Final Call (The Call #2) (25 page)

Aaron sets the brush on
the side and grabs our toothbrushes from the holder. He runs them
under the sink and squeezes some toothpaste on them. I take mine
and we stand, side by side, brushing our teeth, looking like a real
couple.

And it’s this, the
little mundane things you really do skip over, that make a
difference. I never thought brushing my teeth next to someone could
make such a difference, but it does.

This, right now, makes
me want to fight.

And if all fucks up, if
Mia Lopez is exposed and my life is thrust into the public eye,
I’ll fight then, too.

I’ll fight like hell
for the man standing next to me.

Even if he has missed a
button on his shirt.

I put my brush back and
turn to him, finding that missed button and fixing it. Aaron grins
down at me, toothpaste around his mouth, and moves me to the side
so he can spit it out. I shake my head with a smile.

He’s right.

Great love makes the
bad shit disappear.

I leave him in the
bathroom and make my way to the coffee machine to provide Mr. Stone
with his latest requirement. He’s definitely getting a little
requirement-happy, regardless of how many of them I like.

The coffee one? It
should definitely be a two-way requirement. I need it too, ya
know.

“Oh, she’s learning,”
he quips, taking the mug from me.

I turn the sugar-heaped
spoon in his direction. “Watch it, Mr. Stone, or I might decide you
need some sweetening.” He laughs, and I stir the sugar into my own
mug. “Why am I coming to work with you?”

“Because I don’t trust
Naomi. If she knows you live here, when no mutual acquaintances of
ours do, she’s definitely keeping tabs on you. She is coldhearted
and ruthless, and leaving you here alone is putting you at risk.
That’s something I can’t comprehend. The idea of putting you in
harm’s way makes me sick to my stomach, Dayton. If that means I
have to glue you to my side and take you everywhere with me until
this is figured out, that’s exactly what I’ll do.”

“I can’t help but think
it’s a little over the top. Isn’t that what she’ll be
expecting?”

“She’s expecting me not
to know. And regardless of what she’s expecting, protecting you is
my number-one priority.” His eyes crash into mine. “I would kill a
man to protect you, Dayton. Don’t ever doubt my need to keep you
safe or the lengths I would go to in order to do that.”

I walk to him and wrap
my arms around his waist. His words should shock me. I should coil
back, reel in shock, but I’m not. I know it. I know it because I
feel it too. When you love someone so intensely that it knocks your
whole world off-kilter but still somehow keeps it spinning, there
are no barriers to what you’ll do to protect them.

“I love you,” I say
into his chest. “Okay? I love you.”

“I know, sweetheart. I
know.” He envelopes me with his arms and breathes me in. “And I
you. I love you so fiercely that I’m afraid it might consume me one
day. So please, humor me right now.”

“No need to. There’s
nothing funny about this.”

Aaron kisses the top of
my head and releases me. He downs his coffee and grabs his jacket
from the bedroom. “Are you ready to go?”

I nod and drop my cell
in my purse. “I’m ready.”

He links his fingers
through mine and takes me downstairs to the car waiting to take him
to the office. I stay by his side through the journey, his arm
wrapped around me securely. He waves the security guard off when we
arrive at Stone HQ Seattle, and the elevator clears when we step
inside.

That must be a thing.
Very Devil Wears Prada.

We step out onto his
floor, and Dottie, his assistant, is sitting behind her desk. She’s
in early. I know she doesn’t start until nine, and it’s just after
eight.

“Dottie.” Aaron waves
at her over his shoulder, and she grabs some paper and a pen and
follows us into his office. He sits me in the chair behind his
desk. “Dottie, this is Dayton, my girlfriend. Dayton, my assistant
and the woman who keeps my business in order, Dottie.”

“It’s lovely to meet
you properly, Dayton,” Dottie says, offering a tentative smile.

Oh yes. The last time I
met her, I was an angry mess of a woman.
Oopsie.

“And you, Dottie. I’m
sorry last time I was less than desirable.”

Aaron pokes me in the
back. “Okay, enough chitchat. You two have plenty of time for that.
Dottie, we have a situation, and I need you to help me.”

I swallow.
Oh, god.
No.

“Anything I can do, I
will.” She sits up straight and clicks her pen. “What do you need
me to do?”

“I need you to get
someone to find out where my ex-wife is staying.”

Dottie’s eyes widen,
and I’m sure my expression mirrors hers.

“Mr. Stone—”

“She’s taken it upon
herself to blackmail Dayton, and as you can imagine, I’m less than
happy about it. We know she holds some important details about
Dayton’s life that could impact both her and the business, and it’s
in everyone’s best interests if this
story
doesn’t make it
past the printers into the public eye.”

“You want me to send
out some feelers and see who, if anyone, has this information.”

“And this is why I pay
you.” Aaron smiles and leans forward on his desk. “How soon can you
find out?”

Dottie clicks her
tongue and rocks her head from side to side. “Around noon, give or
take an hour or two. I happen to have a couple of reporter friends,
and one works at a local tabloid. If there’s anything to reveal,
she’ll have the scoop. And I can ask my boyfriend to see what he
can find out. Is there anything else I need to know?”

“If you hear the name
Mia Lopez, you’re on the right track.”

Dottie scribbles that
on her paper and stands, nodding. “All right. I’m on it. I’ll let
you know as soon as I find anything out.”

“Thank you. Oh, and,
Dottie?”

She pauses by the open
door and glances over her shoulder.

“If you get me this
information, your next pay will have a considerable bonus in
it.”

Her lips twist to one
side. “I’m not doing it for money, Mr. Stone. I’m doing it because
we’ve all noticed how happy you are now. And, if you’ll excuse my
language, Naomi is a raging bitch.”

She closes the door
behind her, and I laugh. “I like her. She gets it.”

“Dottie has worked for
me for four years, and Naomi spent the majority of that time trying
to convince me to fire her.” Aaron perches on his desk and folds
his arms across his chest.

“Why?”

“She didn’t like her.
Dottie was fresh out of college when we hired her. It was supposed
to be for the summer so she could gain a little experience doing
admin work. She took to being my assistant like a duck takes to
water when my previous one got pregnant, so I kept her on
permanently. Naomi was jealous of how closely we work together. And
that Dottie has a crush on me.”

I roll my eyes. “It’s a
good thing there are no trust issues here, isn’t there?”

He smiles. “Very.”

We stare at each other
for a long moment, and he leans in slowly to take my mouth with
his.

“Can I…say something?”
I ask quietly.

“The amount you talk,
I’d be worried if you didn’t.”

I backhand slap his
thigh, and he laughs. “No. Have you ever considered that maybe
Naomi is in love with you?”

Aaron pauses, his eyes
still on mine. “Once or twice. The problem is, Day, I know her
better than anyone else. She loves the money and influence I have
more than the man inside.”

“I think she’s in love
with you,” I say softly, looking away. “And that’s why I think
she’s doing this.”

“Hey.” He crouches in
front of me and tilts my face into his. “The only person whose
feelings matter is the woman I’m looking at right now. I have loved
you since the moment I laid eyes on you all those years ago. I
never stopped, not even for a second. You have my heart in a
viselike grip, Dayton, and I hope to God you’ll never let it go.
Naomi hates that. She knows I never loved her, and yes, she
probably is in what she has come to perceive as love. Money,
influence, and social standing don’t equal love or a successful
relationship. Love is what’s beneath the surface, beyond all of
those things, and that’s what you see. You see the man beneath it
all. You see
me
, baby. You look at me and see the way I look
at you, not dollar signs. If I have to hurt her to keep you safe,
then I will.”

“I know.”

“Nothing is as
important to me as you are. When you understand just how much you
mean to me, you’ll understand that I’ll walk all over anyone who
keeps me from protecting you.”

“I know.”

“I mean it, Day. I’ll
walk until I can’t—”

I tug his face to mine
and silence him with the touch of my lips to his. “I know,” I
murmur. “So please, shut up and kiss me now before you make me
cry.”

“No more crying,” he
orders, curling his fingers around the back of my neck. His mouth
sweeps across mine in a firm way that backs up his words.

I agree. No more
crying. No more doubting or worrying or crying.

I have to put my faith
in the man kissing me like I’m the air he needs to breathe. I have
to believe that he’ll take this mess I escalated and spin it into
gold, keeping us both safe in the process.

I have to believe in
him, and I have to believe in us.

And I do.

I believe in us.

I believe we can
conquer anything thrown our way.

We just have to do
it.

***

I sigh and lie back on
the sofa, lifting my legs and resting them on the back of it. I’m
all for Aaron keeping me safe, but I’d like to be amused. As it is,
I’ve run through all my lives on Candy Crush, dropped all my coins
on Coin Dozer, and listened to the Spotify top chart five times.
Okay, the songs I like on it. That lowers the time consumption
considerably.

And now I’m bored.
Really, really bored.

I sigh again, this time
the breath escaping through pursed lips, and kick my legs. Aaron’s
in the meeting he left yesterday because of my mini meltdown that
left me on the kitchen floor, and he has some damage control to
do.

I think. I could be
exaggerating. I have no idea how this business stuff works.

My third sigh leaves as
a huff. How long does it take to negotiate a contract? Half an
hour?

No, that’s silly. I’ve
been here alone for at least two hours.

He really needs to
invest in a coffee machine for this office. Stat.

The door opens, and I
roll my head to the side. A smirk curves Aaron’s lips as he flicks
his eyes over my body and takes me in.

“Comfortable?”

“Comfortable but
bored,” I reply, flexing my ankles. “Did you get your
contract?”

“Don’t ask me such
stupid questions, Dayton. I was in charge of the campaign. Of
course I did.”

I swing my legs around
and sit up straight. “Even though you ran out halfway through the
meeting yesterday?”

He raises his eyebrows.
“Every person in that meeting was married. They understood my need
to leave.”

“For your girlfriend?
Married and girlfriend are different things.”

“For one second, will
you stop doubting your importance to me? Fuck, Day, it’s driving me
insane. Do you honestly think I wouldn’t walk you down an aisle
tomorrow if it wouldn’t freak you the hell out? I love you, and
love is love, regardless of a piece of paper declaring forever. My
heart has promised you forever and that’s the fucking end of
it.”

“I don’t doubt my
importance. I was just asking. And I’m bored. So my brain is kind
of numb right now.”

“You’re bored? How
bored?”

“I-could-claw-my-own-eyes-out bored.”

He crosses his office
and leans over me, one hand on the back of the sofa, the other
flattened on the cushion by my side, and curves his lips. “Bored
enough you can cope with me in here for an hour until my next
meeting?”

“Debatable. I might get
annoyed. You know what they say about couples that work and play
together.”

“Oh, believe me, baby.
I have no work on my mind. Only play.”

He covers my mouth in a
kiss so forceful I push my hips up. Shit. His tongue slides along
the seam of my mouth, flicking between my lips and begging for
entry. I allow him, opening for him, letting my tongue sweep
against his. He squeezes my waist and lowers his body on top of
mine, hard and defined and so fucking perfect.

I slide my hands
beneath his jacket and tug his shirt free of his trousers. The skin
on his back is hot beneath my fingers as they creep under the hem
of his shirt, and he groans quietly when I wrap my legs around his
back.

The way my body arches
into his, the tensing of my muscles that hold him to me, the deep
sweep of my tongue across his—they all say how much I need him.
They tell both of us how much my body needs his, how much it craves
the sweet touch of his skin against mine.

He loosens his tie and
loops it over his head, still knotted, and slides one hand up my
dress to my ass. He squeezes lightly, and I tug desperately at his
jacket. It falls to his elbows and I tear his buttons open, his
shirt following shortly after. Then he slips his hands beneath my
body. They flatten against the small of my back and hold me to
him.

Aaron lifts me, walking
me across his office, and perches me on the edge of his desk. “I
told you I’d fuck you on this desk, and since everyone is gone for
lunch, I’m going to fuck you hard. Hard enough that you scream my
name so the whole building can hear you.”

My body arches into him
in response to his words. I don’t need to say anything. This is the
time my body says everything I can’t put together.