No Denying You (Danvers #5)(54)
Mark gave him an answering smirk before he spoke. “That depends on the woman. I’ll just say, I’ve never had a woman who didn’t want to come back for seconds; I just rarely serve them. It’s not all black and white, my friend. I would think that with a brother like Declan and a sister like Ava, you’d know that better than anyone. It appears that your family keeps just as many secrets as mine.”
“Fuck you,” Brant murmured halfheartedly. He had a bad feeling that it was too late to warn the other man off his sister. The thought of Mark punishing his sister was more than he could bear to think of. Ava was just messed up enough to look for something like that over choosing a man who had loved and looked out for her for years. Damn it, he should have never started this conversation.
Mark chuckled. “This all started with a simple question. It’s not my fault that you choose the hard way around answering. I won’t pursue Emma. In avoiding the question, you told me all I needed to know. Don’t screw around, though, if you care about her. Trust me, even the most faithful people get tired of someone who runs from the truth.”
Brant looked at Mark in confusion, but the other man was back to staring in his drink, almost as if seeking answers to some unknown questions there. Maybe he was completely off base with his assumption that Mark’s family caused him to be the way he was. Maybe it was much more basic, more simple. Could he have loved and lost someone? It happened every day and maybe Mark was no exception. He had been right about one thing, though. It would be so easy to lose Emma, especially with the uncertainty that Alexia had unleashed in his life. Just the thought of it was enough to make a surge of panic race through his system. He just prayed he could keep it all together until he had a clue as to what to do.
“I totally love you, Ella—you know that, right?”
Oh God, was she slurring already? Emma wondered. This was only her second—or was it third—drink? Beth had given them an update on Suzy earlier. The first round had been to ease some of the sadness they all felt for someone who was dear to each of them.
Beside her on the couch, Beth nodded her agreement. “Isn’t she the best? She can’t drink right now and she still fixed us this big-ass pitcher of margaritas. Who does that?”
Ella smiled indulgently at them. “You girls really needed it. You both looked like you were either fixing to cry or have a breakdown. You are much happier drunk.”
Emma held her glass up in the air. “I’ll drink to that. If Brant had never done me with his sexy-ass body, I wouldn’t be in this condition. I would be happily hating him instead of remembering what a big . . .”
“Personality he has?” Beth added before falling over in laughter.
“It must run in the family because Declan has a really big . . . personality.” When both Emma and Beth gaped at her, Ella’s face flamed. “Well, he does,” she murmured under her breath.
Beth took another sip from her glass, then added, “Nick’s no slouch in that area either. When I finally got the release to have sex again after having Henry, I couldn’t walk right for a week. Henry’s staying the night with the grandparents tonight, too, so when I go home . . . oh yeah, baby.”
Emma giggled. “I really should hate you right now. I don’t even have a vibrator to go home to. The Miami airport kept my pink rabbit for evidence. I should have picked those pills off it and taken the damn thing with me. Of course, after the drug dog slobbered all over it, that would have been kind of gross.”
“Did you want to . . . do it more when you were pregnant?” Ella asked Beth.
“Mm-hmm,” Beth laughed. “I was constantly horny. Nick loved it.”
“I’m not pregnant, but I am constantly horny between the hours of eight and five now,” Emma moaned. “When Brant shows up in one of his uptight suits, I almost orgasm. Things were much easier before I knew what was under his clothes.”
“I bet he feels the same way,” Beth offered. “Men can’t get caught in a stiff wind without getting hard. It must be torture for him to see you every day and not throw you down on the desk.”
Emma fanned herself, saying, “Oh, how I wish he would.”
“I still have that fantasy about Declan,” Ella added. “I’ve always dreamed of him throwing me on top of my desk and taking what he wants. Of course, being that I work in reception where a hundred people walk back and forth during the day, we’d be sure to have an audience.”
“At this point, I don’t think I’d care if Jason Danvers himself watched Brant and me as long as I could have him.”
Beth wiggled her brow suggestively. “Maybe you’d just like for Jason to join in. Come on, I wouldn’t admit it to Claire but . . . haven’t we all had a fantasy or two about that man?”
Emma raised her hand. “Guilty as charged.”
When Ella looked around the room without answering, Beth said, “Oh, come on, Els, you can’t tell me you’ve never had some dirty thoughts about Jason. Every woman who works for Danvers has had them. The whole rich, powerful man in charge thing is a real panty-dropper.”
Emma snickered, nodding. Ella looked like a kid with her hand in the cookie jar when she asked, “You both promise you will never tell Claire I said this, right?” Emma crossed her chest before taking a vow of silence along with Beth. “I did have a crush on him when I first started. It was nothing like how I felt when I met Declan, but I would get to work early every day just so I could see him walk in the lobby and to the elevator. He had the best butt I had ever seen.”