Perhaps. I actually had no idea what to expect from the weather there as summer slowly started giving way to autumn over the next couple months. What I did know for an absolute fact was there would be no quiet country lanes or stone buildings, but rather bustling, busy streets and modern, glass skyscrapers.
Somewhere in the middle of those spiraling thoughts, there was also the man himself. The man with the quiet confidence who had a way of seeing what I needed before I’d said a word. His hands had been so warm on my waist and his lips had pressed so insistently against mine.
When we had headed to Chicago a few weeks ago, I’d been glad for the break. Now that Jesse was promising me exactly that, however, I wasn’t sure I would survive taking time off if I spent that time with him.
I rolled onto my side, then onto my back, and then onto the other side, but sleep refused to embrace me. Hours seemed to pass while my thoughts bounced wildly between my responsibilities, the estate, the wedding, and the very confusing reality that Iwantedmy fiancé in all sorts of scandalous ways.
Eventually, exhaustion won and I drifted off sometime probably not long before dawn. The next thing I registered was the faint sound of an alarm, a low electronic chime going off close by. For several seconds, I just lay there, disoriented and trying to place where the sound was coming from, but then, slowly, something else registered.
Warmth. A solid, steady warmth around me.
My eyes opened slowly to Jesse shifting. Groaning softly, he reached toward the nightstand to silence the alarm. His arm had been draped over my waist and the movement made the warmth disappear, but I still felt the lingering imprint of it. Of him.
I still didn’t dare move, though. It felt like a dream, but at some point during the night, Jesse must’ve climbed into bed beside me, and judging by the comfortable position of his arm earlier, he’d slept here.
In my bed. Holding me. And I suddenly wanted to kick myself for dozing off because I hadn’t even known it. But I still didn’t move or let him know I was awake, too afraid that any reaction would break the spell—and ruin any chances I might have of the same thing happening tonight.
CHAPTER 21
WILL
Ilet Eliza sleep in. When I’d told her last night that I wanted her to be able to do that, I’d meant it. God knew, if anyone deserved to be left to rest, it was her.
When I’d slipped into the room sometime before dawn, she’d been sprawled diagonally across the bed like she’d fought a serious battle with her own thoughts and lost. One arm had been thrown over her head. Her golden brown hair was fanned out across the pillow, and the blankets were twisted around her legs like she’d been wrestling with them before she’d finally fallen asleep.
I’d known I should’ve just left her room, satisfied with the knowledge that she was sleeping deeply, but I hadn’t been able to convince myself to do it. Naturally, I’d done the smart thing, sliding into the bed without waking her, and I’d fully intended to keep to my side of the bed like a respectable fake fiancé who was definitelynotthe COO of W&S secretly impersonating his brother.
What my plan hadn’t accounted for was her. The respectable distance had lasted approximately ten minutes before she’d rolled toward me and tucked herself against my side like it wasthe most natural thing in the world. My arm had followed of its own accord.
At that point, moving had seemed both rude and potentially fatal to thedon’t-tell-her-who-I-really-amplan. If shehadwoken up and if wehadstarted talking—or, God forbid, kissing—again, I would have told her.
So instead of all that, I’d decided to just let myself hold her and I’d slept better than I had in months. Now, I left without her being any the wiser, quietly closing the door behind me and heading down the hall while she was still cocooned in the blankets.
We had a few hours before we had to leave for the airstrip. That was plenty of time for her to catch up on some sleep and still get ready for the flight before we had to go. Back in my own room, I took a quick shower, got dressed, and tried very hard not to replay the memory of kissing her last night.
Or the way she’d kissed me back. Or the way she’d looked at me afterward.
Yeah. No. That road will lead directly to absolute physical and emotional ruin.
Eliza was a dream and I was currently living in heaven, but only temporarily, which meant I should probably stop acting like I’d accidentally stumbled into the perfect life. Hell, I was getting dangerously close to forgetting this life wasn’t mine even when Iwasn’taround her.
Even now, I was floating on Cloud fucking Nine, in the best mood I’d been in for ages. While I’d been kissing her last night, I damn sure hadn’t been thinking about my brother.
What I had been thinking about was all the things I desperately wanted to do to her, andthatwas what had stopped me. The thought that whenImade her come, she’d be screaminghisname.
Yep. Not for me.
Before I stopped caring whose name she would be moaning and went back to her bed, I hastily packed up my things and left my room, heading downstairs. James had sent word with a footman that he wanted to see me this morning and I was already halfway down a mental path I had no business exploring.
If I didn’t snap myself out of it soon, I really would end up back in her bed. For better or worse.
At this point, her father’s office was probably the safest place for me to be. He was already in there when I arrived, dressed as always in a neatly pressed dark suit with his glasses perched on his nose and his graying hair pushed back from his face.
He looked up from a stack of papers as I stepped inside. “Ah, Jesse. Good. I wanted to go over the estate financials with you again before you leave for Chicago.” Gesturing toward the chair across from his desk, he gave me a pleasant smile. “Coffee?”
“Yes, please,” I said as I sat down. “We don’t have to wait for it before we get started, though.”
He inclined his chin in a nod, put in a call for an espresso, then launched immediately into a detailed breakdown of revenue streams, maintenance costs, tourism income, restoration budgets, and approximately seventeen other categories that would make most people’s eyes glaze over, but not mine.
