Tapping Her (Bad Boy Billionaires #1.5)(22)

“Oh, Kline.” She pulled my palm to her lips and kissed it.

“I’m so f*cking proud of you. You’re not where you are out of luck or chance. You’re there because you deserve it. You’re tenacious and smart, and God, I’d gotten used to sitting in on shit just so I could see it.”

“I’ve been gone for months now, though,” she pointed out gently. “If that’s really it, why is it just bothering you now?”

I shrugged. “We’re on our honeymoon. Thousands of miles away, just you and me. I know the traveling is coming, and baby, I’m going to miss you, but I’m prepared for it. Really.”

Her brow creased in confusion.

“But I was fully expecting this to be our time. The calm before the storm. You, me, and absolutely nothing else. But it hasn’t been that way. It’s been you, me, and Wes, and I don’t find him nearly as f*cking pretty.”

She laughed a little, a barely there smile of realization lifting the unbearable weight from her tiny shoulders.

“I feel a little like your aging wife, and your new job feels like your mistress. Unfortunately, it turns out I’m not above showing up naked in a trench coat in an effort to restore your interest.”

“You’re no aging wife. You run your own multibillion-dollar corporation, for God’s sake.”

“Not here, I don’t. Here, I am nothing but your new husband. And I’ve selfishly been wishing you were here as only my wife.”

“Couldn’t this just be an opportunity to watch me?” she ventured, and I smiled.

“Ben.”

“Ack. Okay. So you’re right. I probably shouldn’t be doing anything while I’m here.”

“Me,” I corrected playfully. “You should be doing nothing but me.”

“Right, right. Don’t worry, I’ve got you marked down on my to-do list.”

“Thank God,” I said with a wink.

“I’ll call Wes and see if he can spare me for the rest of our time here,” she offered.

“Oh, please, let me do it,” I said a little too gleefully.

“No. Come on. He’s your friend, but he’s my boss. At least let me maintain a modicum of professionalism.”

“I think that ship sailed, sweetheart. Back around Sexually-Influenced-Email-Island,” I teased.

She flushed and slapped superficially at my chest. “That was your fault too!”

I smiled and waggled my eyebrows in triumph. She tried to resist, but in the end, she couldn’t contain her smile either.

“Kline!”

“He’s your boss, but trust me, this isn’t Wes, your boss. This is Wes, my friend, and he’s sitting back in New York merrily watching as he f*cks with me. Let me call him.”

“Kline.”

“That means yes. That’s the same way you say my name during sex, and I know that means yes.”

I grabbed her phone from the bed and scrolled through the numbers until I found Wes’s office. She struggled to reach, but even on the tips of her toes, my outstretched arm kept her a good foot out of range of my ear.

It rang twice before his assistant answered. “Wes Lancaster’s office.”

I raised my voice an octave and did my best impression of my wife. “Hey, Gail, it’s Georgia. Can you put me through?”

“Kline Brooks!” Georgia shrieked in the background.

I laughed and jogged out of the bedroom and onto the terrace, shutting the all-glass door behind me and holding it closed. My little Benny waved frantically on the other side.

“Georgia?” Gail questioned. She had to have been going through some f*cking head trip. I didn’t sound like Georgia, but it was sure as shit her number on the caller ID.

“That’s me,” I responded.

“Oh. Okay. I’ll put you through,” Gail muttered, mystified. I winked at Georgia through the glass and her eyes narrowed.

“Thanks!”

Wes’s voice came over the line less than five seconds later. “Georgia?”

“Close,” I said in my normal voice.

“Kline. Hey, buddy. How’s the honeymoon?”

“Fucking fantastic,” I said, telling him the truth but making sure my words had a little extra bite.

“Good, good,” he murmured in response.

“Look. I know my wife is f*cking essential to your operation,” I started, diving right into the heart of it and turning to face the ocean so Georgia couldn’t read my lips.

“Kline—”

“I handed her over on a silver f*cking platter, so I know.” He sighed, and I heard the door burst open behind me.

I kept talking anyway. “I don’t know if you really needed her or if you just wanted to mess with me, but she’s officially off duty for the rest of our trip.”

“Yeah, I get it,” he agreed, “and it was both. Messing with you and needing her.”

I closed my eyes and forced myself to make an offer I really didn’t want to extend. “You need to talk to her before you cut off all communication?”

“Yes!” Georgia demanded behind me. “Give me the phone.”

“Yeah,” Wes replied. “But it’s not for work shit. I owe you, and I have a strong feeling you’re in hot water.”