“I sure will. She’d love to see the two of you again. Rory visits her brother on Thursdays, but we can fly out after.”
“Sounds good. We’ll plan to meet Friday morning. Don’t make plans for Friday night. Ellery and I are taking the two of you out on the town.”
“Sounds good, Connor. We’ll see you next week. Rory will be thrilled.”
“Talk to you soon, Ian.”
I hung up the phone and sat back in my chair. Rory was going to be thrilled that she was going to be able to see Ellery again. I thought about texting her or even calling her, but I decided to wait and tell her the news in person.
“Jan, do me a favor and call the florist. I want two dozen red roses sent to Rory Sinclair at my home address.”
“I’ll do it now, Mr. Braxton,” she replied.
As I was looking over some legal papers, I heard the office door open. I looked up as Andrew walked in.
“Hey, bro,” he said with smile on his face.
“Andrew,” I replied and continued looking over the papers.
“Let’s go hit the club tonight.”
“Sorry, but I’m spending the evening with Rory.”
“Shit, Ian. What’s wrong, won’t the little woman let you off the leash for one night?”
“That’s enough, Drew.”
“Whatever, man,” he sighed.
I looked at him and saw the disappointment in his face. Andrew didn’t have too many friends, because honestly, he was an ass. “Why don’t we ask Rory, Adalynn, and Daniel to come with us and we can all go together?”
“Seriously, Ian? Just tell the bitch you’re going out for the night. You don’t owe her any explanations.”
The one thing you didn’t do was call my girl a bitch. I could feel the anger towards him building up inside. I stood up and slammed my hands against the desk.
“Don’t you ever call Rory a bitch or any other demeaning name again! Do you understand me, friend?”
“Chill out, Ian. Fuck, man,” he said as he got up from his chair. “All I wanted was to spend a little time with my best friend. Is that so wrong?” he said as he shook his head and walked out of my office.
I sat back in my chair and threw a pen across my desk. As long as he had a problem with Rory, he was going to have a problem with me. Maybe Adalynn could talk to him. I finished up what I had to do and walked out of my office.
“I’m out of here for the night, Jan. I’ll see you in the morning.”
“Good night, Mr. Braxton.”
Andrew really had me fired up and he pissed me off. I needed to calm down. When I climbed into the back of the limo, I poured a glass of bourbon.
“Bad day, Ian?” Joshua asked.
“You could say that,” I said as I threw back the bourbon.
I pulled my phone from my pocket and stared at our picture. When we were in Paris, we had a nice young woman take a picture of the two of us in front of the Eiffel Tower. Rory and I had the biggest smiles on our faces. I took pride in the fact that I was the one responsible for making her smile like that. What Andrew didn’t understand was that I wanted to spend every waking minute with Rory. I knew he was having a hard time, because growing up, we always talked poorly of relationships and women. But the one thing I realized was things change, and people can change. If only Andrew could find someone as special as Rory.
I could hear the sweet melody of piano music playing as I approached the house. A smile graced my face because, somehow, Rory erased any kind of bad day I had. As I opened the door, walked into the living room, and set my briefcase down, Rory stopped playing and walked over to me. I noticed the vase of red roses were sitting on top of the piano.
“Thank you so much for the beautiful roses, Ian. I was so surprised when they were delivered.” She smiled as she wrapped her arms around me and planted a kiss on my lips.
“You’re welcome. I’m glad you like them,” I replied as I hugged her tightly.
“Have you been drinking?”
She could smell the bourbon on my breath. “I just had a drink on the way home, that’s all.”
“Bad day?”
“Kind of. I just had to deal with some real assholes today.”
She tightened her arms around me and buried her face in my neck. “I’m sorry, honey.”
“It’s nothing for you to worry about, sweetheart. Let’s go change and go to dinner. I want to hear about your day.”
“I was thinking maybe we could order in some Thai food and eat on the patio. It’s such a beautiful night out.” She smiled.
“That’s an excellent idea. I knew there was a reason I loved you so much.” I smiled back as I kissed the tip of her nose.
We placed our order and, as we waited for it to be delivered, Rory grabbed two wine glasses from the cupboard and took them outside. I pulled a bottle of Pinot from the wine cellar, opened it, and took it outside, pouring some into each of our glasses. After our food arrived and we were sitting down and eating dinner, I decided it was the perfect time to tell Rory about our little trip to New York next week.
“We’re going on a trip next week,” I said as I ate my rice.
“We are? Where are we going?”
I looked at her and smiled. “New York. Connor called me today and needs me to fly out there to look at a piece of property for him. I thought we’d turn it into a mini vacation since you’ve never been there.”
Her face lit up and her happy eyes did a little dance. “Ian, I’m so excited. I can’t wait to see Connor, Ellery, and Julia again. Plus, I’ve always wanted to visit New York.”
“I knew you’d be excited, sweetheart.”
“When are we going?”
“Thursday, after your visit with Stephen. I’ll go to the office in the morning and I’ll have Joshua drive you to Hudson Rock. We’ll pick you up after and head to the airport.”
“How long are we staying in New York?” she asked with excitement.
“We’ll fly back Sunday night. Sound good?”
“It sounds great,” she replied as she reached over and took hold of my hand, which was on the table.
It felt great to see Rory so happy. She deserved to be happy and there was nothing I wanted more. The sun had set and it was getting dark. Rory excused herself and told me she’d be right back. I poured another glass of wine and stared at the ocean. As I was sipping it, Rory walked out onto the patio in a short, white satin robe. She was sexy and hot as hell.
“Are you ready for bed already?” I smiled.
“On the contrary, Mr. Braxton.” She smiled back.
As she walked over to the pool, she had her back turned to me, and she slowly let the satin robe drop to the cement. She was completely naked and, instantly, I became hard. She climbed down the steps into the pool and went all the way under the water. I leaned back in my chair and watched her as she swam to the edge and looked at me. She held up her finger and motioned for me to come over to her. I got up from my chair, fully erect, and stripped out of my clothes, joining her in the pool as we made love under the moonlight.
Chapter 10
Rory
Ian and I were up in the bedroom, packing for New York, when Mandy knocked on the door.
“Mr. Braxton, your father is here.”
I rolled my eyes. “Great.” I sighed.
Ian chuckled as he kissed my head. “Be nice, Rory.”
“I’m always nice. I’m going to finish packing and I’ll be down after.”
“Okay, sweetheart,” he said as he walked out of the room.
I’d only seen Richard a couple of times since we’d been back from Paris and, each time, he wasn’t any nicer to me. I wished he wasn’t such an asshole and that we could have some kind of friendship, for Ian’s sake. I finished packing and headed downstairs. Ian and Richard were sitting on the couch, having a drink and laughing.