“Thank you.” He pushes my curls off my shoulder and kisses my neck before dropping his hold around my waist. When I get back, he’s already opened the door to Eros, Mac, and Bonte.
“Be right back.” Paxton drops a kiss onto the top of my head; my attention is on the phone in his hand. He goes to move pastme toward the bedroom, and my hand reaches out, grabbing his arm.
“Who’s on the phone?” His brows rise, and I can see that he is struggling to suppress a smile. “Never mind.” I drop my hold on him. I can find out for myself.
“It’s business. An issue has come up that I need to be updated on in Charleston.”
“Okay,” I simply mutter and keep walking.
“I won’t be long, Sunshine. I know you’ll miss me.” I glance over my shoulder at him, and he winks at me, taking me back to the third time I’d seen him.
“So you’re doing it?” Eros asks before stealing a piece of sausage off the dining table, where a full spread of food has now been laid out.
“What do you advise?” I ask my cousin, valuing his opinion. Most of my life I knew I’d grow up to work beside Mac and him. Though Mac has a lot of her own open projects. For all we know, she could have a whole other life, and it would not shock me.
“I’d advise you to do what makes you happy.”
“Success makes me happy.” Keeping control of all the East Coast docks is what my target is right now.
“I get that.” Eros drops down onto the sofa, kicking his feet up on the coffee table. Mac nods in agreement.
“Holy hell.” Bonte rolls her eyes. “Success isn’t happiness. Have you ever heard the saying ‘Success is getting what you want. Happiness is wanting what you get.’”
“No.” That does not sound familiar, and I’m not prone to forget things.
“What the fuck does that mean?” Eros asks what I was also wondering.
“I don’t care for riddles.”
“It’s not a riddle.” Bonte laughs. “Success is a series of things you’ll always be working toward. Chasing ‘happiness.’” She doesair quotes around the word. “Happiness has to come from within. It is a state of being.” I stare at her. “Like me, you should be appreciative and happy to simply have me in your life.”
“I for sure get that.” Eros is quick to agree with her, but he’s full of shit. He doesn’t get it, but he knows happiness is Bonte, and in all fairness, he did kidnap her, so he was successful in his mission to have her.
“I’m not sure he does, but let me simplify it.” Bonte turns her attention to Eros; her eyes always soften on him. I think she is the only person in history that has looked upon Eros with softness of any kind. “If you marry for love, real love, then no matter what happens in life, you always have happiness, as long as you have that person.”
That I understand more. It sounds odd, relaxing, and content even.
“We are to marry, but we’re not in love,” I remind them.
“What do you feel for him?” Bonte asks.
“Possession,” Eros says before I can. “Obsession.” He gives me a cocky smirk, knowing what he’s talking about.
“I will knock that off your face.”
“You can try,” he challenges.
“This is a nice hotel,” Mac butts in. “You’re not wrestling, so get it out of your minds.”
“We don’t wrestle; we spar,” I clarify.
“I spar.” Eros points at himself. “You’re a fucking honey badger.”
“I bit you one time.” I will never hear the end of this. “But I got out of your hold.” You do what you must. Paxton understands that.
“So who’s going to bring up Paxton and Naomi necking in the hallway first?” Mac asks, wiggling her brows.
“I was going to ease into it,” Bonte hisses.
