Beg for It(44)

“Pony stables?” Corinne whispered, looking both gleeful and horrified.

Reese snorted laughter, surprised she knew about stuff like that but realizing he shouldn’t be. “Oh, yeah. For sure.”

“Oh my God.”

“Do you want that?”

Shit. There were a lot of things he’d be willing to do for her, but being a pony was absolutely going to stretch his comfort zone. Relieved when she burst into laughter, he took the chance to kiss her again.

“As much as I’d like to take you for a ride, no. I don’t want you to be a pony. And I don’t think we need a notarized contract. I mean, what are we talking about?” Her laughter eased, and she gave him a serious look. “I told you, if you just want to f*ck—”

“No. That’s not it. I’d like to see you.”

“You do see me,” she whispered and rocked a little against his cock.

Reese drew in a breath. “I want to see you, Corinne. Like dating. Like a relationship.”

“Monogamous?”

“Yes.” He paused. “Unless you want to see other people.”

“Like I said, Reese, my kids are my priority. I don’t really have time to go dating all over the place.” Corinne smoothed her hand over his cheek to cup his chin.

His eyes went instantly heavy lidded at the embrace. “I like kids.”

Her grip tightened until his eyes opened. “I haven’t brought anyone around to meet my kids.”

“I’ve met at least one already,” he pointed out.

“That was different. You were my boss. Not my boyfriend.”

Heat crept up inside him at the way she said boyfriend. They sat quietly for another few seconds as she let go of his chin to cup his cheek. She kissed him lightly. Tenderly.

“We can try it,” she said against his mouth. “This. Us.”

“No contract?”

“No contract,” she said. “But I think I’ll make you a list.”

Reese grinned. “That’s okay. I like lists.”





Chapter Twenty-Four



There’d been a few hours of homework, then some TV, and now bedtime was looming. Peyton had already disappeared into her room, presumably to get on her laptop with friends in the last few minutes before she was supposed to go to sleep, but Tyler was procrastinating.

“C’mon, buddy. You were supposed to be finished with this before TV.” Corinne scrubbed at her eyes, sleepy and more than a little irritated. “How long have you known you had to do this project?”

Tyler gave her a look that reminded her far too uncomfortably of the one his father used to give her when he was trying to keep the truth from her. “Well, I just remembered about it.”

“Uh-huh. And you didn’t work on it at all at your dad’s?”

He gave her another guilty look. “Dad said it was okay, I’d have enough time to do it later. We were going to the movies.”

Corinne frowned. “You’re supposed to do your homework first, Tyler. Before anything else.”

“Nobody else had any,” he protested. “They’d have had to wait for me, and Dad said it wasn’t fair that everyone should suffer!”

Corinne bit her tongue to keep herself from blurting out exactly how unfair it was that now she was going to be suffering because she had to oversee this busywork project that her kid really should’ve finished days ago but didn’t because his father was too selfish to give up an afternoon of fun. She sighed and flipped through the packet of information. At least she didn’t have to help him make a diorama. With a quick glance at the clock, she sighed.

“Okay, let’s get working on this. I’m tired and want to take a bath.”

“I can help him with it.” This came from Caitlyn, who stood in the kitchen doorway with a plate of leftover pasta in her hand. “I’m super good at doing last minute projects.”

Corinne laughed. “Auntie Caitlyn’s the queen of procrastination.”

Tyler frowned, looking back and forth between them. “Okay…”

“Relax, kid. We’ll get your project underway. Let’s go.” Caitlyn settled at the table with her dinner.

The three of them worked for a bit, Tyler typing up notes based on things Caitlyn pulled from the textbook while Corinne checked off the list of items he needed to include. When Corinne’s cell phone rang from where she’d been charging it on the counter, she glanced up but didn’t answer it. She caught Tyler and Caitlyn sharing a glance though.

“What?” Corinne asked, frowning.

Tyler shrugged. “You should answer that, it might be your boyfriend.”

Corinne’s eyebrows rose. “Who says I have a boyfriend?”

By the way Tyler looked at his aunt, Corinne figured it out easily enough. Her sister shrugged, giving Corinne a look of exaggerated innocence. Corinne sighed.

“Me and Peyton don’t care, Mom.”

Corinne carefully kept her voice neutral. “So you’ve talked about it, huh?”

“Sure. I mean, you and Dad got divorced and he got a new wife. If you have a boyfriend who’s nice to you that’s okay.” Tyler paused. “And to us too.”

“I wouldn’t be with someone who wasn’t nice to you, kiddo.”