She had never mentioned needing any help. I doubted she was looking for investors, especially Allory Enterprises.But almost every business could benefit from a cash infusion. There were always improvements to be made, not to mention expansion.
It occurred to me then, lying naked next to her in bed, that I had no idea what she wanted for her little egg farm. We had never really talked business while I was working as her farmhand. She kept that part of her life shielded from me.
Sharing her hopes and dreams with me might feel more intimate to her than what we had done the night before.
I wanted to be upset at the thought, but I had shown up in Ferris as her enemy. It made sense she would keep things from me. For all she knew, I was in town to buy her farm up from under her the way my father had bought her parents’ farm.
Which was all the more reason I shouldn’t ask if I could invest in Granny’s Acre Farm.
Shelby would take it the wrong way, I suspected, and there was no reason to rock the boat like that. I didn’t know what label to put on a relationship like ours, but whatever it was, I wanted it to last as long as possible.
If this is a dream, let me sleep forever.
Forever was probably out of the question, but another week or so might be doable. I just needed a reason to still be here. And since I wasn’t really looking to invest in anyone else’s farms, that only left the social media team. I needed to put them to work.
We wouldn’t be involving Shelby in any of the PR stuff, but Ronnie Miller might be just what I needed. He could let the media team get some footage of the dairy, show off some of that cheese. It was legitimately one of the best cheeses I had ever tasted, and I was pretty sure I could make Ronnie a very rich man. I just needed to run the social media stuff by him first. Then I could send the crew out, and I could justify my presence in Ferris a little longer.
I opened my eyes and looked at Shelby, sleeping soundly. Her chest rose and fell, still shirtless but beneath the blanket with me. I put my hand lightly on her hip, wanting to feel her again but not wanting to wake her up.
We had gone another round the night before, keeping her up way past her bedtime. Neither one of us could lie next to each other naked without nature taking its course. I was just glad I had thought to bring more than one condom. Otherwise, we would have needed to get creative. Because there was no way I could have held back.
Shelby had me wrapped around her little finger. If there was any doubt, the fact I was still in town was proof. I lived to work, choosing to spend most of my free time in the office. While I had never been as driven as my father, I worked just as hard or harder.
Money didn’t motivate me the way it did him, though. For me, I just wanted success. To prove to myself and to the world that I was good enough. That I could take the reins of the company and make it thrive.
Success was starting to look different to me. I glanced down at Shelby again, wondering if I had been chasing the wrong thing for the last few years. What the hell was the point of having all the money in the world when no one loved you?
I nestled against Shelby’s back, sliding my arm over her. The moment I felt her round ass against me, I got hard again. With a grin, I gave her ass a little nudge, testing the waters. I heard her cute little laugh in response.
“Oh, my God,” she said. “You’re obsessed with me.”
I laughed and pulled her in tighter. “I absolutely am, Shelby.”
She spun around to face me, smiling at me. I kissed her, ready to use my last condom. But my phone rang from the bathroom where I’d left it in my pants.
Shelby broke the kiss, and I leaned my forehead against hers with a sigh. “I’ll ignore it.”
“Don’t,” she said, her smile dimming a little but not disappearing completely. “If it’s work, you should get it.”
I nodded. “Yeah, I suppose so.”
“I’ll go make coffee.” She hopped out of bed and I ignored the ringing while I watched her throw on a T-shirt. Fuck, she was gorgeous.
I got out of bed with a growl. The name on the screen stopped me cold. It wasn’t just work calling. It was my father.
The old man was technically retired but still sat on the board. He wasn’t in charge of anything anymore, but he didn’t act like it. With a sigh, I answered.
“Morning, Dad. You’re up insanely early. What time is it back there?”
“Time to get your ass back to Los Angeles. That’s what time it is.”
“Miss me already?”
Dad didn’t find me as funny as I did. “What’s this I hear you’re on vacation?”
“I don’t know where you heard that, but I haven’t taken a vacation since I started at Allory a decade ago. You said vacations were for weak men and Europeans.”
Dad knew all of that already. He just had selective memory. “And taking time off for Easter of all things. Who takes off on Easter?”
