,” Violet says and laughs. “You can’t be serious.”

“Of course I am,” I reply. “These are all deal breakers for me. And, Simon is out of the running based on geography.”

“Now I’m intrigued. Do tell,” Heidi says.

“He’s international, and I live in New Orleans. It would never work.”

“So, just like that, he’s out.” Violet nods. “Okay. How many times have you found
the one
based on this theory?”

“None,” I reply with a frown. “But I’ll know it when I do.”

Heidi starts to speak, but my phone beeps with an incoming text from Eli. It’s a picture of an ultrasound with the caption
You’re gonna be an aunt again!

“Look! My brother just sent me this. His wife is pregnant.” I show the photo off proudly. “It’s the most beautiful baby ever.”

“Yep, it’s a blob,” Heidi says with a laugh. “I have three of my own, and they all started just like this. Congratulations.”

“Thanks. I’m going to step out on the deck and call him really quick. I’ll be right back.”

“Take your time,” Violet says with a smile. “We’re in no rush.”

I nod and dial Eli’s number as I step out into the summer sunshine.

“Hello, Aunt Charly,” he says.

“Hi, Daddy,” I reply with a giggle. “Congratulations, Eli.”

“Thanks. We had a bit of a scare, but everything’s okay.”

“Van told me. I’m so happy that Kate’s okay and that we’re going to have a new bebe to love on soon.”

“How are things there?” he asks, his voice serious again. “Are you learning anything valuable?”

“I’m learning all kinds of things,” I reply. “And you sound like Dad.”

“Well, that’s good because I’m about to be one,” he says. “Holy shit, Char, I’m gonna be a papa.”

“You’re going to be an amazing father, Eli. You’re a wonderful man. This baby is lucky.”

“Okay, let’s not get too touchy feely here.”

I roll my eyes.

“You’re okay?”

“I’m okay,” I reply, meaning it. “I’m enjoying it more than I ever thought I would, but don’t tell Van. I’m going to let her think that she made me come against my will for a while longer.”

“Women are mean.”

“You beat your brothers up every day at lunch.”

“That’s called martial arts, and a workout,” he replies easily. “Not the same.”

“Whatever. Kiss Kate for me. I’ll see you next week.”

“Be safe, darlin’.”

I end the call and look at the ultrasound again, smiling widely. There’s a little baby coming to join our family soon. I can’t wait!

“Is that yours?”

I spin to find Todd standing behind me.

“Sorry, didn’t mean to look over your shoulder, but that’s hard to miss.”

“No, it’s fine,” I say with a laugh. “It’s definitely not mine. It’s my brother’s. His wife is pregnant, and he sent me this to tell me.”

“Excellent,” Todd says, his accent as thick as Simon’s, yet not quite as sexy. “Did you know that the baby is the size of a peanut right now?”

“Did you know tidbits like that during every phase of your wife’s pregnancy?”

“Hey, I did my homework,” he says with a wink. “Congratulations.”

He pats my shoulder and walks away, and I gaze down at the photo one more time.

I love you, little peanut.

***

I’m late. I
hate
being late.

Despise.

Loathe.

It’s my biggest pet peeve in life.

And here I am, struggling into my shoes as I yank my shirt over my head, no time to blow my hair dry, so it’s in a bun on top of my head, and I have no makeup on.

My alarm didn’t go off this morning, and I overslept. And I never oversleep. What is happening to me?

Just as I’m about to dash out the door to class, my phone rings, and like an idiot, I hit accept rather than ignore.

This is
not
my day.

“Hello?”

“Hey, beautiful,” Ryan says with a sing-song voice, making me stop in the doorway.

“What’s up, Ryan? I’m in a hurry.”
And I don’t ever want to talk to you again.

“I was just thinking about you. I haven’t seen you in a while. Where have you been?”

“Remember when I told you I was going to a retreat for two weeks? These are those two weeks.” I roll my eyes. Ryan rarely paid attention to details that didn’t affect him.

“I didn’t realize you were really going to that,” he says, annoyance heavy in his voice. “I thought we said it was a silly thing to go to.”

“No,
you
said that.” I check the time. “What do you need, Ryan? I’m late for class.”

“I want to see you,” he says simply.

“You want to fuck me,” I reply.

“Yes.”

“No.” I shake my head and sit on the edge of the bed. Who cares if I’m a couple minutes late?

“No? Are you seeing someone?”

“I don’t have to be seeing someone else to say no to you,” I reply, my voice strong. “But no, I’m not. However,
you
are.”

“You must be mistaken.”

“Nope. I’m not. I heard your conversation with Pamela, Ryan. You don’t like me, but you like to fuck me. And if I remember correctly, you were going to call me and break it off for good. Which you didn’t do. But let me just save you the trouble.”

“No, there was no reason to call because I broke things off with Pam.” He sounds panicked now. “There’s no reason for us to stop seeing each other, Char.”

“Yeah, there is.” I sigh and shake my head. “You don’t even like me, remember?”

“That wasn’t true, baby.”

God, I’m weak when he calls me baby like that. And he knows it. Bastard.

“Either way, I’m done, Ryan. It’s time for both of us to move on.”

“Let’s talk about this when you get home,” he says soothingly. “Don’t make any rash decisions.”

“Whatever. I’m late. Goodbye.” I hang up, turn my ringer off, and hurry out of my room. I’m
not
going to let him talk his way back into my pants again. I was okay with the friends with benefits thing, but I’m not okay with the
just benefits
thing. No way.

I rush into the room, already quiet, and cringe when a few people glance over my way. I hurry to my seat next to Heidi and get settled as quickly as I can.

“Are you okay?” she whispers.

“No alarm,” I whisper back.

“You haven’t missed anything yet,” she says.

Simon isn’t looking at me, which is good. It would only make me more uncomfortable. He’s walking across the stage, talking expressively with his hands. He has a mic attached to his ear, so his hands are free, and I love watching him speak. He’s an excellent public speaker. He’s calm, comfortable.

Sexy as all get out.

“So, we’re going to take a bit of a detour today, ladies. We’ve spent the past eight days talking about self-esteem, goals, how to achieve those goals, networking, etc. Today we’re going to talk about your love lives.”

“It’s about time!” Someone calls out from the audience, making us all smile.

“Some portions of today are going to be fun, and others will be uncomfortable. That’s okay. You can ask me anything, and I’ll do my best to answer your questions.”

Hands are thrown into the air, but Simon holds his own hands up in surrender.

“Hold off on the questions for a bit. First, I’d like to speak a bit about expectation and self-worth.”

For an hour Simon works the stage, reminding us all that we are worth so much more than what we’re willing to settle for. Questions are asked and answered, and I sit here all the while, listening and getting angrier by the minute.

“If you don’t want to be a side piece, or a friend with benefits, don’t
settle
for that from any man.” Simon is passionate as he repeats what he’s been driving home all day. “If you want a man to be devoted to you, and to love you unconditionally, you have to do that for yourself first.”

For the better part of ten years I’ve been involved with a man who didn’t even
like
me. He just liked the sex. Because seriously, the sex was great. But now, as I sit here and listen to Simon talk about not settling for less than you deserve, I realize that this is exactly what I’ve been doing all of my adult life.

It’s been my choice. I knew that until I found
the
one,
I was content with casual relationships. But at the same time, it makes me feel cheap. And so fucking mad. At Ryan, at myself, and even at Simon for bringing all of this shit up.

Just before class is over for the day, I gather my things and leave. I can’t listen to it any more.

“Charly!”

I stop halfway down the hall to the elevators and see Violet hurrying to me.

“Are you okay?”

“Peachy,” I reply. “I need to be done with today.”

“This wasn’t fun for you.” Her eyes are concerned and she pats my shoulder, and that’s all I can take.

“No.” My voice is flat. “It wasn’t fun. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

And with that I turn and rush back to my room. I want to call Ryan and scream at him, tell him that he can go fuck himself from now on, and how dare he treat me like something he can just throw away? He doesn’t have to love me. I don’t love him either.

But damn it, he sure as hell should have respected me.

I sit on my balcony for a while, silently fuming while I watch birds swoop through the air, a flock of ducks swim across the lake, and the sun hide behind clouds, then poke back out again.

How did I not see it? Am I too easy to trust? Or was I just blind, and assumed that he felt the same way that I did? Maybe I didn’t read between the lines during the times apart. My arrangement with Ryan worked for me because I’d consumed myself with work and family for so long, I wasn’t ready for anything more serious than friends with benefits. But I should have asked more questions. I should have paid more attention.

And maybe I’m being a little hard on myself and Ryan is just an asshole.

After a while, there’s a knock on my door, and I know exactly who it is. He couldn’t have come after me with a hundred women looking on, and I wouldn’t expect him to.

Hell, I don’t expect him to come after me at all.

Because as he’s said over and over, this is just professional, and I already know that he’s not the one for me, and the chemistry is just science.

Science is a bitch.

I stay where I am, rocking in my chair, even when he knocks again, and then for a third time.

“Charly! Open up.”

And just with those three words, I’m all pissed off again. So I march to the door and swing it open, glaring at him.

“You don’t have the right to be demanding with me.”

“You don’t have the right to lock me out,” he counters.

“Fuck yes, I do.” I stand on my tiptoes and stick my finger in his face. “You’re not my boyfriend. You’re not even my
friend.
You’re a man that I know, that’s it.”

“That’s not it,” he says, beginning to breathe hard.

“Just because you give a fuck, doesn’t mean that I owe you anything. Didn’t you just lecture a whole room full of women about just that?”

He pushes his fingers through his hair and paces away, then turns back to me.

“I just want to—”

“And where do you get off, anyway?” I interrupt, pacing around the room myself. “Your life isn’t all roses.
You’re
single!”

“Charly—”

“If you know everything about dating, why aren’t you doing it?” He props his hands on his hips and narrows his eyes on me, but I’m on a roll. “Are you one of those
do as I say not as I do
kind of people, Simon? Because I don’t see you with a ring on your finger.”

“You’re bloody pissing me off.”

“Yeah, well, I’ve been bloody pissed all bloody day,” I reply and cross my arms over my chest. “And I don’t even know why you’re here! You keep repeating, like a broken record, that this is strictly professional and you’re not going to touch me, and blah blah blah, which is perfectly fine with me, mind you. But then you go out of your way to be nice to me. Or maybe you treat all of the clients like this.”

“You know better than that.”

“I don’t even think you
like
me very much.”
Just like Ryan.

“What in the hell are you talking about? Of course I like you. I can’t fucking stay away from you!”

“That’s just chemistry,” I reply. “And trust me when I say that I’ve had my fill of that. It doesn’t mean anything other than my junk likes your junk.”

Now his lips twitch, and I can’t decide if I want to kick him or kiss him.

Let’s go with both.

“You haven’t seen my junk, love.”

“And what in the world is up with all of the
love
talk?”

“It’s a term of endearment. Now you’re just being difficult and stubborn.”

“Well, that’s who I am, Simon. I’m difficult and stubborn, and I’m no one to use terms of endearment on because
I mean nothing to you.
”

His nostrils flare as he marches toward me, letting the door slam behind him, and the next think I know, I’m in his arms and his lips are on mine. His hand glides up my back to fist in the back of my hair. He tips my head back to more easily assault my mouth, and I’m consumed by him.

Mercy, the man can
kiss.

He whirls us around so he can boost me up against the wall, supporting me with his pelvis and the hard cock still confined in his pants.